BATOK, a Butbut tradition of tattooing from Kalinga, has endured at least a thousand years. Through natural calamities, colonization, war and imperialism, this ancient art has resided in Buscalan within its community thanks to the tattoo artists who kept it alive by passing it down to select and deserving new generation of Mambabatok.
Whang-Od, a member of the Butbut tribe and legendary Mambabatok, stands as one of the legendary artists of the Butbut tradition. Through her choice of opening and sharing batok to tourists and her apprentices, the practice might survive another thousand years with the indigenous identity still intact; an entity as alive as our thoughts, and as priceless as our culture.
A NasAcademy course on Butbut Mambabatok was given the price tag of PHP 750, an offer peddled to online students by NasDaily, headed by Nuseir Yassin, an Israeli-Palestinian content creator. However, Gracia Palicas, the grandniece and an apprentice of the legendary tattoo artist Apo Whang-Od, posted on her Facebook page that the online course is a “scam”, raising concerns on the possible exploitation of her village, the Butbut tribe of Kalinga.
As details unfolded, such as Apo Whang-Od’s questionable consent lost in translation and the contract’s legality, a conversation within the Filipino community started; why is it so wrong that NasAcademy wanted to “promote” Apo Whang-Od’s work when their company and their social media content had always claimed to appreciate the very culture it comes from?
Since batok is a sacred, collective, and indigenous practice of the Butbut community, it is in bad faith to single out the consent of Apo Whang-Od, who according to her grandniece, did not understand what she was agreeing to.
Batok is a practice of not just one Apo Whang-Od but also the collective around her; the elders that guide her, the community that surrounds her, and the apprentices that will ensure the continuity of their tradition.
This collective consent that NasAcademy has ignored in the process shows disrespect, ignorance, and even arrogance of a media company commodifying an indigenous culture.
Legally speaking, the contract between NasAcademy and Whang-Od is invalid. In a press release published on Facebook, the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples’ (NCIP) discusses the Republic Act No. 8371, also known as the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) of 1997, and specifies sections 32, 34, and 16 with regards to this situation.
Section 16, in particular, is damning against the legality of NasAcademy’s contract, and states the following: “Indigenous culture shall not be commercialized or used for tourism and advertisement purposes without the free and prior informed consent of the indigenous peoples concerned. Where consent is alleged, the NCIP will ensure that there is free and prior informed consent.“
“[…] In instances where the presentation of indigenous culture and artistic performances are held, the IPs shall have control over the performance in terms of its content and manner of Page 26 presentation according to customary laws and traditions, and shall have the right to impose penalties for violation thereof. Indigenous peoples shall also have the right to equitably share in the benefits of such presentation or performance.”
The law says that the control and presentation of Filipino Indigenous Cultures would be given to Filipino indigenous peoples; a specific function to empower indigenous peoples in enacting, and in turn, preserving our collective Filipino identity.
In a response video, Yassin stated his company’s pure intentions and contributions to Filipino culture and tourism by citing fundraisers, war coverage, and job creation. He denies the exploitation of Apo Whang-Od, and in extension the Butbut community, saying that he has worked directly with the family and now apparently, as an afterthought, with the NCIP, too.
We must acknowledge that it is not the place of NasAcademy or Yassin to say if his company’s actions were exploitative or not. Even with pure intentions, the community raised concerns of exploitation, implying that a line has been crossed, a line that is validated legally by the government that attempts to protect them. A company’s contribution doesn’t change the fact that a line has been crossed and as a consequence, has shaken the community.
NasAcademy attempted to put a price on a piece of culture without the community’s collective consent, their reasoning being their pure intent of accumulating capital that would not even explicitly contribute to the preservation of the Butbut culture. NasAcademy had everything to gain at the loss of indigenous Filipino identity; the argument of content creation as cultural preservation is considered null, since the Butbut people raised concerns over the matter.
As of writing, NasDaily has lost 695,442 subscribers on Facebook alone. This has prompted NasAcademy to pause operations in the Philippines. Notable figures tapped as part of the academy, such as Catriona Gray and Jessica Soho, have detached themselves from the project as well.
Currently, it is not known what fate awaits NasAcademy in the Philippines, but the media company is making efforts to work alongside NCIP and improve its rapport with the concerned indigenous community. Too late, too little, the content creator.