IT’S TELLING that October has come and gone with few remembering that it was Indigenous Peoples Month. Of course, there were the obligatory festivals and commemorative activities, but the neglect of the lumad by the media and the general public should reinforce the lament of many of them: that as far as the lowland majority are concerned, the indigenous are invisible.
To be sure, the celebrated framework agreement between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front contains provisions safeguarding the rights of the indigenous communities in the region. Still, the Mindanao Peoples’ Peace Movement has called on both the government and the MILF to, among others, “uphold justice in the peace process by recognizing, respecting and promoting the indigenous peoples’… collective and individual rights through their democratic and active participation in crafting the basic law” of the planned autonomous region.
In fact, the lumad and their worldview should be considered if only to provide a firm philosophical underpinning to any peace accord in Mindanao. The three great monotheist religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—may have powerful teachings to guide humanity, but they have come down to us in this part of the world through the hegemonic forces of Europe and Asia Minor and the Arab world. It would be proper to draw from them relevant perspectives for our peculiar circumstances while mining the wisdom of our indigenous folk.
For example, indigenous wisdom fosters conservation of the environment and a balanced view of progress and development. Against the “greed-as-driver-for-economic-growth” model, they emphasize the economics of sharing.
Moreover, indigenous peoples have a nonmaterialistic view of development. Long before Bhutan came up with its “gross national happiness” as a foil to the capitalist world’s worship of the gross domestic product, the lumad have practiced a way of life that rejects progress just for the sake of progress. Often derided for their pantheism and nature worship, the lumad hold nature sacred because nature is life-giving. In contrast, materialist man holds a purely utilitarian view of nature and looks at ecology only as a means of production. It’s time for modern man to learn from the lumad: Man and nature are a symbiosis; they complement, not compete against, each other.
It’s likewise noteworthy that hardly any mention was made of one of the primary issues that should be relevant to Indigenous Peoples Month: the tug-of-war over mining. But the perspective—and interest—of the indigenous communities should be considered in the debate over the mining law. The indigenous peoples have the right of ancestral domain over many of the mining prospects. Their voices should be heard.
Still, Indigenous Peoples Month didn’t pass completely unnoticed. The National Commission for Culture and the Arts has been holding Dayaw, the indigenous arts festival, for many years now. As NCCA Chair Felipe de Leon Jr. has explained it, Dayaw is a beautiful celebration of the identity that lies at the very root of our being Filipino. Perhaps to further emphasize that Filipino identity is inextricably bound with the cultural communities, Dayaw has been extended up to the end of November. Malolos in Bulacan will host the closing festivities on Nov. 27-29.
Outside of October and throughout the year, the NCCA has been promoting the “school of living traditions,” which seeks to perpetuate ancient and indigenous arts and crafts. Included in this program is Gawad Manlilikha (Gamaba), the folk-artist version of the National Artist Awards.
Because of our Latin European heritage as well as American colonization, we have reduced arts only to the classical arts of Western civilization. As against the notion of “fine arts” (of beauty being its own excuse for being), the indigenous peoples look at art as both aesthetic and functional—a more holistic view that again illustrates their unitary conception of cosmology.
But sadly, contemporary Filipinos continue to view traditional arts and crafts, including indigenous dances and musical forms, as inferior and backward. It is hoped that by putting the Gamaba artists on equal footing as the National Artists, this wrong view will be corrected.