DAVAO CITY – Some 150 artists and cultural and peace workers convened here on Friday in a concerted effort to help bring peace to Mindanao through culture and the arts.

Dubbed “NAWAN: Kalinaw sa Mindanao,” the three-day conference and festival on culture and arts for peace aims to facilitate a consensus-building process for the participants to agree on a priority culture-focused action agenda for peace-building.

Sponsored by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the event will feature art works of various genres (film, theatre, dance, music, literature, and visual arts, among others) that present the shared aspirations of the culturally diverse peoples of Mindanao for a just and lasting peace.

Organized by the Filipino-Chinese Heritage and Cultural Society, Inc., Chinese businessmen here also expressed confidence that the event will benefit Filipino-Chinese culture among people in Mindanao.

Allan Basarte, its chair, disclosed that through the event, inter-race culture will be understood. “This will promote awareness of the Filipino-Chinese inter-race culture,” he said.

In a statement, Amado So, also of the Filipino-Chinese Heritage and Cultural Society, Inc., disclosed that peace is important in creating a good business climate.

“A stable peace and order situation is the bedrock of a harmonious society and good business, and artists can lead us toward creative strategies in forging the peace,” he said.

Meanwhile, the event will focus on adopting a priority Mindanao-wide inter-committee flagship project focused on culture and arts for peace.
Ricky de Ungria, commissioner of the NCCA, is positive that through this conference, the NCCA will create more projects that will advance peace in Mindanao.

“We expect to form a resolution out of this conference which will be the basis for the NCCA to create more projects for the advancement of a culture of peace in Mindanao,” he said.

Ungria stressed how art could be used as a medium to prevent war. “We want to make art a medium on how to prevent aggressiveness because we noticed that art is commonly used as a therapy, usually depicting the post-war times,” he said.