Focus on indigenous Filipinos’ legacy and contributions

Sen. Loren Legarda (second from right) in “Dayaw”

There aren’t enough shows about arts and culture on local TV these days, so we watch Loren Legarda’s “Dayaw” on a regular basis, and have been urging other viewers to do the same.

The good news is that viewer support appears to be doing some good, because “Dayaw” has just been extended to its third season.

Airing on ANC at 6 p.m. on Thursdays, “Dayaw” seeks to remind viewers about our traditional arts and crafts, and how they continue to form and reflect us as a people.

All too often, tradition, heritage and values are forgotten in the mad rush of modern life, so—thanks for the timely reminder!

“Dayaw’s” focus on our indigenous people’s legacy and contributions to the warp and wool of being Filipino makes for unique, persuasive viewing.

Aside from its significant content, the show sustains viewers’ interest with its eye-catching visualizations of vanishing crafts, practices and rituals that are otherwise dusted off only to occasionally entertain tourists.

The third season’s focus is on “the new materials chosen by indigenous craftsmen to create tools, ornaments and structures.”

Even better and more insightfully, “Dayaw” takes this output not just as products, but as significant expressions of what makes us what we are.

The big connective step-up is to see that heritage isn’t extinct, but impinges on the present by way of its often unrecognized effects, which are still evident today.

An additional consideration is the fact that, in colonial times, we were much more dynamic and confidently expressive as a people.

When our colonizers came, they made it a point to subvert and water down that confident dynamism, because they needed to control and subdue us.

They succeeded only too well, and some of our problems and issues to this day have to do with reclaiming our lost essence.

Other TV shows that enlighten the thinking, “questing” viewer, include topics and issues related to arts and culture.

Recently, we enjoyed viewing Howie Severino’s documentary on the diminishing number of Filipinos who still speak Chavacano.

Visiting both Cavite and Zamboanga, Severino interacted with some “surviving” Chavacano speakers and shared insights that enriched our understanding of how language reveals less obvious factors and expressive needs.

For instance, Chavacano may initially strike people as a corruption of Spanish, with some native words, expressions and patois additives thrown in. But, it was stressed that it was, in fact, one of the 200 or so languages used in the Philippines.

Other TV shows that arts and culture buffs should try on for size include “I Juander,” “Asean Documentaries,” replays of “Hiraya Manawari,” “Pahina,” “Tipong Pinoy,” “ATBP.,” and some telecasts of “Shoptalk,” “Cityscape,” “Green Living,” “Executive Class,” “Asian Air Safari,” “Rated K,” “Adobo Nation,” “Landmarks” and “Tribe.”