13Indigenous Peoples Education - Philippines

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Indigenous Peoples Education:

From Alienation To RootednessCONSOLIDATED REPORT BY

THE EPISCOPAL COMMISSION ON INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Instituted in 1972, the Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples (ECIP)

is the agency of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP)working on the issues facing indigenous peoples in the country as they articulateand assert their aspirations, struggles, and rights as cultural communities. ECIPis also responsible for consolidating and coordinating the efforts of forty-five In-digenous Peoples Apostolates (IPAs), which are directly working with indigenouscommunities in the different dioceses in the country.

For the past thirty years, a major focusof ECIP has been the struggle of indigenous

communities for their ancestral domains andhuman rights issues, and more recently, inthe articulation and assertion for indigenouspeoples education.

Education has always been an identifiedpriority concern, with the Indigenous Peoples

Apostolates (IPAs) formulating their own pro-grams or interventions depending on the avail-ability of resources and other considerations.

These initial interventions, however, were verysimilar to those that have been done by religious

congregations who have worked in some indig-enous communities (in some cases, for decades)before the institutionalization of ECIP.

The indigenous peoples being served

The Philippines is home to around onehundred ten indigenous peoples communitiesnumbering between fifteen to twenty million.

They are located in different parts of the country,

with more than sixty percent in the Mindanaoisland, around thirty percent in Luzon island,

and less than ten percent in the islands of theVisayas region. While varying in ways of lifeand cultural heritage, they share similar experi-ences of discrimination and marginalization.In 1997, the Philippine government passedthe Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or Repub-lic Act 8371 that recognizes and protects therights of indigenous communities. Its effectiveimplementation, however, is still to be seen andasserted by indigenous communities. This is onearena of partnership with IPAs.

While there are no definite statistics and fig-ures to give the accurate number of indigenouspeoples communities reached by the publicschool system of the country, it is safe to say thatschooling is still inaccessible to many of thesecommunities. They are usually found in themountainous areas of the country where basicsocial services like public schools and healthcenters are non-existent.

It is because of this absence of schools thatvarious groups have been undertaking efforts

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114HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

to provide education interventions in thesecommunities.

Interventions

Before the 1980s the various forms ofinterventions done by IPAs and religious con-gregations were any or a combination of thefollowing:

Spectrum of needs Form of intervention

Basic literacy-

numeracy

Teaching basic literacy-numeracy

to children and adults based

on mainstream approaches,

methods and content

Periodic trainings

(livelihood, health,

etc.)

Provision of adult-based trainings

based on mainstream approach-

es and content

Support to enter

school

Provision of school supplies,

scholarships, tutorials

Schools

Provision of infrastructure,

personnel (usually lowlander),

curriculum evaluation tools,

books and school calendar based

on mainstream education system

These interventions introduced by the reli-gious congregations or IPAs especially duringthe first seven decades of the 20th century werebased on its assessment of the situation of thecommunities. These efforts were heavily influ-enced by the colonial view that education shouldbe used to civilize or assimilate the inhabit-ants of the Philippine islands, with education(schooling to be more accurate) as the maincivilizing process (McCoy, 2006).

Very common interventions were basic lit-eracy-numeracy and scholarships. In the lateryears, the communities themselves started to

request for education interventions because of

the following commonly cited reasons: The need to understand the system of trans-

acting business in the marketplace (whichwere different from indigenous communi-ties system of economic calculations andbarter) because of the rampant cheating theyexperienced

The need to read street signs, newspapers,and legal documents, and to vote and partici-pate in activities outside their communities

The need for other livelihood options be-cause the communitys resource base (such asfarmland) has been exploited by others (for

logging, mining, plantations, etc); exploringother livelihood options means interactingwith the enlarging national economy, thusthe need for trainings to familiarize them

with this arena; others found schoolingnecessary to be able to find employment

The need to access health services, and Going to school is equated with being edu-

cated and education means liberation frompoverty.

