Welcome Talk by Allan Pelingen

 The Honourable keynote speaker, Dr. Serafin Ngohayon, President of Ifugao State University, who accordingly the youngest ever to become a university president, fellow delegates, friends, ladies and gentlemen.

We are blessed today and for the whole duration of the conference with a lovely weather. Blessed more and happier we are by your presence, more particularly by the delegates from other continents, Asia, Europe, Australia and North America. Your presence highly honours the Igorot-UK, the host of the Igorot Cordillera BIMAAK Europe (ICBE) Consultation and together we shall endeavour to achieve the theme of this year’s conference. In behalf of Igorot-UK, I gratefully welcome you all.

Preservation of our ethnic culture for younger generations to enjoy, observe, practice and eventually preserve is quite an appropriate theme. To attain such a noble cause, however, knowledge of such ethnic culture is a mandatory requisite; more so in this foreign soil where our children and younger generations seem slowly being alienated from our ethnic culture and traditions. Gone are the days when occasions like this you see the youth with g-strings and tapis during ballangbang, takik, etc. Gone are the days when parents encourage their children to learn and practice our customs and traditions. But there is such a thing known as a culture change and I believe that our culture needs some changes in some respects. Together we try to identify and amends these aspects so what we pass on to generations to come to be more consistent with the changing times.

 

Once again, WELCOME all to this Igorot Cordillera BIMAAK Europe (ICBE) Consultation.

 

Thank you.