4th Nakem: Dap-ayan

4^th Nakem International Conference—

The Struggle for Cultural Democracy

By Aurelio Solver Agcaoili

For the fourth time since 2006 at the centennial of the coming of the first 15 Ilokano to Hawaii via SS Doric in December 1906, the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in collaboration with Nakem Conferences International and Nakem Conferences Philippines, will hold a four-day gathering of scholars, academics, researchers, teachers, and advocates of cultural pluralism and cultural democracy, “Dap-ayan: Sharing and Understanding Ethnolinguistic Worlds Towards Cultural Pluralism”.

The Nakem Conference, first hosted and convened by the UHM Ilokano Program, was held at the Mariano Marcos State University in 2007 and at the St. Mary’s University in 2008. Both universities are in located in the Amianan, the northern part of the Philippines where Ilokano is either the native language or the lingua franca.

For this year, 62 conference papers had been accepted for presentation in 12 panels.

Conceived as a venue for the exchange and diffusion of ideas and knowledge on Ilokano and Amianan life, languages, and literatures, the Nakem Conferences as an organization in the Philippines and in the United States has been involved in several initiatives that pertain to the support for Mother Tongue Based Multilingual Education (MTBME) or simply Mother Language Education (MLE). MLE has since gained traction in the re-conceptualization of basic education in the Philippines. A department order by the country’s secretary of education, Jesli Lapus, now mandates the delivery of basic education to at least the first three grades in the mother tongue.

In 2008, at the 3^rd Nakem Conference in St. Mary’s University, the participants of the conference passed a resolution in support of the Gunigundo Bill in the Philippines. The bill proposed the introduction of MTBME/MLE in basic education.

This year, the Nakem Conference is one of the organizations that founded what is now called the MLE Alliance, the 170+MLE Talaytayan.

Nakem Conference started with an idea; its inspiration came from the sacred sacrifices of the sugarcane and pineapple plantation workers who endured the backbreaking work just to wage a war against the deprivation and misery of the home country, the Philippines. With their resiliency, the lot of the many who came improved. Since 1906, the Filipinos have not stopped coming to Hawaii.

But of the estimated 5000 Filipino coming to Hawaii every year, about 90 percent of those are coming the Ilocos.

These are the people, who until today, are from the same hardy stock of those who came on ships in order to work on the vast tracks of land in the State of Hawaii, day in and day out, rain or shine.

It is this sense of the sacred and the honor we accord to memory that the Nakem Conference was first thought of in 2006.

The theme at that time, “Imagination and Critical Consciousness in Ilokano Language, Culture, and Politics”, rearticulated the contribution of the Ilokanos in the life of the Philippine nation and in the life of the diverse communities of people in the State of Hawaii.

In 2007, at MMSU Batac, the conference revolved on the theme of exile, “Panagpanaw ken Panagindeg: Exile and Settling in Ilokano and Amianan History and Culture while in 2008, at SMU in Bayombong, Nueva Vizcaya, the conference centered on “Imagining the Ilokano and Amianan Nation”.

The exchange of ideas and knowledge on Ilokano and Amianan life through the Nakem Conferences has paved the way for the publication of several books, including “Saritaan Ken Sukisok: Discourse and Research in Ilokano Language, Culture, and Politics”; “Essays on Ilokano and Amianan Life, Language, and Literature”; “Nakem: Essays on Amianan Knowledge”; and “Sukimat: Researches on Amianan Studies”.

Dr. Miriam E. Pascua, Retired Judge Artemio Baxa, and Dr. Alegria Tan Visaya will deliver separate keynote addresses that tackle the state of the art of Ilokano and Amianan Studies.

Pascua, currently president of the Mariano Marcos State University and Visaya, secretary of the MMSU Board of Regents, professor, also at the same university, and president of the Nakem Conferences Philippines, will talk on the progress of Ilokano and Amianan studies at MMSU. In particular, Pascua will share with the Nakem participants the policy directions her university has taken particularly in the creation of what is now known as the Center for Ilokano and Amianan Studies.

Visaya, on the other hand, will argue for a sustained and concerted effort to account other cultures and other languages in the Philippines. In the same vein, Artemio Baxa, currently a member of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii, will tackle the human rights perspective of cultural pluralism and democracy, one of the fundamental concerns of the Nakem Conferences movement.