Modified interventions

The last point above has been one of thedominant views about education in Philippinesociety and this viewpoint has also permeatedindigenous communities who have encounteredmainstream education for several decades.Graduates of indigenous communities were

viewed as success stories both by the com-munities and the congregations or IPAs, andthese graduates learned, as individuals, how tonavigate their way in the wider social demandsof mainstream society. The backdrop, however,of these few success stories was the reality of amuch bigger number of drop-outs because ofthe following: Comprehension difficulties Adjustment difficulties Discrimination.

In response to these situations, some inter-


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ventions were modified by contextualizing thecontent of the lessons (A for atis or avocado,instead of apple) and using non-formal methodsto facilitate academic learning and achievement.

There were also efforts in several dioceses tobuild dormitories exclusive for indigenous stu-dents studying in the towns to ease adjustmentdifficulties and lessen discriminatory experi-ences. The main goals, however, were still toinculcate mainstream competencies and learningprocesses to facilitate the assimilation of indig-enous learners into mainstream society.

This mix of modified and mainstream edu-

cation interventions went on for decades andis still the case in some dioceses and religiouscongregations today. It was only in the early1990s that indigenous communities startedto more vocally articulate misgivings to theirIPA partners about their experiences with themainstream education system. This movedIPAs in the country to once again examine andreflect why this is so, this time by wideningtheir scope of analysis - reexamining the im-pact of education on indigenous communities

and not just individuals, and seeing educationfrom the viewpoint of the indigenous peoplesthemselves.

Process of consolidating indigenouspeoples ideas and concerns

Since 2002, IPAs took time to hold consulta-tions focused on education at the community,diocesan and regional levels to gather their

views. In these consultations, focused groupdiscussions and key informant interviews wereheld.

The first ECIP National Consultation on IPEducation held in 2002 became a venue for par-ticipating apostolates to appreciate their com-mon experiences and to explore consolidatedresponses. It was also in this consultation thatthe recognition of the education system of indig-enous peoples was stressed, giving birth to the

idea that perhaps ECIP could contribute to the

articulation of the indigenous education systemof indigenous communities so that this couldserve as a basis of educational interventions andprograms that are being done by IPAs.

To evoke the views, experiences and insightsof indigenous communities and apostolatesnationwide, regional consultations were heldin Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao from 2004to 2006, and these were consolidated in twoECIP National Conventions on IP Educationheld in 2006 and 2007.

The indigenous peoples experience ofeducation

The consolidated findings reveal that edu-cation has other dimensions in the indigenouspeoples experience:

School as a venue of discrimination

Until today, discrimination persists as oneof the traumatic experiences of indigenous

students, with the school being a key venue ofsuch experiences. Discrimination is being expe-rienced in two ways: from people and from theeducation system itself. Reports about teachers

who treat their indigenous students differentlyand with prejudice outnumber reports on teach-ers who are fair and open-minded. It is the sameexperience with classmates who also mirror thegeneral discriminatory views of society. Sincestudents who discriminate are most of the timenot reprimanded or corrected, the situation iscondoned and in effect, the discrimination of in-digenous peoples is affirmed even if indirectly.

Another recently articulated dimension ofdiscrimination relates to other aspects of schoollife. An example is the requirement of uniformsand shoes, things beyond the financial capacityof many indigenous communities. In the case ofshoes, this is something that some indigenouschildren are not used to. Not wearing shoesbecame a mark of being an indigenous person

and a source of discrimination.

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Another example is the tendency to labelindigenous students as slow learners just be-cause it takes more time for them to learn thecompetencies associated with literacy. Studentsfrom communities whose communication andknowledge generation patterns are still very oral,it is natural that they take more time to adjustto a new system of communication and patternof thinking. Orality as a system of communica-tion and thinking has different dynamics fromliteracy (Ong, 1982). While orality nurtureslinguistic intelligence, sharpens memory (vol-untary, involuntary, iconic, implicit, semantic,

symbolic, and musical) and associative think-ing, among others (Revel, 2005), it has beengiven secondary attention in the contemporaryeducation system (Ong, 1982). Unfortunately,instead of understanding the need of indigenousstudents for some degree of transition from onecommunication pattern to another, they areevaluated as slow learners.

