The Gist

THE YOUTH REMEMBERS PHILIPPINE HISTORY ON TIKTOK WITH MUSEO DE FILIPINO

Revolutionaries, victims of injustices, human rights activists, and other heroes are commemorated and immortalized in this new TikTok trend that opens a unique museum of the Philippine experience online.

PAULINE NACAR / 26 October 2020

Throughout 2020, TikTok has provided us with some of the most entertaining bits of content to pass the long quarantine hours. Some may call it mindless and a waste of time, but entertaining nonetheless. This time, however, the platform takes on an educational role as the Filipino youth made full use of its features to start the Museo de Filipino trend.

Started organically by young Filipino TikTokers, the trend acts as a digital museum filled with the stories of our celebrated heroes, and even the ones forgotten by both modern media and our own history classes. Aside from reintroducing these notable individuals, Museo de Filipino also shone a light on the injustices our countrymen face everyday, most of which are not broadcasted on national news, or immortalized in local museums.

Thousands of videos have already been uploaded on TikTok, and shared all over social media, each with a unique addition to the collection. Some popular characters are Dr. Jose Rizal, Miriam Defensor Santiago, Maria Clara, Sisa, and even modern-day victims of human rights violations, specifically Kian Delos Santos and Reina Mae Nasino. The track used for these videos is IV of Spades’ “Bata, Dahan-Dahan!”, an ode for the youth who is starting to venture off into the world, ultimately to discover how it can hurt and scar us.

As much as the Museo de Filipino trend impressively showcases the creativity and talent of young Filipinos in writing dialogues, and editing clips, it’s also an effective way to educate each other on important national issues we must never forget. A big factor to its success in creating a viral, yet much-needed trend of videos, is TikTok’s already established audience. Through the platform, the initiative has organically reached millions of young Filipinos by standing out from its usual content of dance challenges, funny reenactments, and the occasional mix of funny and educational.

Of course, these types of initiatives and trends are more than welcome now, with the threat of media censorship and historical revisionism hanging around. If we continue reminding one another of all the wins and losses we’ve gathered as a country throughout the years, we’ll have a better chance against seeing more injustices happen, and witnessing history repeat itself.

Here are some of the best videos to come out of the Museo de Filipino tag: