The Role of Art as Cultural Heritage: Exploring the significance of literary artistic expressions among selected indigenous communities in the Philippines

Author : Genevieve Jorolan-Quintero

Abstract :Art in its varied forms expresses and represents different aspects of culture. Indigenous cultural communities utilize art as bearers of their indigenous knowledge systems from which present and future generations can learn from. This paper explores the significance of one form of art, folk narratives, as a representation of cultural heritage, a bridge between history and the present time. It is based on three research projects conducted among three different indigenous cultural communities in the Philippines. The research projects follow the methodology for folklore studies established by Philippine anthropologist E. Arsenio Manuel. This includes recording each story directly from the resource persons, determining the folkloricity of each narrative, and the specificity of the research locale. The research yielded folktales, legends, and myths. Their characteristics and significance as cultural heritage are discussed in this paper. The folk narratives embody the unique indigenous knowledge systems shared among the indigenous communities, including their belief systems, their values and cultural traditions which are passed on to present and future generations. These folk narratives are significant for their cultural value and are relevant contributions to the pool of recorded and published texts of Philippine folk literature that can be utilized as pedagogical materials in all levels of education

Keywords :folk narratives, indigenous culture, cultural heritage, folklore studies, Philippine literature

Conference Name :International Conference on Identity, Culture and Communication (ICICC-25)

Conference Place Jakarta Raya, Indonesia

Conference Date 5th Apr 2025