Change is the only constant in this universe. Those who fail to anticipate its effects suffer its consequences.
As a growing city, Davao needs to find ways to project itself into the future so residents living within its confines get to harness the advantages its rich resources offer. Davao’s rich cultural heritage and the peaceful melding of different cultures are strategic psychic resources.
Efforts to establish the Davao Museum at the old Court of First Instance Building in Magallanes Street is timely. The construction of a museum building by the Philippine Women’s University at University Avenue at Juna Subdivision is another laudable initiative. These two museum projects are indeed very fortunate developments for Davao City.
These parallel efforts are evident of an emerging awareness and concerted agenda to put together a showcase of THE Culture and History that permeates Mindanao in general and Davao in particular.
Museums have very long incubation periods before one can say the museum has a functional role in community development. Doing research and archiving collections are gargantuan efforts that will need a lot of resources which need to be sustained through time. The tasks of doing research and unifying divergent ideas will be daunting. Yet, only museums can do these tasks.
By collecting artifacts, chronicling events and archiving stories these museums encourage the present generation to participate in setting the future direction of Davao City so different options are explored and discussed and Davao’s future potentials are taken into full consideration.
By retaining the façade of the old Court of First Instance building Davaoeños would be reminded that the building was once a court house where judgment was rendered on numerous judicial matters that had a lot of bearing on what Davao and Southern Mindanao is today.
It would be tragic for Davao City if the façade of the old building would be taken down too (This column is being written as the building is being demolished, with the façade still there).
It would be more tragic if these two museums would just end up as bodegas of native artifacts – old tools, clothes, pictures and what not – where in school children are required to see and pay an entrance fee because it is a school requirement.
Or the museum becomes a shrine of some persons’ personal effects, completely disjoint from the present except for the fact that that person played a political or whatever role in the city’s past.
And these museums would become a farce if they would eventually be established for the consumption of foreign tourists who have no real stake in our cultural past and future potentials.
Culture frozen in time, dried, preserved and put out for local or foreign pedestrian observation loses relevance. Exerting a lot of effort and spending large sums of money to archive artifacts - clothing, instruments, beliefs and tradition -, without understanding the forces that caused the demise of their use and relevance in the life of the community, will become an exercise in futility.
Many institutions set up museums with the unexpressed hopes of preserving culture and earning a profit. That is - their collection will inspire school children to love the “culture” on display and foreigners would willingly pay a nice sum to see the “cultural” collection.
These worn out, rut filled directions taken by museums ought to be abandoned.
Museums need to be vibrant centers of culture and citizen involvement to be relevant in the life of a city. To achieve such roles, discourse and debate about past events and the anticipated directions that the city will take need to be encouraged. When museums involve the community and enhance its present life and culture, it easily gains much needed community support.
When museums allow the present generation to gain awareness and understanding of the forces that caused dramatic changes in the past, its role as a repository of the past as a guide into the future is fulfilled.
Let us all hope that both museums would take Davao City’s future potentials into consideration as their organizers find ways to archive the past. And not just duplicate each other :-(!
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Published on Mindanao Times July 20, 2006
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