Quiet Resonances of an Emergent Indigeneity: Sound, Silence, and Igorot Protest Performances in the Philippines

Abstract

Soundscapes of piercing gangsa (flat gong) rhythmic patterns, political speeches blared on loudspeakers, and call-and-response chants that envelop renditions of traditional celebratory dances characterise street protests led by Igorot left-wing activists. Upholding militant activism as foundational to Igorot identity, these spectacular displays signify an Igorot sense of value for collectivism, sovereignty, and territorial defense, echoing long-established practices that have sounded community resistance to corporate aggression since the 1970s. Despite this history, many Igorots reject the practice. Performances by leftist Igorots in 2017 aggravated internal debates about politicising Igorot identity. This troubled many Igorot activists, particularly an elder who, since his teenage years, had witnessed Igorots confront corporate intrusion into their ancestral lands through deployments of traditional practices. In an existential crisis, he distanced himself from the normative “noise” of protests, staging a solo act that reaffirmed his identity as an Igorot activist yet also promised his acceptance by the broader Igorot public. Drawing from ethnographic evidence and adaptations of Abe’s (2016) insights on sound-silence relationalities and Tsing’s (2007) notion of “friction”—the traction and slippage of divergent indigeneities—I examine this duality, amplifying the weighty “silence” of the said activist’s militancy and its emergent meanings. Through this exercise of individual creativity, Indigeneity manifests as a contradictory phenomenon that transcends conventional associations about identity and its expression. This paper seeks to disrupt the tendency to homogenise Indigenous experience by unveiling its radical possibilities. I voice often-ignored musical lives that forge new trajectories of identity.