PH Embassy in Oslo Opens 2020 Ginto Exhibit  Philippine Ambassador to Norway Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia leads the ribbon-cutting ceremony to launch the exhibition entitled “Ginto, A Golden Heritage from our Filipino Ancestors”. (Oslo PE photo)

OSLO 13 May 2020 – The Philippines has been said to sit on mountains of gold. The Spanish explorers who landed 500 years ago attested to this when they noted that “pieces of gold, the size of walnuts and eggs are found in the island”. Because of the abundant gold resources, our Filipino ancestors became master goldsmiths creating jewelry pieces and ornaments that are works of art.

The Filipino Community in Oslo gets a rare glimpse of these exquisite ornaments through the featured pictorial exhibit at the Philippine Embassy in Oslo, entitled "Ginto, A Golden Heritage from our Filipino Ancestors", commissioned by the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). Philippine Ambassador to Norway Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia opened the exhibition with members of the Jesus is Lord Church in Oslo, led by Ms. Carmen Aquilizan and Ms. Helen Grace Go on 02 March 2020.

The featured ancient ornaments are reproductions of those crafted by our Filipino ancestors from 700 to 1,200 years ago. The originals form part of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Pre-Hispanic Gold Collection. The illustrations that depict how these exquisite gold pieces were used are from the Boxer Codex, a manuscript written in 1590 with colored drawings of ethnic groups in the Philippines at the time of their initial contact with the Spaniards. In the Philippines, the 10^th to 14^th centuries were years of political, economic, and social progress, when primary artistic and scientific development occurred. Unearthed gold ornaments manifest a rich material culture during almost 30 years before Spanish colonizers reached the islands.

The "Ginto, A Golden Heritage from our Filipino Ancestors" exhibit, which has traveled throughout the Philippines under the auspices of the Sentro Rizal, is the Embassy’s contribution to the “Countdown to 500: A 2021 Quincentennial Commemorations in the Philippines” (QCP 2021), celebrating the 500 years of the Victory at Mactan, and the Philippine’s part in the first circumnavigation of the world.

The exhibit was conducted in collaboration with the NCCA and the Department of Foreign Affairs-Office of Strategic Communications and Research, Cultural Diplomacy Division. END

Philippine Ambassador to Norway Jocelyn Batoon-Garcia with members of the Jesus is Lord Church, Oslo. (Oslo PE photo)

For more information, visit https://www.oslope.dfa.gov.ph or https://www.facebook.com/PHinNorway/.