Schooling as an experience of non-being

Indigenous peoples who have gone toschool recall how their way of life and theindigenous peoples in general were usuallyseen as backward and belonging to the past,and their knowledge and skills were discussedas inferior or invalid when compared to mod-ern knowledge and skills. When indigenouspeoples life and being were discussed, there

was a tendency to misrepresent or misinterpretthem because of the prevailing prejudice. Theseexperiences show the failure of the mainstreameducation system to address the indigenouscommunity context.

Discussion limited to surface culture

In cases where the culture of indigenouspeoples is included in the discussion, there isa tendency to highlight artifacts and practices(songs, clothes, etc.),such that the understand-ing of culture is limited to surface culture and

the tribe is associated with things instead of

them being introduced as a people. This re-sults in a shallow understanding of indigenouspeoplesas people and culture as a process, andindigenous peoples identity being limited toblood affiliation instead of including the culturalheritage and history of the community.

Impacts of mainstream school system

These indelible experiences of indigenousstudents in the mainstream school system havethe following impacts at the individual level:

The overall impact of mainstream educationhas been the alienation of indigenous youthfrom their own communities, heritage, cultureand historyand commonly manifested in thefollowing:

Broken intergenerational ties. Learningfrom school that indigenous peoples waysare backward, indigenous youth conse-quently view elders as backward or inferiorsince they are the living memories of these

life-ways. This is manifested in the youthsdisrespect and sometimes blatant disregardof the elders, resulting in broken intergen-erational ties. Since schooled youth havebeen observed to be close-minded or distant,elders have also become silent, to the pointthat in some communities elders feel andaccept that they have no place or have losttheir roles in the community.

Misuse and abuse of cultural practices, anddying indigenous knowledge systems and prac-tices (IKSPs).With broken intergenerationalties passing on of indigenous knowledge,culture and wisdom to the next generationsbecomes inadequate. Knowledge that tookcenturies to generate and validate havedegenerated and/or are being forgotten tothe point that today, when IKSPs are slowlygaining recognition, communities couldnot recall them anymore. The meaning ofcultural practices becomes distorted and

symbols are misused or desecrated when


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the younger generations try to practicethese without consulting the elders or thecommunity.

Demise of community reflection processes.The indigenous peoples move and work asa community and the oral nature of theircommunication patterns make reflectionand decision-making a very communal,face-to-face act (Ong, 1982). With thebreakdown of intergenerational ties and thefocus on individual achievement, successand decision-making, community reflectionprocesses like storytelling and gatherings of

the community are not convened, resultingin fragmented views or half-baked under-standing of situations. The latter disablesthe communitys capacity to act on situa-tions that confront them and disperses theirenergy to act together as a whole.

Graduates or schooled youth leaving thecommunity or abusing the ancestral domain.Another painful experience of indigenouscommunities is the exodus of their schooledyouth because of the imbibed view that

working in the ancestral domain is inferiorto working in semi-urban communities. Forthose who stay in the community, their lossof respect for the land as a cultural spacetends to make them view the land only asan economic resource, thereby undertakingactivities that are detrimental to the environ-ment (like lowland slash and burn, illegallogging, etc.) just to increase their income.Such examples have motivated others in thecommunity to do the same.

Continued marginalization of communities.With communities disabled from working asa vibrant whole, many indigenous commu-nities remain marginalized despite havingeducated members. Individual success andgrowth of schooled indigenous peoples donot translate into community growth andempowerment.

Dying spirit of the tribe. As one elderput it, indigenous youth do not anymore

have a sense of the spirit of the tribethat

which binds and moves them as one and isthe wellspring of the culture that they havegiven birth to through the centuries; that hasguided them as a people to live in dignity.

Along with the continued marginalizationof indigenous communities is the dying ofthe spirit of the tribe and consequently, thedying of their culture.

