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Heritage transportation line Victory Liner Inc., launches another exciting leg of its Know Your North campaign, this time with a documentary featuring National Artist Eric Oteyza de Guia, better known as Kidlat Tahimik.
In partnership with the National Museum, Victory Liner released the Gabriel Malvar-directed short film entitled Indio-Genius: 500 Taon ng Labanang Kultural, at a recent event at the National Museum. The film, inspired by de Guia’s creations, focused on reintroducing Philippine history in a different light and aimed at reigniting the love for Filipino culture through art.
Simultaneous to the film’s launch, Kidlat showcases a Philippine art exhibition of the same name – ‘Indio-Genius’ – viewable at the National Museum of Anthropology.
As the title suggests, the art is an exhibit of the innate genius of the Filipino – one that existed well before the ‘discovery’ by colonizers. The official National Museum overview of the exhibit describes it as a showcase that “revolves around the war on culture, a battle for the soul of the Filipino legacy.”
“I think we take our talents for granted as a people. We’ve been so colonized that we have to be measured like the geniuses of the West,” Kidlat Tahimik laments. “But we Filipinos have been given a unique set of circumstances, and with them, we can shine a unique light. Ang galing ng Pinoy! We are second to none! Imagine what the Ifugao did with the rice terraces, or how the T’boli [tribe] and their dreamweaving [are such] great artforms in the world,” he emphasizes.
“We always hear titles like the Elvis Presley of the Philippines, or the Picasso of the Philippines, but we are our own geniuses. We don’t have to see the Banaue Rice Terraces as the eighth wonder of the world. Here, it is the first. That is our ‘Indio-Genius’. It has been there. It may have been reformed and amalgamated with colonial culture, but we can say, hey, we may have been colonized but we’re not going to be copycats. We can always come back to the proud Filipino storytellers dwelling inside us.”
Knowing your north through travel and film
Victory Liner’s Know Your North campaign has been a long-running advocacy campaign aimed at promoting mindful, respectful, and responsible tourism. With the launch of its latest video expedition episode, the transportation company hopes to continue its thrust of educating more Filipinos about the vast heritage and colorful culture deep-set in the beautiful provinces in north Luzon.
“We believe that when you learn and know the culture and heritage of a certain town or a province, you tend to pay more respect to these places,” says Marivic del Pilar, President and General Manager at Victory Liner.
“So we don’t want to just bring travelers to provinces in the North and leave them there. We want to help cultivate more mindful travelers who appreciate the dynamism of Filipino culture as it changes across locations. We hope the Know Your North series is able to do that.”
Watch the latest Know Your North episode, and all the other mindful and sustainable tourism episodes this season, up on Victory Liner’s YouTube Channel, @VictoryLinerInc.
For more information, visit our website at www.victoryliner.com.
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