Of those invited to welcome the participants of the 4^th Nakem are the mayor of the City and County of Honolulu, Mufi Hannemann; the Philippine Consul General Leoncio Cardenas; UH Manoa Chancellor Virginia Hinshaw; Dr. Patricia Brown, president of the Filipino American Historical Society of Hawaii; Dr. Joseph O’Mealy, dean of the UH Manoa College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature; Dr. Richard Schmidt, director of the UH National Foreign Language Resource Center; Dr. Barbara Andaya, director of the UH Center for Southeast Asian Studies; Dr. Belinda Aquino, director of the Center for Philippines Studies; and Dr. John Mayer, chair of the UHM Department of Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures. Ms. Mila Medallion, president of the Filipino Coalition Solidarity, will give a plenary talk to close the third day of the conference.

The conference will also feature the video productions of students taking up 300 or 400-level Ilokano language courses with the UH Ilokano Program and Indo-Pacific courses including Modern Philippine Drama, Philippine Critical Discourses, and Philippine Popular Culture.

On the last day of the conference, the 100-200-level students enrolled in the Ilokano language will present their dramatic work before the formal closing ceremonies of the 4-day gathering. Both the opening and the closing ceremonies will be held at the Art Auditorium while the conference proper will be held at the Campus Ballroom.

Three books that bear upon the work of the UH Ilokano Language and Literature Program and the Nakem Conferences will be launched during the conference: Kallautang: Poetics of Diversity, Displacement, and Diaspora and Rekuerdo/Memento: Estrangement and Homing in Ilokano Poetics, and Sukimat. Both the first two books have been edited, translated, and critically introduced by Aurelio Agcaoili, chair of the 4^th Nakem Conference. Agcaoili, along with Dr. Anabelle Felipe, and Visaya, edited Sukimat, a collaborative publication of the Nakem Conference Philippines and Nakem Conference International. Pascua wrote a foreword to the book while Agcaoili provided a critical introduction.

The next three Nakem Conferences will be held in the Philippines beginning 2010 in support of the MTBME/MLE in basic education.

Observer/Nov 2009

Call for Papers-4th Nakem Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS

 4^TH NAKEM INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

 “DAP-AYAN: SHARING AND UNDERSTANDING ETHNOLINGUISTIC WORLDS TOWARDS CULTURAL PLURALISM”

The University of Hawai’i’s Ilokano Language and Literature Program convenes the 4^th Nakem International Conference on “Dap-ayan: Sharing and Understanding Ethnolinguistic Worlds Towards Cultural Pluralism.” The conference will be held at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa on Nov. 11-14, 2009.

The four-day conference is expected to be attended by cultural researchers, heritage language educators, advocates of heritage preservation and promotion, public policy leaders, and cultural artists and workers who are interested in the issues of cultural pluralism, multicultural education, cultural democracy, heritage language teaching, and critical practices related to the pursuit of linguistic rights and social justice.

The conference, the fourth in the Nakem Conference series that began in 2006 during the centennial celebration of the coming of the Filipinos to Hawai’i and the second to be held in the United States, aims to bring into the open a critical and creative discourse—as what happens in the dap-ayan—on what it means to share a heritage in a multicultural Philippines and among peoples of the Philippines in the diaspora.

The conference also hopes to locate Ilokano and various languages in the culturally plural experiences of the peoples of the Philippines and to revisit methods and methodologies that can be deployed to respond to the issues of multicultural education, literacy, cultural production and promotion, the sustenance of living traditions, and the writing and sharing of intangible heritage.

 

Abstract Requirements

The abstract proposals we are looking for are those that zero in on the theme of the conference or those that cover any of the topics listed in this Call for Papers. Any abstract submitted for consideration by the Selection Committee must be 300 words or less and must specify the issue or the issues it raises and the tentative direction it takes to respond to the issue or the issues it raises.

The Selection Committee encourages papers from various ethnolinguistic communities in the Philippines and in the Philippine diaspora. Philippine scholars are encouraged to write their papers in any Philippine lingua franca (Ilokano, Tagalog, or Cebuano) provided that these papers have parallel English translation to be used during the presentation. The translations are required due to the international nature of the conference.

