CTOO to contingents: Be more culturally sensitive

Photo: City Government of Davao FB Page

City Tourism Operation Officer Generose Tecson said some members of the participating group for the street dance competition for the Kadayawan, who draw flak online, lacked cultural sensitivity.

Tecson, during the sidelines of the regular flag ceremony at the city hall grounds, issued her comment amid the viral feedback for the Indak-indak Open Category winning group from Bislig in Surigao del Sur province – the Sindac Anib Performing Ensemble, for their allegedly culturally inappropriate performance.

“What is sad is that some of the members weren’t very much culturally sensitive,” Tecson told the media members.

“Maybe, those from the other localities can teach their people to respect the way of life of the tribes and be more culturally sensitive,” she added.

She, however, is grateful that the incident did not happen to Davaoeño performers.

“But I am also thankful that it did not happen among our contingents from Davao because we Davaoeños are already culturally sensitive,” she said.

According to Tecson, some of the audience also triggered the actions of the dancers.

“We no longer have control to the actions of the contingents after the performance. But had I been the audience asking for a photo with them, I would have told them to not pose that way,” she said.

Tecson’s reference is the viral photos of the said contingents posing with spectators playfully with their buttocks exposed with their ‘bahag’ made of beads costume.

Tecson added that the contingents, including those from outside the city, have been already oriented on being sensitive to the tribes in Davao.

However, according to Tecson, nothing was wrong with the performance of the group and they deserve the title.

“Indak-indak is a free interpretation and adaptation of the tales and stories of the tribes based on the rules of such competition. Indak-indak is really not an authentic activity pertaining to our 11 tribes. It really depends on the artistic inclination or adaptation of the choreographers,” she said.

She added that the current rules used for the said competition has been in place since 2016 and they “never had a problem about it.”

“We also explained to the tribes that there are two sides to Kadayawan — the cultural and the touristic activities. That is why we really developed the tribal villages so that we can maintain the culture of our 11 tribes,” Tecson explained adding that the Indak-indak bears more touristic value of the festivity.

“We saw nothing wrong with the performance of the contingents from Surigao,” she maintained.

“In fact, I went through their synopsis and it did not say anything about any tribe (in Davao),” she added.

Tecson said that the judges are also unanimous with their decision because of the consistency of the performance of the group.

“I also talked with the judges and they also saw nothing wrong with the performance and they were unanimous with the performance,” Tecson said.