My trip to Bukidnon

This weekend I was fortunate enough to participate in a gathering of Indigenous Peoples (IP) in the area of Bukidnon in Mindanao. It is about a four hours drive north of Davao City. The gathering was an occasion for the IPs to organize themselves around political, social, and economic issues pertinent to their way of life. They also will spend this time (in the coming few days) formulating their annual State of the Indigenous People’s Address. This is a shadow address to the President’s state of the nation that the IPs produce each year to voice their concerns to the government and peoples of the Philippines. While most of the event was in Tagalog and Bisaya, what I did understand was that the IPs feel quite strongly the need to preserve their way of life and stand up to the government of the Philippines to voice their concerns and have them heard and respected, especially in terms of protecting the land in the growing climate change crisis.

And let me tell you, their way of life is beautiful. The village we stayed at Saturday and Sunday was nestled into the mountains. A breathtaking view of clouds rolling over the mountains was our background. We were in the “Hall of Peace” for the conference. The first floor was full of paintings made from mud in deep red, browns, and oranges. Upstairs the windows opened to see the village, small houses dotted with clotheslines and chickens. On another side of the hall of peace was a large tract of land farmed with carabao (water buffalo).

To start the events for both Saturday and Sunday a ritual took place. Saturday’s ritual was the welcoming ritual. All visitors to the land must partake of this ritual as a type of “immigration process.” Long prayers were recited by the tribe elder, Datu Vik. Part of the prayer involved motioning with a chicken. (Again, sorry I can’t give more details, I had no translator!). Then three chickens were killed. Since David and I tended to chickens this summer, ones he eventually plans to eat, I watched closely, wanting to experience a bit of what he will this Fall. What I loved about the slaughtering was that, at least so it appeared to me, the chickens were treated with the utmost respect. They were killed as painlessly as possible and their necks were tucked into their feathers, in a position that held them unexposed, as they were taken away. After some introductory remarks the chickens were brought back, cooked. Each person present proceeded to the front of the hall and ate a piece of chicken and took a sip of water. It was communion. And all of us were brought together in community through this act of this shared meal. (I no longer regretted missing church on Sunday for this!).

The atmosphere of the place was majestic but I stopped myself from romanticizing. The IPs are marginalized and oppressed here in the Philippines. Although one presenter described IPs as rich (why, they sit on top of a wealth of natural resources and have a vibrant culture!) their access to the land has often been denied them and many are materially poor. I asked a teenage girl who befriended me if she would go to college and she said she didn’t know, because of money – it was hard enough to spend the 20 pesos each day to get to school, and that is on top of school fees (seriously, in the U.S. we need to be grateful for our free education, problems and all. When I asked her if she had to pay for school, she looked at me like that was such a dumb question – of course you have to pay for school)!

This experience brought me back to a conversation David and I had a few weeks ago. We were discussing how the indigenous people of our own country are by far the most marginalized and oppressed people in the United States. It seems to me that indigenous all over the world all share a somewhat similar view of creation and way of life (in terms of broad strokes, obviously particulars are different) as well as a history of oppression. What a great and sad irony that the people, all over the world, who have the greatest right to the land are the most marginalized on that same land.

Later I was flipping through my notebook and I came across a quote from a workshop I attended a couple of years back about community, identity, and privilege. The presenter said this statement that I had written down, “We have traded in our ethnic identities for the privilege of being white.” In a place rightly acknowledged as rich with culture I wondered, where is mine? Have I been able to reclaim my cultural heritage in exchange for working against my unearned privilege?

An IP presenter stated at the conference, “Indigenous people are the only people who can take care of the land.” While I don’t disagree and I would never want to take away anything from the IPs, I felt my inner self cry out, but “I want to help! My ancestors were once indigenous somewhere in the world, this cultural tradition once ran in my veins, and I desperately want to recapture it – can you help me!?” Indigenous people have the immense responsibility of holding onto an endangered cultural tradition. Of holding sacred and secure their way of taking care of the earth and one another, in the face of strong oppression. But perhaps they also have another burden to carry – making us, the “privileged ones,” realize that not only should we pay attention to what IPs have to say and respect it, but we also need to get back in touch with our own cultural traditions that may be fading away. We all need to cultivate that respect for the earth, one another, and community that we all once held so dear some centuries ago.

~

On a side note, the whole trip made me appreciate living in the Twin Cities all the more as well. I love living in a city, and couldn’t have it any other way. But when we arrived back in Davao I was startled awake by the noise, lights, and busy-ness, I had thoroughly enjoyed the green spaces and the quiet night of the mountains. I reminded myself that was why I love the Twin Cities – I can have both beautiful green landscapes and still live in a metropolitan city!

Sorry no pictures, I took a ton but haven’t gotten them up on my computer yet, I will post them later this week!