PHL-French cultural season to feature Kalinga tattooed women
Posted on | May 3, 2011 |
TABUK CITY, Kalinga, May 3 (PIA) — The vanishing tribal tattooing practices of the Kalinga people will again be exposed as the ethnic tattooed women of Kalinga are featured in the upcoming photography exhibition organized by the French Embassy in the Philippines, the Quezon City Government, Alliance Française de Manille and the Niepce Museum in France.
According to the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) provincial director Natividad Sugguiyao, the photo exhibit opens May 4 and will run until June 4 at the Quezon Memorial Circle. Entitled KM O (Kilometer Zero), the exhibit is part of the of FrancoPhil, the 2011 French cultural season in the Philippines.
“The featured photographs of the last tattooed women of Kalinga were taken by Filipino photographer, Jake Verzosa,” she said. The photos are presented in black-and-white to give emphasis on the artistic and historic tattoos of the elderly women of Kalinga.
According to Sugguiyao, this is not the first time that the last tattooed women of Kalinga have brought the province to the international scene. They have been featured in Discovery Channel by world renowned anthropologist Lars Krutak, who also wrote several books on the Kalinga tattoo as featured in “Kalinga Tattoo: Ancient and Modern Expression of the Tribal” coffee table book which Sugguiyao co-authored.
Last year Sugguiyao also made the poster presentation “Re-interpreting Beauty- The tattooed women of Kalinga, Philippines” in New Zealand and in Denver, Colorado, U.S.A. *(GGD- PIA CAR, Kalinga)