BukSU leads initiative to preserve, document Bukidnon artifacts

Fulbright Scholar Ms. Loreta Sol Dinlayan produced a manuscript of the description of sixty (60) Bukidnon Artifacts to the invited guests of leaders and representatives of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP)-Bukidnon, Kalandang Taw Peace Studies Center, faculty researchers of the BukSU-Sociology Department, and other stakeholders on March 6, 2025 at the Kaayaran Gallery-BSC, Bukidnon State University (BukSU).

“These artifacts are part of the anthropological collection of the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois. This manuscript will be converted into a coffee table book as a project of Bukidnon Studies Center,” BSC Director Sol Dinlayan said.

“We are gathered here to establish stewardship and ownership of these items; the number of items is already a good representation of who we are. These are precious and treasure. BukSU has long-understood its value (culture preservation), and we are thankful for the establishment of the Bukidnon Studies Center,” she expressed.

Consulting the IP communities on matters of indigenous knowledge is part of the cultural protocol. Ms. Dinlayan described every item and verified the item’s name and its use to the guests.

While the coffee table book project is going to set foot from this initiative taken, BSC opens its possibility in establishing the Bukidnon Heritage.

“These items are not only from BukSU, BukSU celebrates co-ownership with the entire province of Bukidnon,” Dinlayan added.

Ms. Easterluna Canoy, an anthropologist and the Kitanglad Integrated Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) Director, observed how artifacts were put into place in the Field Museum and suggested what BSC can do on its own.

“What we can do on our own for the future Bukidnon Heritage and artifacts documentation, as a suggestion, is to make each item bear its real cultural authenticity: specific coding that which each item and to whose tribe it belongs, including its geographic location to foster sense of ownership among tribes,” Ms. Canoy said.

BukSU has opened the Bukidnon Studies Center as one expression of its homage to the province’s indigenous peoples on June 25, 2018 under the leadership of former University President Datu Kahindegan of Bukidnon Tribe, Dr. Oscar B. Cabañelez, and is actively sustained by the present administration. (With report from Zyrha Jane B. Edlang, IU intern)