Students participating during one of the workshop’s events. Photo taken from the Facebook Page of Prince Harvey Arellano

In line with its peacebuilding advocacies, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) held the Kalinaw Mindanaw’s Niining Dapita: Storytelling Writeshop and Dialogue for Peace last Aug. 26-28 at the Museo Dabawenyo.

The writeshop is the first segment of a series of eight projects which will be held in different sites in Mindanao including Davao City, Koronadal City, Zamboanga City, Pagadian City, Tawi-Tawi, and Basilan.

Student leaders from different colleges and universities in Davao City gathered at the museum in order to learn the skill of storytelling and narration.

Project facilitator and main speaker Richard Dian Vilar shared the rationale of the event.

“Our purpose is to to develop these young leaders in storytelling. Very handy kasi siya. We can use it anywhere. Pwede itong maging tulay at pamamaraan ng pag-promote ng peace,” he said.

“Also the students studying in Davao ay hindi naman lahat from Davao City talaga. Some of them may come from Cotabato, from Marbel, or from Digos. We’re doing this so that when they go home sa kanilang mga communities, they can also create storytelling projects promoting peace,” he added.

The activities included the storytelling workshop proper, storytelling by the participants themselves and their project presentation for their assigned communities, and a talk and workshop by May “Juana Change” Paner.

Fourth year Economics student Tristan Joseph Angeles and third year Biology student, Ma. Angelica Jasmin Diaz, participants from the Ateneo de Davao University shared their experience.

“It’s amazing na we are able to do music, dancing, and different kinds of arts to tell a story about peace. We discuss peace in a different form– through storytelling, through the promotion of culture and arts. It may be indirectly, but it shows us na ito pala yung dapat nating makita dito sa atin banda (niining dapita),” they said.

According to the project’s director Carlo Ebeo, ten chosen students from the group will be brought to Zamboanga City for the culminating activity of Kalinaw Mindanaw and for a convergence workshop during the Zamboanga Hermosa Festival.

The program’s next destination will be in Koronadal city which will then focus on theater and dance.

Niining Dapita is a collaborative project by the NCCA in partnership with the City Governments of Zamboanga and Davao. It was hosted by the Museo Dabawenyo with the Kaliwat Performing Arts Collective.