Assertion by the Elders

Given the individual and community im-

pacts of mainstream education, indigenouscommunity elders in different parts of thecountry express, though in different ways, thesameassertion underpinned with apprehensionfor the future:

Their tribal and community life can onlycontinue if their youth

- are rooted in their culture, IKSPs andthe ancestral domain,

- grow up with a clear sense of iden-tity,

- are committed to meeting the chal-lenges and issues that face the tribe,

- can assert their self-determination,and

- are conscious of being inheritors of aheritage and their elders for the com-ing generations.

Foremost in their minds is the crucial issueof the ancestral domain. What will happen tothe ancestral domains they are fighting for if thenext generations do not accept this generationaland historical legacy and takecare of it accord-ingly?Elders reiterate that there are competen-cies needed by indigenous communities likeliteracyand numeracy that are learned fromschools, but they envision school education

without the adverse impacts and indigenouspeoples identityand self-determination con-stituting the central focus.



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Culturally-sensitive educational interventions

Realizing the need to address the adverseimpact of mainstream education system onthe indigenous communities, some IPAs andreligious congregations started in the 1980s tointroduce culturally-sensitive educational inter-

ventions. At present, more culturally-sensitiveeducational interventions have been introducedthat are classified into:

Indigenized formal educationIn areas where there are established schools,

culture-sensitive education within the nationalcurricular framework required by the Depart-ment of Education takes many forms such asthe following:

- Use of the local language when appro-priate (as against the use of Filipino orEnglish languages as the sole mediumsof instruction)

- Discussion of concepts with local situ-ations or examples (e.g., fermentationand wine-making, counting and simple

weaving, etc.)- Inclusion of local knowledge in the top-

ics (e.g., local identification system ofanimals and plants, or land and waterforms)

- Addition of underlying values like iden-tity and self-determination

- Addition of local topics to particularsubjects (e.g., indigenous musical instru-ments in music class aside from the usualinstruments taught)

- Inclusion of elders or experts from thecommunity as resource persons for sometopics (e.g., for indigenous musical in-struments or weaving).

This type of education is employed in thefollowing areas:

- Primary level - Sta. Cruz Mission, LakeSebu, South Cotabato; St. Francis Learn-ing Center, Subic, Zambales; Diocese of

Tarlac- Secondary level - Bauko Catholic School,

Bauko, Mt. Province; Mangyan Mission,Oriental Mindoro; Sta. Cruz Mission,Lake Sebu, South Cotabato.

In the case of the Mangyan Mission in

Oriental Mindoro, the schools superintendentallowed extra time for a subject focused on

Mangyan culture (the Mangyans constitute asignificant part of the population in the islandof Mindoro) in the public primary schools inthe Vicariate of Oriental Mindoro. Starting in

school year 2007, the provincial governmentand local office of the Department of Educationhas become a partner in giving culture-sensitiv-ity trainings to teachers stationed in Mangyancommunities.

Indigenized Alternative Learning Systemscurriculum

The Alternative Learning Systems (ALS)of the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems(BALS) in the Department of Education is the

over-all curricular framework for non-formaleducation system. Non-formal education pro-grams are meant for school drop-outs, adults,and out-of-school youth who want to study attheir own pace and place.

The ALS curriculum is applied to the in-digenous education programs with innovationsconsisting of the use of indigenous learning andteaching techniques (i.e., more group work,use of the outdoors as venues for lessons) andincreased use of indigenous materials for teach-ing aids.

The Sentrong Paaralan ng mga Agta in Na-kar, Quezon under the support of the Prelatureof Infanta uses this curriculum.

Own System

This approach is employed in areas wherethe formal school setting is not applicable andappropriate (e.g., areas where the school is be-ing introduced for the first time or is quite far

from the town proper), or the communities have


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decided to design their own school set-up inresponse to the painful impacts discussed earlier.In these initiatives, some of the innovations arethe following:

- The community decides on their schoolsoverall direction, management concernsand key content that should be part ofthe curriculum

- While financial resources usually comefrom benefactors and/or funding agen-cies, the community participates in thesetting-up of the school and providescounterpart resources for the construc-

tion of school facilities like labor, food,construction materials, etc.- Local materials are used in setting up the

facilities, like grass for roofing, etc.- The architecture of the school building

is patterned after the indigenous archi-tecture in the community

- The management of the school includesthe local organization of the tribe orcommunity

