City launches Cultural Mapping Book 1 on Baguio Day

The city’s Cultural Mapping Book 1 was launched September 1 during the 113th Baguio Charter Day Anniversary program spearheaded by the City Planning and Development Office (CPDO) under Ar. Donna Rillera Tabangin.

CPDO staff George Ngolab said the tome contains research materials on objects, sites and buildings found in the Summer Capital identified as ‘worthy’ of being included in its cultural landscape. More than 600 objects are included in the entire four-volume project.

She disclosed that even the lowly ‘sayote’ vegetable was included since this was a valuable source of food in the city during World War II when food was scarce.

The three other books of the P5.7 million project funded by the city government will be launched on separate dates in the coming months, Ngolab said.

She added that the project was done in collaboration with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) that provided technical assistance including the conduct of various trainings and workshops.

Also involved in the project’s completion are trained personnel on cultural mapping from the General Services Office, National Commission on Indigenous Peoples, City Tourism Office, Saint Louis University, University of the Cordilleras, and more from the public and private sector.

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts website defines cultural mapping as “an approach used to identify, record and use cultural resources and activities for building communities, where communities map what is important to them.”

Earlier, Tabangin explained that through the conduct of cultural mapping, the local government unit and other stakeholders can identify the distinct cultural resources of their community and at the same time properly record a heritage resource for future reference. – Gaby B. Keith