Irmo’s own Chiara Cox will receive a distinguished award on January 23 during the second annual World Endangered Writing Day. This global celebration recognizes individuals and organizations dedicated to reviving traditional writing systems, with Cox earning praise for her documentary, Mangyan Ambahan: Wisdom for Our Filipino Soul.
The film, created in collaboration with the Mangyan Heritage Center, explores the Hanunuo Mangyan script, one of the few remaining ancient Filipino writing systems. The documentary highlights the ambahan, a form of sung poetry that has preserved the Mangyan people’s cultural wisdom across generations.
The event, presented in partnership with SOAS University of London and the National Museum of Language, will feature a live screening of Cox’s documentary, followed by a Q&A session moderated by Tim Brookes, founder of the Vermont-based Endangered Alphabets Project.
Brookes emphasizes the importance of preserving endangered scripts, noting that more than 90% of the world’s 300 traditional scripts face varying degrees of threat. “A script represents a culture’s identity, wisdom, and collective history,” he said. “Its loss is the loss of a unique cultural footprint.”
World Endangered Writing Day will also mark the anniversary of Brookes’ book, Writing Beyond Writing, which highlights global efforts to preserve endangered scripts, including notable progress in the Philippines.
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