- Community disciplinary procedures are

used in maintaining discipline among thestudents

- Indigenous teachers are prioritized inselecting teachers

- The curriculum design is based on theflow of community life in such a way thattopics are discussed in direct relation tocommunity activity cycles

- Indigenous competencies are includedand complemented with the compe-tencies required by the Department ofEducation

- Some communities modify the schoolcalendar (without decreasing the re-quired number of school days) to takeinto consideration local climate patterns,thus avoiding absences due to rains,flooded rivers, etc.

- Indigenous materials are used as teachingaids as appropriate

- Indigenous teaching and learning methods

are incorporated as teaching methods.

The following use this approach:- Dioceses of Tarlac, Kidapawan, Kalibo,

Digos, Butuan, and Surigao- Vicariates of Oriental Mindoro and Oc-

cidental Mindoro

The variety of responses is largely due tothe variety of circumstances of indigenouscommunities. In areas where the school set-upis a familiar system, indigenous communitiestend to try the indigenized formal educationapproach. In communities hardly reached by

schools, the own-system type tends to be moreappropriate.The articulated views of the partner indig-

enous communities guide the implementationof these efforts. Key differences of present effortsfrom the previous ones are the following: Community-based. In the past, efforts were

focused on sending students to schoolsaway from the community or the settingup schools in the community but managedexclusively by outsiders. In the emerging

efforts, community-based means more thanjust the school or intervention being in thephysical space of the community. Rather, itis the participation of the community in es-tablishing and managing the school or edu-cational intervention in all their aspects.

Rootedness in the IKSPs. Previous effortsfocused largely on inculcating content,skills and learning processesdetermined bythe mainstream education system. Presentefforts start with the content, skills andlearning processes of the community andcontinue with, complemented by, main-stream content, skills and learning processesas needed and appropriate.

Based on indigenous peoples worldview (phi-losophy, psychology, spirituality, etc.). Again,previous efforts were based on mainstreameducational philosophies,psychology, etc.

The new efforts aim at education programs/interventions thatflow from the indigenous

communitys worldview.



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Stresses identity, cultural heritage and self-determination. Previous efforts glossedover the context of the community since

what was viewed as important was for theeducated to be effectively assimilated intomainstream society. Today, more and moreefforts recognize that the education pro-grams/interventions should be anchored onand responsive to the context of indigenouscommunities and thus the focus on valuingcultural heritage and identity, and assertingself-determination.

Focuses not only on cultural manifestations

(songs, dances, stories, etc) but also on culture asliving process.While there have been efforts toinclude culturalproducts like songs, dances,stories, artifacts, etc. in the curriculum, theytouch only the surface of what culture is.

What is needed is the appreciation of cultureas process - how the cultural products cameabout, why they are changing,discussionson the impact of cultural change on com-munities and identity, themaintenance ofintergenerational ties, etc. It is the under-

standing of culturalprocesses that will helpindigenous youth to better understand whytheir community is what it is today and howto concretely maintain their community andculture as aliving entity.

Responsive to present needs and situation (com-plementation with Department of Educationcompetencies). Equally important as beingrooted in their culture and heritage is theindigenous youths capacity to face todays

world and dynamics. Thus, the programorintervention should harness the necessaryskills and impart the needed contentand

values for them to be able to become activeparticipants in shaping society and thefuture(not merely adapting to the projected societyand future).

Systematic, not reactive, response.There weretendencies in the past to focus only onchanging content and making these changesonly when problems arose that needed to

be solved. With the present view, it is the

whole system that has to be addressed, andit should be done systematically.

These views have been reiterated by indig-enous community representatives themselvesduring the first ECIP-IPA Convention onIndigenous Peoples Education held in May2006. They identified the fundamental quali-ties of the education they envision for theircommunities: Rooted in indigenous peoples history and

culture From the community, managed by the com-

munity and for the community Strengthens formation towards self-relianceand assertion of human rights

Enables youth to defend and develop theancestral domains

Equips the youth to become active partici-pants in mainstream society without beingdominated by globalization, and

Deeply into values creation.

