Preserving the intangible in COVID-19 times
However, due to the “dynamic and adaptive nature of living heritage,” people took to online modalities that allowed them to reinterpret and obtain new meanings of intangible cultural heritage in the context of this pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has given new meaning, reinterpretation and posed new strategies in the safeguarding of the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) which was also affected by the lockdowns, quarantines and restriction in mass activities.
In the recent webinar on the intangible cultural heritage in the time of a pandemic organized by the Korea-based International Information and Networking Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region(ICHCAP) of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and the UNESCO office in Bangkok, Juliette Hopkins of the UNESCO Living Heritage Entity said the pandemic disrupted various festivities, performances and expressions related to ICH across the world.
However, due to the “dynamic and adaptive nature of living heritage,” people took to online modalities that allowed them to reinterpret and obtain new meanings of ICH in the context of this pandemic.
Among these modalities is the use of traditional cultural expressions such as the string puppet of Sri Lanka and a Cambodian musical instrument as online communication tools on COVID-19 awareness.
She shared that due to the pandemic, people looked for alternative sources of income such as craft making particularly face masks and pivoted back to agriculture and food production, a key to food security and sustainability today.
New context
In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, an old practice called teer/tengao was given a new context in the fight against COVID-19.
Eric Zerrudo of the University of Santo Tomas shared in his presentation entitled “Teer/
Tengao: The significance of the compulsory ‘rest’ day of the Bontoks in Mt. Province in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic” that the teer which was being done in times of pestilence, conflict settlement, the chono ritual and the agricultural calendar was utilized by the people of Bontoc in preventing coronavirus infections in their communities.
Linking it to the lockdowns that gave “compulsory rest” to a busy world, teer/tengao he said, was expressed in various tangible elements such as the offering of a chicken with a salted meat followed by the hanging of eggshells on poles or hung plant cuttings, bundle of grass, or placing rocks or boulders, and soil or tires in areas to serve as boundary markers to not venture out or in in the area.
In some areas, carabao bones or skulls were hung to ward off the bad spirit brought about by the COVID-19, he said.
Zerrudo said this context proves that “living traditions are powerful sources of community stability.
“The COVID-19 pandemic proves that with the disease that is unseen and the future that is uncertain, only heritage and the past are definite,” he said.
“The living tradition dictates the value of teer and tengao, the compulsory rest, for people and the environment who force everyone and everything to stop, to regain the spirit and the stamina into the next phase of life,” he explained.
Zerrudo added that “living heritage is a life source; it’s a life force of the community for stability and sustainability.”
Online streaming
Aside from Hopkins and Zerrudo, other speakers who shared their studies on the ICH amidst the coronavirus pandemic included Anna Yau of the University of Hongkong who talked about the Lai Chi Wo farming community of Hongkong which was not really affected by the pandemic due to its agricultural sustainability and Yeo Kirk Siao of the National Heritage Board of Singapore who discussed his country’s experiences during the two-month “circuit breaker.”
Communities are vessels of heritage.
He said all forms of ICH were affected from performing arts, rituals and festive events but all these were either streamed or done online, an adaptation to the current global problem.
He said this gave some degree of normalcy and more importantly, more audience were reached especially those that are not really familiar with the streamed practices.
Christopher Ballard of the Australian National University discussed the effects of the pandemic in the Pacific islands which suffered economically due to halted tourism activities.
He shared the Pacific islands have very low infection and mortality rates and said it is important to look at the “way in which the communities define, understand, respond” to natural hazards because these “should guide us in our responses.”
Ballard underscored this since he said, “communities are vessels of heritage.”