A CULTURAL PRESENTATION CONTROVERSY
Two weeks ago, some Kalanguya young people and a few not so young people were invited to a nearby place to give a cultural presentation. This cultural presentation involved a mixture of tribal dances, rituals and songs. A few months earlier, the same has been performed before audience of the same sort. :) This audience of months before testified that they were blessed and encouraged. They urged the performers to continue worshiping God and making His love known through such presentations.
This second time, there was a bit of a controversy because some of the people in the audience did not understand what the presentation was all about. They sort of accused (probably too strong a word to use here but I can't think of any) the Kalanguya performers to have called on evil spirits in their midst (which of course was a very big insult to the Kalanguya believers). But even then, this accusation made the performers ask themselves what they did wrong or uncultural or unclear. They found out that there was not much introduction as to what is going to be presented because they assumed that the audience who are all ministers of God among minorities (like the Kalanguya) would know better than to believe that the Kalanguya believers would dare to "call evil spirits" in the midst of believers. Some comments made by two or three people made the Kalanguyas think that they are accused of being syncretistic.
My heart went out to them. Tribal people (at least my tribe) look up to missionaries. Somehow, there is a blind belief that a missionary can say or do no wrong at least when it comes to judging other people. Apparently, these tribal performers were branded as unbelievers when in fact they went there to testify to the grace of God in their lives by showing an audience who and what they were before and who and what they are now that God has brought changes in their lives.
Personally, I think that it was just a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation. The performers assumed that the audience knows what is going on--that they are seeing a life of "Then and Now" but as it turned out, this assumption was not present in the mind of some of the audience and so it resulted to some unnecessary comments. Kalanguyas are culturally bound to assume very much. They assume that other people are smarter than them; that all their brothers or sisters in the faith will give them the benefit of a doubt--that a person won't think this Kalanguya would say or do something that will offend someone else and so if it happens that someone is offended by what a Kalanguya does then that someone is assumed to think that it is not intended in any way. Due to all this, it hurts the Kalanguya too much when he is deemed to have acted in an offensive way when in fact he did not. I guessed what I am saying is, we should not overreact about things that we don't understand. Because in that overreaction, we might undermine someone else's cultural orientation. Having said that, I am proud to quote what the hurt Kalanguya said after mulling over the situation. He said, "It's good that this happens. Now, we know that before any performance, we need to know who our audience are. What are their dearly-held values? How would they react to this? And now, we know better than just go up the stage and dance and recite our rituals without specifically stating that we are testifying to God's love to us by showing them aspects of our past animistic culture/religion and how God changed it."
Kalanguya, keep on! You are doing a great job! After all, it is to God whom we shall account our deeds... Let him who doesn't understand be enlightened and let him who is enlightened share the light to others...
This second time, there was a bit of a controversy because some of the people in the audience did not understand what the presentation was all about. They sort of accused (probably too strong a word to use here but I can't think of any) the Kalanguya performers to have called on evil spirits in their midst (which of course was a very big insult to the Kalanguya believers). But even then, this accusation made the performers ask themselves what they did wrong or uncultural or unclear. They found out that there was not much introduction as to what is going to be presented because they assumed that the audience who are all ministers of God among minorities (like the Kalanguya) would know better than to believe that the Kalanguya believers would dare to "call evil spirits" in the midst of believers. Some comments made by two or three people made the Kalanguyas think that they are accused of being syncretistic.
My heart went out to them. Tribal people (at least my tribe) look up to missionaries. Somehow, there is a blind belief that a missionary can say or do no wrong at least when it comes to judging other people. Apparently, these tribal performers were branded as unbelievers when in fact they went there to testify to the grace of God in their lives by showing an audience who and what they were before and who and what they are now that God has brought changes in their lives.
Personally, I think that it was just a matter of interpretation or misinterpretation. The performers assumed that the audience knows what is going on--that they are seeing a life of "Then and Now" but as it turned out, this assumption was not present in the mind of some of the audience and so it resulted to some unnecessary comments. Kalanguyas are culturally bound to assume very much. They assume that other people are smarter than them; that all their brothers or sisters in the faith will give them the benefit of a doubt--that a person won't think this Kalanguya would say or do something that will offend someone else and so if it happens that someone is offended by what a Kalanguya does then that someone is assumed to think that it is not intended in any way. Due to all this, it hurts the Kalanguya too much when he is deemed to have acted in an offensive way when in fact he did not. I guessed what I am saying is, we should not overreact about things that we don't understand. Because in that overreaction, we might undermine someone else's cultural orientation. Having said that, I am proud to quote what the hurt Kalanguya said after mulling over the situation. He said, "It's good that this happens. Now, we know that before any performance, we need to know who our audience are. What are their dearly-held values? How would they react to this? And now, we know better than just go up the stage and dance and recite our rituals without specifically stating that we are testifying to God's love to us by showing them aspects of our past animistic culture/religion and how God changed it."
Kalanguya, keep on! You are doing a great job! After all, it is to God whom we shall account our deeds... Let him who doesn't understand be enlightened and let him who is enlightened share the light to others...
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