An education system appropriate toindigenous communities

To further specify what the key componentsof an education system appropriate to indig-enous communities are, IPAs and their partnercommunities consolidated common and fun-damental viewpoints and principles shared bytheir efforts and expressed them in relation tofive components of an education system. This

was done during the 2nd National Conventionon Indigenous Peoples Education attended bytwenty-seven dioceses and sixteen tribes. Thefive components discussed were: education phi-losophy, curriculum and evaluation processes,teaching-learning processes, instructional set-up, and school management.

Philosophy

Fundamental to the education phi-

losophy is the recognition that indigenous


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peoples have an education system thatshould be the foundation of the educationalinterventions.

Where before the end goals of the effortswere to instill mainstream competenciesand learning processes, and getting themassimilated in mainstream society, the endgoals now are to nurture their sense ofidentity/indigenous personhood and instillcompetencies and learning processes bothfrom their system and the mainstream toenable them to assert their rights and self-determination.

To reach these goals, indigenous peopleseducation should be founded on the fol-lowing: CULTURE (as process and product) HISTORY (life-stories woven into the

tribes story, woven into the bigger storyof nation and the world)

HERITAGE (a sense of being a descen-dant and ancestor)

SPIRITUALITY (expression of faith life,values and beliefs).

Indigenous ways of knowing, learningand thinking should be an integral part ofindigenous education, like: Integrative and associative thinking Ancestral domain, dreams, and ancestors

as teachers Learning by doing and experiencing Harnessing inner senses (awe and

wonder, wisdom, sacred, heritage, etc.)practicing multiple forms of storing andexpressing knowledge (bodymovement,music, chants, crafts, etc.)

Integrating indigenous peoples psy-chology

Recognizing orality or their oral dynamicof storing and passing on knowledge and

wisdom Recognizing and giving space for the

intuitive ways of expressing knowledgelike weaving for math and crafts for the

sciences.

In summary, indigenous culture, history,heritage and spirituality are the foundationon which an integrated sense of self andidentity is built. Mainstream educationalcompetencies, learning processes and world-

view are learned to enable the indigenouspeople to engage the contemporary times.

Curriculum and evaluation processes

In terms of curriculum, it should: Mirror the communitys situation and

enables learners to deal with the chal-

lenges the community faces Conceptualized with the community Based on IKSPs and indigenous peoples

competencies, and complemented bycompetencies (Department of Educationrequired competencies) needed to engagethe contemporary world

Flows with the cycle and situation of thecommunity.

Testing and evaluation processes should

be: A complementation of community and

mainstream assessment and evaluationtools and processes

Done with participation of the commu-nity.

Teaching and learning processes

Indigenous teaching and learning pro-cesses should include: Revealed knowledge (dreams, etc.),

ancestral domain, and elders as teachers Tribal language Community teaching-learning processes

complemented by mainstream ones.

Instructional set-up

Key aspects of the instructional set-upshould necessarily include:

Adjustment of the education calendar to



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the pattern of life of the community Use of appropriate educational aids Indigenous peoples as teachers (if not

indigenous peoples, they should havedeep respect for indigenous peoples

way of life and can live or flow with thecommunity)

Buildings or structures that are culture-sensitive and based on indigenous archi-tecture.

Management

Indigenous communities have beenvery assertive about their right to be part ofschool or program management. Not onlyis it consistent with their communal way ofliving, but they strongly feel that being partof management will allow them to take partin defining and designing the kind of educa-tion their tribe and community needs.

The Indigenous Peoples Education System

During the 2nd National IP EducationConvention in May 2007, the reports on keyfindings of case studies done in four areas inthe country significantly articulated what theindigenous education system was. The follow-ing are the key points shared so far:

Indigenous communities have a system ofeducation

Each tribe in the country has a systemthat started since time immemorial of trans-mitting knowledge and forming the youth tobecome responsible human beings.

