Author ORCID Identifier
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4884-9065
Abstract
The present essay intervenes in the resurgent discussions on Cordillera regional autonomy by relocating “autonomy” as it is showcased in the 2023 pageant “Search for Mr. and Ms. Cordillera Autonomy Youth Ambassador” (CAYA). This government-organized pageant simulates the simultaneously isolating and relational understanding of islands through the ili, an Indigenous form of self-governance, embodied by the youth “ambassadors” in the pageant. Through cultural analysis of the pageant space, contestant self-introductions, posters, and attires in the pageant, I argue that these minor agents of autonomy perform oratorical negotiations that uplift each of their ili’s alleged “self-sufficiency” to appeal to the government’s agenda for autonomy, simulating an affective geopolitical terrain of “pride” comporting to the scripted “unity” unanimously felt in the “One Cordillera” agenda and in the winning answer to the CAYA pageant. However, this “unity” is challenged by the counter-aesthetic of the inabel-infused pageant attires that reflect the creative transformations of the Indigenous heritage’s repertoire and archive opening possibilities for an autonomy based on the promotion and protection of a perpetually transforming, distinct, and isolated yet connected Indigenous cultures and peoples of the Cordillera.
Recommended Citation
Calabias, Jose Kervin
(2026)
"Landlocked: The Igorot Ili in the Cordillera Regional Autonomy Pageants,"
Kritika Kultura:
No.
49, Article 25.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.13185/1656-152X.2264
Available at:
https://archium.ateneo.edu/kk/vol1/iss49/25