Abstracts must be saved on a document file, on Arial type font 12, and sent as an attachment. Accompanying the abstract is a separate sheet on the proponent, with the following details:

1.    Name:

2.    Organizational affiliation (if applicable):

3.    Complete address including contact number: (work)

4.    Complete address including contact number: (home)

5.    Email address: (a must)

6.    Alternative email address: (we encourage you to have one)

 

Program Abstract

The Selection Committee requires that another abstract of 50 words or less be submitted for inclusion in the program. The abstract should bear the title of the paper, the author or authors, and the institutional affiliation (if applicable).

 

Topics for Presentation

Abstract proposals for full consideration by the Selection Committee must deal with the theme or any of the following topics:

·      Ilokano and heritage language teaching and the world languages curriculum

·      Appreciating ethnolinguistic worlds

·      Tangible heritage from the various ethnolinguistic groups

·      Theories and practices in the sharing and understanding of a heritage

·      Cultural pluralism as a philosophy of education

·      Pathologies of multiculturalism, remedies of cultural pluralism

·      Languages and cultures in the diaspora

·      Subversions of the multicultural Philippines experience

·      Mass media, popular culture, and heritage education

 

Session Format

 

The conference will follow a plenary session format for both the plenary speakers and the paper presenters. Each presentation is limited to 20 minutes maximum, with 5-10 minutes allotted for open forum. There will be separate sessions devoted for workshops, and organizing and advocacy work.    

 

Full Paper Submission

Abstract proposals turned in prior to the deadline get prior consideration by the Selection Committee. This is to allow time for the proponents to prepare their full paper, not to exceed 20 pages including references. Full papers are double spaced, on an Arial type font 12, MLA format, saved on a document file, and sent as an attachment to the Selection Committee. Full papers are due by May 31, 2009. 

 

Conveners and Selection Committee

The conveners and members of the selection committee are made up of Dr. Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, Dr. Lilia Quindoza Santiago, and Dr. Raymund Llanes Liongson.

The conference steering committee is made up of Aurelio Agcaoili, coordinator of the Ilokano Language and Literature Program of UHM (conference chair); Lilia Santiago, assistant professor of Ilokano, UHM (co-chair), Raymund Liongson, coordinator of the Philippine Studies Program, Leeward Community College (co-chair); Clem Montero, lecturer of Ilokano and education specialist of the UH Center for Philippines Studies (member); and Julius Soria, instructor of Ilokano at UHM and at Farrington High School in Kalihi (member). 

  

Where to send abstract and deadlines

Abstracts should be sent to nakemconference@yahoo.com, cc to lilias@hawaii.edu and rliongson@gmail.com.

Deadline for submission of abstracts is January 31, 2009. Proponents of abstracts accepted for presentation will be notified on or before February 15, 2009.  

For updates on the conference, please visit nakemconferences.blogspot.com. Or you can visit the Nakem Conference button under the UH Ilokano Language and Literature Program website.

 

 

Waiver

Out-of-state and out-of-country participants are advised to make arrangements with their travel agencies for itineraries and for special services like travel to and out of the Honolulu International Airport. The 4^th Nakem International Conference Steering Committee does not have the resources for lodging and other forms of accommodation to participants. As such, all participants are advised to check in with hotels and lodgings close to the conference site at UH Manoa. The University has a number of hotels and hostels but booking is normally six months prior to the conference. Booking with these hotels and hostels are done individually; an online transaction would be sufficient for all your reservation and booking needs.

Participants need to check with the University of Hawai’i website for these services.

Likewise, the Steering Committee cannot offer any financial assistance or grants to paper presenters. 

 

Linkage

The holding of 4^th Nakem Conference is part of an international linkage of UH Manoa Ilokano Language and Literature Program with Nakem Conferences, Inc. (based in Hawai’i) and Nakem Conferences International- Philippines Chapter (also known as Nakem Conferences Philippines), a language and culture advocacy group whose institutional and individual members come from various universities, colleges, and organizations in the Philippines.  Other organizations and individuals have been invited to take part as co-sponsors in an effort to advance mother language education, cultural pluralism, and linguistic and cultural rights of all peoples of the Philippines in the homeland and in the diaspora.

Contact Us

All questions about the 4^th Nakem Conference should be emailed to the conference chair (Aurelio Solver Agcaoili, nakemconference@yahoo.com) and co-chairs (Lilia Quindoza Santiago, lilias@hawaii.edu and Raymund Llanes Liongson, rliongson@gmail.com).  For scholars in the Philippines, you may write to Dr. Alegria Tan Visaya, President of Nakem Conferences Philippines, atvisaya@yahoo.com.