This view is similar to the modern con-cept of education, a word derived from theLatin wordeducare meaning bringing up orrearing (Frankena, 2003). This also relatesto the international concept of indigenousknowledge systems and practices (IKSPs), the

system of knowledge generation, storage,

transmission, and evaluation being kept aliveby indigenous communities in different partsof the world. These knowledge and ways ofknowing are nurtured and acquired throughcenturies of living with the ancestral domain.

As one Hopi elder (USA) put it:

People always ask,

So where do you get your knowledge?

and I say, From the ancestors, from the time of

creation.

- Hopi elder, 1993 (Survival, 1994)

The ancestral domain school of indig-enous communities

Where was their school? Elders say thatlearning is anywhere - the home, the fields,the rivers, during walks, hunting, planting,etc.

Learning is everywhere and at every mo-ment.

The learning space is the ancestral do-main.

This similar to the lifelong learningconcept in education circles today. Thisindigenous education system that has beenpracticed for centuries has to be recalled byindigenous communities.

In some tribes, learning venues or insti-tutions are also present like thedap-ay(formales) and ulog (for females). These are

venues for youth to gather and, in interac-tion with the elders, learn about communitydynamics and practices (Fiag-oy, 2005; Al-angui, 1997).

The sources of knowledge and wisdom

Who taught our ancestors? The elderssay that anyone is a possible source ofknowledge and companion in the learningprocess - parents, grandparents, elders who

have recognized expertise, even peers, and


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younger children.What is passed on from one genera-

tion to the next is usually called traditionalknowledge (Castellano, 2000 cited in Stein-hauer, 2002). Perhaps if there is one teacherunique to indigenous peoples, it is theancestral domain or creation. Elders speakof particular creatures telling us or teach-ing us. Another unique teacher wouldbe dreams, with some tribes learning their

weaving designs, medicinal plants and otherknowledge through dreams (Fiag-oy, 2005;Peterno, Alvina & Javellana, 2000). Dreams

as a kind of teacher is also called revealedknowledge (Steinhauer, 2002). It is unfor-tunate that today, these types of knowledgehave been labeled as superstitions.

Indigenous Peoples have a curriculum too

The indigenous peoples have a sequenceof content and competencies to be taughtbased on the stage of growth of the per-son.

Indigenous education therefore has acurriculum, which varies depending on thesituation of the tribe.

Indigenous books and knowledge storagesystem

The elders are the repository of knowl-edge. Their memory is the library ofindigenous communities. Elders say thatknowledge is also stored in songs, chants,dances, rituals, and day-to-day activities ofthe tribe. One elder stressed that day-to-dayliving and the cycle of life of the community

was the ultimate repository of knowledge,for it was in living the knowledge that itsremembrance and storage were ensured.

Another repository of knowledge iscalled cellular memory (Steinhauer, 2002).One example is the competency, whichevolved through the centuries of making rice

terraces, of indigenous communities of the

Cordillera mountains (in northern Philip-pines) to work with rocks, mountains andsoil. This is a natural competency among themembers of the indigenous community thatcannot be taught in any Masters or PhDcourse anywhere in the world. It can only belearned by being part of the ancestry (blood)and living in and working in the ancestraldomain so that this competency (whichincludes psycho-emotional components) isnurtured and practiced.

Evaluating learning Indigenous Peoples

have exams too

The elders see application of knowledgeas the test in itself, with the outcome beingthe indicator of degree of knowledge gained.Depending on the tribe, there are indicatorsof mastery. The part of the body hit by a trap,for example, shows how skillful a Mangyanhunter is in making the trap. Another indi-cator of learning was the capacity to teachothers. Some tribes have titles for the experts

in their communities equivalent to todaysMasters and PhD degrees.

Indigenous Peoples education philosophy

The tribes worldview guides the wholeprocess of learning the IKSPs of the com-munity.

A worldview is a unified vision ratherthan an individual idea. (Redfield, 1982,cited in Steinhauer, 2002). Below are the

words of Macli-ing Dulag, a Kalinga tribalelder killed in the early 1980s as he led hiscommunity in its opposition to the buildingof the Chico Dam in northern Philippines.

