When Genes and Indigenous People Matter

Home to one of the indigenous peoples in the island of Panay, Nagpana is nestled at one the mountains of Barotac Viejo, Iloilo.

The Institute of Human Genetics at the University of the Philippines (Manila) with the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples Region VI and Region VII went to the area last April 24 to conduct some saliva testing among the Ati's, one of the indigenous peoples in the country. I've been to Nagpana before during their Pag-uli Tiriringob Festival last November but this time, it is different. This is now more on health related concerns of the Ati's from the community. I'm doing more field research on the area for my ethnographic writing . The team from the Institute of Human Genetics was made up of a geneticist, an anthropologist, doctor and a biologist. Three of us come from the NCIP, one is the head of Technical Division,the other as the Provincial Head for the Ati's of Guimaras and Barotac and me as the historian and consultant writer. I took some pictures during that day.

Ati kids taking a bath on a lazy day under the sun.

Their handicrafts are beautiful.

I took the picture at the top.

My favorite kid at the community.

This is for our lunch.

The geneticist in action. Explaining the concepts of genes and DNA.

Listening attentively to the instructions.

Abundance of abaca at the community.

I would have wanted to take a dip.

Beautiful view on top of a huge rock.

Mother and child.

I enjoyed my interview with Lola.

When Work Becomes An Adventure

This month is definitely hectic for me. I like working on projects related to the empowerment of indigenous people. I was in Antique for a week for the mid-term evaluation of Empowering Indigenous People for Inclusive Development (EIPID)climbing mountains, crossing rivers, meeting beautiful people with good hearts and enjoying the beauty of nature. The project is halfway on its implementation period. I'm back to Iloilo City however I can always say that it was tough trekking the mountains but it was inspiring to meet people who work for the indigenous peoples. Sir Lope is one of the best I've ever worked with. We went to five municipalities in Antique for a week conducting FGD's and evaluation of the project. No, I dont think I was working rather I was learning and appreciating things. This is what happens when work becomes an adventure. Take a look at the beauty of the Province of Antique.

Sira-an Hot Springs at Anini-y, Antique.

On the way to Latazon, Laua-an, Antique

Soil erosion at Brgy. Lublub Valderamma, Antique.

We passed through rivers and mountains.

Wild pigs everywhere! @ Brgy. Latazon, Laua-an, Antique.

Fishing Boats at Anini-y, Antique. Seven Ati families live here.

The majestic mountains of Valderrama, Antique.

Nothing but huge rocks. It was a very bumpy ride up the mountains of Brgy.Latazon, Laua-an, Antique.

This place is beautiful. Lunch at Sira-an Hot Springs, ANini-y, Antique.

Some Ati women washing their clothes at the river. Simple life.:-)Hamtic, Antique

I stopped by to take this picture. @ Anini-y, Antique.

Shy and smiling. Some of the Ati kids talked to me in "inati". I was lost in translation.

Still @ Anini-y, Antique.

Smiling and taking a break from interviewing the project officers.

My partner in crime, Sir Lope's FGD with the carabao.

A simple hut among the seven Ati families. @ Anini-y, Antique

We have to go home at 5pm or esle we wouldn't be able to cross the river anymore.

Conquering the mountains of Valderrama, Antique.

Discussing with the Iraynon-Bukidnons of Brgy. Latazon, Laua-an, Antique.

Happy International Woman's Month

We deserve to smile and be happy because we are all fabulous, beautiful and warm human beings.

We are women.

Jurs and I, with some of our favorite women writers. Isabel Allende captures my mind.


Happy Woman's Month to mothers, sisters, friends and daughters. You bring light in this beautiful world.

Calling All Historians

HISTORIANS. This is what we do.

I laughed out loud when I saw this. So true!

Guns, McDonaldization, Disneyfication and The Big Stick Policy

You can't talk peace and have a gun. - Francis M.

I bet Obama could use a lot of that these days. It seems like he's hell bent on his Big Stick Policy. Iran. Afghanistan. Name it. He'll use it. Henry Kissinger was right all along, power is indeed a great aphrodisiac. Big Stick Policy? Gunboat diplomacy? Power projection? Whatever you call it, it is still intimidation. The projection of power is just too blatant that it becomes so impossible to miss.

But no, we don't live in a bipolar world anymore. We live in a heterpolar world. Sources of power emanates from different junctions, not just on politics and economics. If global political order is unlikely, it is necessary to examine the economic, cultural and environmental dimensions of a new global order. Should we begin to call in a global cultural order in the new system?

