‘Tighten the knot of our blanket slings’: The Endurance of Babywearing Practice and the Visual Politics of Childhood in the Cordillera Region of North Luzon, Philippines

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ABSTRACT While Indigenous communities in the Philippines have long used baby slings as essential childrearing tools, the last two decades have seen an upsurge in popularity for their use, now called babywearing. Yet, few studies have examined the practice’s history, how its use shaped ideas of childcare, and how these ideas came to play in the country’s colonial making. This paper studies colonial photographs and accounts of babywearing in the Cordillera region, Northern Luzon, exploring how these materials have figured in the larger agendas of Imperial power, which sought to control bodies through policy and public perception. Through critical analysis of these historical materials and immersion in contemporary babywearing communities, this study utilises Saukko’s contingent approach to resistance to investigate how, despite centuries of stigma, the practice’s survival – even revival – points to everyday acts of agency at a moment when traditional practices turn into trends decontextualised from their once-othered roots.