NCIP leads Cultural Communities Week

THE National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) spearheaded the celebration of the Cultural Communities Week 2021 this month.

The celebration aims to increase public awareness on the importance of indigenous people (IPs) as one of the pillars in achieving national unity and development and to promote and preserve their rich cultural heritage, locally and internationally.

Moreover, through this celebration, Philippine IPs commemorate and recognize the existence and contribution of the cultural masters, workers, keepers and bearers not only to their cultural communities, but to the nation as a whole.

The NCIP, being the primary agency mandated to recognize, respect, promote and protect the interest and well-being of the IPs with due regard to their beliefs, customs, traditions and institutions, observes the celebration in support to Proclamation 250, series of 1988, “Declaring the period [from] July 3 to 9, 1988 and, thereafter, the second week of July of every year [as] ‘Cultural Communities Week.’”

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) also delivered solidarity messages during the program. The event highlights the involvement and engagement of the IP youth in sharing the history and identity of the IPs to the next generations. All government agencies, private organizations, mass media and other stakeholders were invited to join the observance of the “Cultural Communities Week.”