Disneyfication, Coca-colonization, Mcdonaldization and the effervescent presence of consumerism. The fusion of consumerism with the arts, entertainment and sport is widespread. This reminds me so much of the creed of shopaholics. I shop therefore I am.

Is it the ultimate dead end?

Like McDonaldization, disneyfication continuously haunts our dreams. There is a need for us to deconstruct traditional narratives and circumvent ways in understanding the presence of popular culture. Oversimplification is essentially an overkill of everything.

We have no obligation to make history.
We have no obligation to make art.
We have no obligation to make a statement.
To make money is our only obligation.
-Michael Eisner

The real world is becoming more and more like a theme park - like Disneyland. If I were to believe what Michael Eisner says about Disney, I'm bound to run away from everything that starts with letter D. Do scholars tend to read too much on Disney films?

Yes and no.

Yes, movies are meant to entertain us, true. But how do we essentially explain to the young minds their first glimpse of other cultures? It goes to say that these films contribute to their social construction of the world.

The chase doesn't end there. I am beginning to stop myself from subscribing to life in the fast lane. No tough life there but just making sure that when the proverbial hunger pangs hit you, some take out food is available for your convenience. But food is not the only thing that counts here. It is said that in the 1980s and 1990s McDonaldization has extended its reach into more and more regions of society, and those areas are increasingly remote from the heart of the fast-food business.

According to Ritzer, there are five dominant themes within this McDonaldization process: Efficiency, Calculability, Predictability, Increased Control, and the Replacement of Human by Non-Human Technology. Are these things familiar to you?

People are also becoming increasingly aware of the linkages among different aspects of the natural environment, the human impacts on the natural environment and the need to initiate policies that will sustain significant environmental resources into the future. Providing for the needs of the increasing numbers of people in the world from the same stock of resources is no easy feat.

If Kiko's been singing of you can't talk peace and have a gun, mine would be much simpler.

Indeed, where's Terra Nova when you need it?

In Search for Purgatory

What would you ask God if you had just one question?

Maybe 25 years ago, as a kid I have one question in mind. And yes I would not call him God either. I remember it very well that as a young kid I always insists to call him as Jesus. God is so adult. So Jesus it is. My question would be very simple.

Dear Jesus, is this purgatory?

My Dad used to tell me that this is purgatory.

When you’re a kid, you never question the wisdom of your elders. My earliest memory about purgatory was when I was six years old. I attended the mass with my parents and the priest was talking about purgatory, heaven and hell. Heaven as I knew and from what I’ve seen in the pictures was filled with white cotton candy clouds with all the angels flapping their little wings while singing in their melodious voices. I’m sure heaven is also filled with lots of candies and a bowl of creamy chicken soup waiting for everyone who enters its gates. Hell is of course filled with lakes of fire. A man with two horns and a tail laughing like a lunatic is seated in his throne. And yes, don’t forget the huge pitchfork he uses to poke the souls who are swimming in the lakes of fire.

But purgatory? Where is it? What does it look like?

After the mass as we were going out of the church, my dad turned to me and told me to be quiet. He pointed to this huge and magnificent structure. That is purgatory. Tall and towering, the place looks forlorn with some moss gathering at the sides and an eerie silence that engulfs it akin to those horror movies that I watch. Like the naughty kid that I was I looked at it with awe and great interest. I bet to any kid, any structure that is big and towering is an awesome sight. I turned to my father and asked him whether we could just take a look inside and say hello to the souls. I was promptly told that the souls were asleep it was best for us to stay quiet, pray for them and walk away.

From that day on, it is firmly entrenched to my mind that this is what purgatory looks like. In school, I would tell my other classmates with great conviction that I know where purgatory is. It is just right across Jaro plaza and that one should really be quiet upon approaching the area for souls are asleep. Some of them believed me. Of course, some don’t.

Years later, I found out that this place was no purgatory. It was actually an old belfry of Jaro Cathedral that was constructed during the Spanish period in the country. Now, I’m more confused if this is not purgatory, then where can I find it? And yes, I prefer to call him God now. Does it follow then that Jesus is for kids and God is for adults? If God don’t mind me asking another question I still would want to know where purgatory is. I’m thinking maybe it is somewhere between the stratosphere and ionosphere.

Where is purgatory?

In Praise of Difficult Women

We still have to listen to studies telling us that a single woman over the age of thirty-five had best avoid airplanes because she is more likely to die in a terrorist attack than get married.-----The Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women

I laughed when I read this. I went to my elder sister’s room and actually read the lines to her. She chuckled.

Yesterday was her birthday. She turned 35. We are both single. And yes, when I posted this as my status at Facebook, it was a riot. Of course, most of those who liked it are ALL single women themselves.

