PSC indigenous sports and games webinar begins

THE four-part webinar series of the Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) on indigenous sports and games begins on Thursday.

Done in conjunction with the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Month, the webinar series gathers international and local experts in traditional sports who will share their learnings and experience under the overall theme of “Preserving and Promoting the Rich Cultural Heritage of our Ancestors.”

Opening the series is Hungduan, Ifugao tourism officer Haydee Hermosora in a lecture forum on “Punnuk,” a post-harvest thanksgiving ritual practiced and performed by residents of Hungduan, which has been tagged as one of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Ensuing sessions will take place on Oct. 21, 28 and Nov. 5, tackling “Teaching Philippine Games: Perspective from Non-Indigenous Physical Educator,” “Cultural Sensitivity,” and “Traditional and Indigenous Games as Intangible Cultural Heritage,” respectively.

The PSC is hoping that through the webinar series, traditional sports and games and the country’s rich cultural heritage will be better appreciated not only by sports stakeholders, but also the Filipinos in general.

“We believe that these [sessions] will further encourage not just the Indigenous Peoples (IPs), but all Filipinos to promote and showcase our traditional games,” said PSC Commissioner Charles Raymond A. Maxey, oversight for the agency’s Indigenous Peoples Games program.

The webinar begins at 1 p.m. and is being held in partnership with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples. — Michael Angelo S. Murillo