These few poetic lines articulate the deepmeanings of his tribes reason for being:

Afo Kafunian, Lord of us all, gave us life

and placed us in the world to live human

lives.

And where shall we obtain life? From the

land.



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To work the land is an obligation, not merely

a right.

In tilling the land, you possess it.

And so, land is a grace that must be nur-

tured.

To enrich it is the eternal exhortation of Afo

Kafunian to all Kafunians children.

Land is sacred. Land is beloved.

From its womb springs our Kalinga life.

(Anno, 2003)

That land is life and is sacred is fundamen-tal to their worldview, and this permeates their

IKSPs where the ancestral domain is classroomand teacher at the same time, and nurturing andprotecting the ancestral domain is a fundamentaltenet in molding the young.

Teaching-learning strategies

Among tribes, there are some commonteaching-learning strategies such as demonstra-tion, actual activity, apprenticeship (for special-ized roles like healers and shamans), and direct

instruction.

The key concerns on Indigenous Peopleseducation

Aside from articulating the foundations ofan education system appropriate for indigenouspeoples, two key concerns were also mentionedduring the second Convention: There is a need to consciously affirm indig-

enous peoples sense of personhood and re-flect on what this means through formationprocesses. Learning indigenous competen-cies does not necessarily translate into a deepsense of indigenous peoples identity.

The indigenous communities recognize theneed to document IKSPs that are almostforgotten. However, they do not accept ir-responsible and insensitive research done inthe past.

In response to this, the Indigenous PeoplesEducation Program together with indigenouscommunities are trying to systematize culturalprocess research that:

- recognizes research as a necessary com-ponent in developing the indigenouscomponent (content, competencies, etc.)of the whole educational experience

- heals the breakdown of intergenerationalties and the demise of communal knowl-edge-generation processes

- goes beyond the book-making conceptof research

- stresses research that views culture asliving and lived process, and not justproducts.

The 2007 Convention also recognized thatthere are key concerns or challenges that anygroup doing an education intervention shouldcontinually reflect on if the intervention is togenuinely contribute to the continued life ofindigenous communities:

How can our education efforts:

- heal broken intergenerational ties?- restore community reflection and knowl-

edge generation processes?- nurture the indigenous peoples sense

of personhood as reflected in their con-nectedness with the ancestral domain andassertion for self-determination?

- celebrate the tribal spirit that, givenproper recognition and respect, renewstheir culture?

Conclusions

Given the results of this consolidation effort,indigenous communities with their partnerIPAs and religious congregations are now betterguided as they continue to reformulate and/orreconstruct their education programs so thatthey contribute to the regeneration of culture,restoration of the dignity of indigenous

communities, and rootedness in history and


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cultural heritage.For us in the church, respect for culture is

not only due to the recognition of the right toculture of a particular community or group ofpeople like our indigenous brothers and sisters.It is also based on the recognition that cultures,like those of indigenous communities, are bornout of a peoples struggle and quest to deal withthe basic questions of life, which in the finalanalysis, are spiritual questions. As Michel deCerteau, SJ (1966) has expressed, A culture isa language of a spiritual experience.

Sometimes we ask, what is so important

about culture? Why should we, like our indig-enous sisters and brothers, be so assertive aboutit? It is not just because of its aesthetic value, orits uniqueness or the economics of it. Cultureis at the core of being human, an expression ofhow we have encountered God through life-questions. It contains the blessings or graces ofGod to a people which, if nurtured well, makeus able to share these blessings and graces witheach other. In the case of our indigenous broth-ers and sisters, they have shared their blessings

with us but were abused, neglected and ridiculedin return.

We hope to continue journeying with ourindigenous brothers and sisters as they articulateand define an education system that will onceagain nurture their tribe, communities andculture, before it is too late.

Bibliography

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Practices: A Sampler in Y. Arquiza (ed.)A Journeyof Hope, Vol 2: Cultural Revival in a Changing World.Philippines: International Labour Organization.

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cgi?id=dv2-08.McCoy, A. Orientalism of the Philippine Photograph:

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