Was it a coincidence?

I have every reason to believe that when they read that status, it made them laugh. It’s funny but true, the irony of it all.

The Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel is a book I’ve bought from a book sale two days ago. It caught my attention primarily because of its title. I’ve started reading it as soon as I got home. It’s an entertaining feminist manifesto if I must say. It kept me chuckling and intellectually charged. It made me laughed out loud in fact.

The word bitch has been used and interpreted many times. Have you ever been called a bitch, too? Well lucky for you if you have been called once, twice or thrice. But then again, in what context were you called as such? I don’t even know how to begin to define the word “bitch”. It seems like the word has been used so many times and in so many contexts. Sometimes, being bitchy is good. Other times, it is not. It also goes to say that being Miss Goody Two Shoes is sometimes good. Other times, it is just not. You know sometimes you just have to fight when you know you just have to. No harm in it.

I would have loved to blog about it but I’ll restrain myself. I want to finish reading the book first.

For the meantime, I’ll bear in mind not to ride the airplanes after I turned 35.

Strictly Photos

Because it is December and things are bright and gay, for a change I've decided to post photos. Just photos.

Sinigang na Isda

Chicken Inasal. Yum!

Chicharon!

Biscocho. Piaya. Pinasugbo.

Pinamalhan nga Lupuy. Cooking Lupuy the traditional way.

Kinilaw na labanos. Radish salad anyone?

Singkamas and Naranghita.

That's all folks. I'll be writing next week.

Of Indigenous Peoples: Getting to Know the Ati's of Nagpana

Last week was a frenzy.

In the midst of everything, visits to the doctor, the endless readings and the writing of the Panay-Bukidnon claimbook, I took the time out to visit Nagpana, Barotac Viejo. It was their Pag-uli Tingob Festival. Nagpana is the home of one of the indigenous peoples' in the country, the Aetas.

The Ati's performing their native dance.

The place was beautiful. The people were friendly and accomodating. Lush vegetation covers the area. It was a feast for the eyes and soul. I've always been interested to write an ethnography about the indigenous peoples in the country. I've taught at the university for ten years. Academic experience is great. You learn a lot of paradigms and theories inside the four walls of the classroom but then theories are best when they are applied in real life situations. I am thankful and honored for the opportunity to be able to share and use my knowledge to help give the IPs what was righfully their own in the first place, their ancestral lands. For each paragraph that I write and each chapter that I finish,I do it with passion and love. Not because of anything else but more so because of the idea that this is a landmark step for the IPs towards the realization of their right to self-determination. The granting of the title of their ancestral lands would be written in the pages of Philippine history. It is a legacy that would be passed to the generations of IPs.

At Nagpana. Simply beautiful.

Kagang as they call it. This was taken at the nearby river.

In the Philippines, indigenous peoples’ communities are to be found in the interiors of Luzon, Mindanao, and some islands of Visayas. They either withdrew to the hinterlands in the face of colonization or they stood their ground successfully and have maintained a close link to their ancestral past. These communities comprise a diverse collection of more than forty ethno-linguistic groups, each with a distinct language and culture. The indigenous peoples continued to live in their relatively isolated, self-sufficient communities, at the time when most lowland communities had already been integrated into a single colony under Spain in the 1700s and 1800s. They were able to preserve their culture and traditions as reflected in their communal views on land, rituals, songs, dances and folklore.

The little boy who took my heart away.

Mass wedding of Atis.

Uprooting indigenous peoples from their land denies them their right to life and identity. This is also to say that they have continuously related to and established the environment they are in as the material basis of their existence.

Land is a central issue to indigenous peoples because it defines their very existence. For the IPs, their ancestral lands are not just a physical manifestation of their presence, not just a material base but most importantly, their lands are sources of collective memories of their history and culture. It makes their ancestral domain a cultural and spiritual link to the living and their dead. Hence, in this context, as seen in the eyes of the indigenous peoples, ancestral domains are sacred.

Through the years, they have survived as they have striven to maintain the cultural integrity that makes them different while adapting ingeniously to the changing conditions around them.

Shy but smiling. A young mother and her kids.

Simply beautiful. The water was inviting.

Native food. ( At the background, these are the members of the TSK, an NGO.)

Currently, the population profile of indigenous peoples of Regions VI, VII and VIII showed that there is a total of 62, 099 IPs in Iloilo , located within twenty two municipalities of the province.

I will be back at the community soon to write an ethnography about them. I know it's going to be an enlightening, fulfilling and interesting stay.