Ibaloi heritage museum in Asin

 LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL

Roger D. Sinot

 ASIN, Tuba – Going down Asin Road, a place called Sipitan is still the best area where a proposed Ibaloi museum could be constructed. Sipitan is beside the first tunnel going down to the Asin Hot Springs. The museum will soon be built at the right side of the tunnel that used to be owned by the family of my late grandfather Dalisdis Ngamoy.

It was a part of the National Road. I remember Dr. Eufronio L. Pungayan and some media personalities sometime ago came down to Asin to see the need for a museum in a tourism destination such as Asin. As a retired foreign language linguistic professor, he said, "Our language (Ibaloi) is rapidly fading in the ever changing generation that we now have. Just like a baseball ball that is thrown, one can see it big then becomes smaller and smaller, then it's gone.

Someone from the other end has to catch it and then throw it back before it is finally forgotten. Work on the museum was initiated, thus, its revival and presentation of not only the Nabaloi dialect but preservation of artifacts and culture for the youth and for generations to come!"

Sometime ago in a gathering in Tublay in the house of Congressman Ronald Cosalan, the lone-Ibaloi Congressman together with other officials talked about having an Ibaloi Museum soon, and they all said that they were supportive of this endeavor. With an on-going pork barrel issue and the relief response to super Typhoon Yolanda victims that are political risks, plus the long-running rebellion problem in Southern Mindanao; tourism business will surely slow down, if not fail. Investors go back to their countries instead. But in the meantime, Ibalois should mend their differences and put their acts together for this cause. What matters is that the museum project should start as a fire.

Let us build ourselves a fire and keep it burning until our time will come. Realization of a museum that houses our artifacts, paintings, pictures and other Ibaloi literature could be the primary goal. Tourism will naturally come. The proposal should be a call for the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA) as the government’s primary arm dedicated to promoting and developing arts and culture in the country.

Dr. Ike Picpican, SLU Museum's curator once said, "Let us not just make museums for tourism purposes but for preservation of our heritage. It is for our young and our olds. It is for our succeeding generations."

March Fianza, an Ibaloi columnist said "it is now the time to build a museum of the Ibalois and show the world through social media, and by doing so we will learn, maybe not so much for us and today's generation, but for Ibalois, and that the tribe has distinction and pride. Ibalois as well as other tribes should stand on the same pedestal.”

Recently an Ibaloy book entitled "Ibaloy Dictionary, phonology, grammar, morphophonemics" won a national award. The award was presented by a National Artist and KWF Chair Vergilio Almarion. In his citation, it read, "Ibaloy was commended as a model of how the distinguishing features of a native language should be studied and reserved."

The book is three inches thick that includes a photographic essay on Ibaloy cultural history by Patricia Afable. It took 50 years to complete by its compiler Lee Ballard, an American Linguist with Ibaloy Collaborators Chimcas Ameda, Gonzalo Tigo, and Vincent Mesa.

It is a one hell of a book that brought back the Ibaloy language into the world. Congratulations to the authors and book readers.

Together, let us build ourselves a fire and let us keep it burning until our time will come. A museum stands to be that fire. It is good legacy to leave behind when we will be gone. A Yuletide greeting and happy trails to all Ibalois here and abroad!