Nawan is the Subanen word for “looking forward” or “to the future,” and as the title of the intercultural Conference and Festival on Culture and Arts for Peace which starts today in Davao City, it is an apt description of just where art and culture are in terms of being instruments to achieving peace in Mindanao. As National Commission on Culture and the Arts (NCCA) commissioner Ric de Ungria himself said, artists and cultural workers are still in the process of determining what their role is in war and peace.
Currently, Ric told reporters in last Wednesday’s Club 888 Forum at The Marco Polo, Davao, art is relegated to post-war functions — art as therapy and other such activities. “We want to look at the preventive aspect of art in war, how to remove aggressions,” he said. In looking to its future (nawan), art needs to go back.
Indeed, the art sector is still trying to come up with a definition of war and peace. War, after all, is “not just with the rebels” but also includes peace and order and social ills like the drug problem. The artist must find his or her place in all this and become a positive force in achieving peace, especially in Mindanao.
“We want to instill a sense of pride in their place, to encourage all to look at their culture and respect the culture of others. We must know and appreciate everybody.” Ric said this is why museums and galleries, for example, are important: they show what the cultures of other people are and how they can live in harmony with each other. “Images can say more than what a politician can,” he said.
These are more are among the topics up for discussion in “NAWAN: Kalinaw sa Mindanao” which the NCCA is spearheading together with its conduit organization, the Filipino-Chinese Heritage and Cultural Society. The conference was originally plotted to be held in Zamboanga City, but some problems with the venue led to its being held here.
More than 150 participating artists from various disciplines, cultural workers, community leaders, and other advocates for a culture of peace in Mindanao representing the non-government organizations (NGOs), Indigenous Peoples’ Councils, and the private sector will gather here from November 20 to 22.
I asked Ric if the artist sector has a pattern elsewhere in the world it can follow, a successful model of artists helping achieve peace, but he said there is none yet so far. This is both a challenge and a great opportunity for Filipino artists to pave the way for the rest of the world. The Beatles tried to do it, but 40 years on war still reigns in many parts of the world. Perhaps Mindanao artists can succeed where others have failed.
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