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Through Indigenous Lenses: Ecotopia According to Vernacular Music Videos from Benguet, Philippines
- Utopian Studies
- Penn State University Press
- Volume 30, Number 1, 2019
- pp. 45-66
- Article
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abstract:
The indigenous groups in Benguet, Philippines, have begun to produce their own music videos and other media products to express themselves and to correct ill-informed portrayals about them. Through such, they have achieved self-representation by textualizing their cultures and worldviews, including their perspectives on the natural world and its ideal state. Employing a textual analysis that is grounded on the concepts of postcolonial appropriation and Ginsburg et al.'s "screen memories," this article discusses how two indigenous-produced music videos, which tackle the environment, represent their imaginations of an ecotopia. These, once recognized in environmental discourse, would ideally result in the formulation of more effective, cost-efficient, and socially just environmental plans and practices. As the world clamors for a sustainable and more ideal state of the planet, exploring indigenous perspectives on an ecotopia could be beneficial, as they may provide legitimate, ethical, and context-appropriate alternatives that have been neglected due to "othering."