38th Peoples’ Cordillera Day: Launching of “DAWWANG: Let the River Flow Free” mural in Baguio City

As part of the upcoming celebration of 38th Peoples’ Cordillera Day and Goethe-Institut’s #MovementMoments project, artist groups in Baguio City launched a wall mural depicting the brave women of the Anti-Chico Dam struggle. The mural is directly taken from the cover of the “Dawwang: Let the River Flow Free” comic book published in 2021 with text written by Gantala Press and illustrations by Nina Martinez. The mural is found in the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) grounds, along Westside of Burnham Park, Baguio City.

More than just being a painted wall, the mural is a reminder of the Kaigorotan’s struggle for our right to ancestral lands and self-determination. The comic book and mural foreground the life of Leticia Bula-at from the Naneng tribe in Kalinga, Cordillera region, Philippines whose story is one of the many narratives about the brave fight against the World Bank funded Chico Dam project during the Marcos Dictatorship.

In retrospect, Cordillera Peoples Alliance with the Butbut tribe in Kalinga unveiled the Anti-Chico Dam Heroes monument in 2017 with the same aim of monumentalizing not only the heroes but the entirety of the valiant Kaigorotan struggle for land, life, and resources. Come 2021, the monument was removed at the height of the state attacks against indigenous activists in the region. However, with courage and determination, the Butbut tribe restored the monument in that same year.

The mural most importantly depicts the peoples’ unity for land and life, much in line with this year’s Peoples’ Cordillera Day central theme, “Advance New Politics, Unite for Land and Life.” CPA thus welcomes and encourages all creative efforts, such as this, to assert the history of the Cordillera peoples amid rotten and corrupt politics that breed historical distortion and fake news.

Onward with our unity for a democratic space that champions our stories of united struggle! Onward with art that seeks to move and educate! ###