Living with Nature Museum
San Vicente, Ilocos Sur
Dr Abe V Rotor
Students frequent the museum for research and study tour, often
accompanied by their teachers and parents. Workshops are set up to
celebrate UN designated themes on environment, peace, education,
indigenous culture, food, art, and the like.
Visitors find time and leisure in going over some rare library collections,
like old book editions, documentaries and memorabilia of WWII, cold
war era, and tumultuous seventies. The 1970s was a tumultuous decade
marked by social change, political scandal, and cultural events
Figurines and relics in driftwood, carvings, paintings, specimens,
grace the cyptobiology section of the museum. Among these are
reconstructed heads of Philippine deer, and Indigenous wood
carvings.
"Museums inspire and challenge us to think in new ways. Exhibits can
spark creativity, spur discovery, and inspire wonder through stories,
music, art, information, and adventure."
Contemporary and modern art in contrasting features is shown
in an old dresser (left), and a spike studded chandelier (right).
Ancestral pieces of furniture: upper photos, carved easy chair
(silion, Ilk) and armchair. Lower photos, black bed and aparador,
both made of narra. These were used by the author's parents
and grandparents. Note contrasting designs depicting both
colonial and neo-colonial eras (European and Commonwealth).
A perfectly round stone shaped naturally by running stream
used as cannon ball in the days of Panday Pira (c. 1488–1576)
a Filipino blacksmith and maker of an early type of cannon.
Fossilized bone fragment of a large animal
in the Cretaceous era.
*The Cretaceous is defined as the period between 145.5 and 65.5 million years ago, the last
period of the Mesozoic Era, following the Jurassic and ending with the extinction of the dinosaurs
Pipe (tobacco) used by the author in the seventies and eighties.
Visitors are LGU staff members of San Vicente municipality.
Probable tusk of an elephant (?) reportedly found in Cagayan Valley,
a subject of study on animal migration and land bridges in ancient past.
"The purpose of modern museums is to collect, preserve, interpret,
and display objects of artistic, cultural, or scientific significance
for the study and education of the public."
Visitors pay homage to Apo Resureccion, a life size wooden icon of the risen Christ
(Apo Resurreccion has been with us, Rotor Family, in our ancestral home for five generations now.)
"Museums build a sense of community identity. They serve as a gathering
point for people of all backgrounds to come and enjoy the fun of
sharing similar interests."
An wine cellar still producing the traditional basi wine for five generations
"Museums connect us to the larger world around us. They offer new
experiences we can’t find in other places or by staying at home."
Statuette made of iron and wood against a painting symbolizing
the on-going war of Israel in Gaza, made by a 10-year old child.
Country lass poses behind a reconstructed bust of Emilio Aguinaldo
enshrined at the botanical garden of the Living with Nature Center
"Museums document history, offer community events, and serve
as must-see tourist destinations." ~
