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113

Indigenous Peoples Education:“From Alienation To Rootedness”
Consolidated report by
the Episcopal Commission on Indigenous Peoples

I

nstituted 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 articulate
and assert their aspirations, struggles, and rights as cultural communities. ECIP
is also responsible for consolidating and coordinating the efforts of forty-five Indigenous Peoples’ Apostolates (IPAs), which are directly working with indigenous
communities in the different dioceses in the country.
with more than sixty percent in the Mindanao
island, around thirty percent in Luzon island,
and less than ten percent in the islands of the
Visayas region. While varying in ways of lifeand cultural heritage, they share similar experiences of discrimination and marginalization.
In 1997, the Philippine government passed
the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or Republic Act 8371 that recognizes and protects therights of indigenous communities. Its effective
implementation, however, is still to be seen andasserted by indigenous communities. This is one
arena of partnership with IPAs.
While there are no definite statistics and figures to give the accurate number of indigenous
peoples communities reached by the publicschool system of the country, it is safe to say that
schooling 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

For the past thirty years, a major focus
of ECIP has been the struggle of indigenous
communities for their ancestral domains andhuman rights issues, and more recently, inthe articulation and assertion for indigenous
peoples’ education.
Education has always been an identified
priority concern, with the Indigenous Peoples
Apostolates (IPAs) formulating their own programs or interventions depending on the availability of resources and other considerations.
These initial interventions, however, were very
similar to those that have been done by religious
congregations who have worked in some indigenous communities (in some cases, for decades)
before the institutionalization of ECIP.

The indigenous peoples being served
The Philippines is home to around one
hundred ten indigenous peoples communities
numbering between fifteen to twenty million.
They are located in different parts of the country,113

114  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

to provide education interventions in thesecommunities.

Interventions
Before the 1980s the various forms ofinterventions done by IPAs and religious congregations were any or a combination of thefollowing:
Spectrum of needs

Form of intervention

Basic literacynumeracy

Teaching basic literacy-numeracy
to children and adults basedon mainstream approaches,
methods and content

Periodic trainings(livelihood, health,etc.)

Provision of adult-based trainings
based on mainstream approaches and content

Support to enterschoolProvision of school supplies,
scholarships, tutorials

Schools

Provision of infrastructure,
personnel (usually lowlander),curriculum evaluation tools,
books and school calendar basedon mainstream education system

the following commonly cited reasons:•		The need to understand the system of transacting business in the marketplace (whichwere different from indigenous communities’ 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 participate in activities outside their communities•		The need for other livelihood options because the community’s resource base (such as
farmland) has been exploited by others (forlogging, mining, plantations, etc); exploringother livelihood options means interactingwith the enlarging national economy, thus
the need for trainings to familiarize themwith 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 ‘educated’ and education means liberation frompoverty.

Modified interventions

These interventions introduced by the religious congregations or IPAs especially during
the first seven decades of the 20th century werebased on its assessment of the situation of thecommunities. These efforts were heavily influenced by the colonial view that education should
be used to ‘civilize’ or assimilate the inhabitants of the Philippine islands, with education(schooling to be more accurate) as the main
civilizing process (McCoy, 2006).
Very common interventions were basic literacy-numeracy and scholarships. In the later
years, the communities themselves started torequest for education interventions because of

The last point above has been one of thedominant views about education in Philippine
society and this viewpoint has also permeatedindigenous communities who have encounteredmainstream education for several decades.
Graduates of indigenous communities wereviewed as success stories both by the communities 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 of
the following:• Comprehension difficulties• Adjustment difficulties•	Discrimination.
In response to these situations, some inter-Indigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  115

ventions were modified by contextualizing thecontent of the lessons (A for atis or avocado,
instead of apple) and using non-formal methods
to facilitate academic learning and achievement.
There were also efforts in several dioceses tobuild dormitories exclusive for indigenous students studying in the towns to ease adjustment
difficulties and lessen discriminatory experiences. The main goals, however, were still to
inculcate mainstream competencies and learning
processes to facilitate the assimilation of indigenous learners into mainstream society.
This mix of modified and mainstream education interventions went on for decades andis still the case in some dioceses and religious
congregations today. It was only in the early
1990s that indigenous communities started
to more vocally articulate misgivings to their
IPA partners about their experiences with themainstream education system. This moved
IPAs in the country to once again examine andreflect why this is so, this time by widening
their scope of analysis - reexamining the impact of education on indigenous communities
and not just individuals, and seeing educationfrom the viewpoint of the indigenous peoples
themselves.

Process of consolidating indigenous
peoples ideas and concerns
Since 2002, IPAs took time to hold consultations focused on education at the community,
diocesan and regional levels to gather theirviews. In these consultations, focused group
discussions and key informant interviews were
held.
The first ECIP National Consultation on IP
Education held in 2002 became a venue for participating apostolates to appreciate their common experiences and to explore consolidated
responses. It was also in this consultation thatthe recognition of the education system of indigenous peoples’ was stressed, giving birth to theidea that perhaps ECIP could contribute to thearticulation of the indigenous education system
of indigenous communities so that this could
serve as a basis of educational interventions andprograms that are being done by IPAs.
To evoke the views, experiences and insights
of indigenous communities and apostolates
nationwide, regional consultations were held
in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao from 2004
to 2006, and these were consolidated in two
ECIP National Conventions on IP Education
held in 2006 and 2007.

The indigenous peoples experience of
education
The consolidated findings reveal that education has other dimensions in the indigenous
peoples’ 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 experienced in two ways: from people and from theeducation system itself. Reports about teachers
who treat their indigenous students differently
and with prejudice outnumber reports on teachers who are fair and open-minded. It is the same
experience with classmates who also mirror thegeneral discriminatory views of society. Since
students who discriminate are most of the time
not reprimanded or corrected, the situation is
condoned and in effect, the discrimination of indigenous peoples is affirmed even if indirectly.
Another recently articulated dimension of
discrimination relates to other aspects of school
life. An example is the requirement of uniforms
and shoes, things beyond the financial capacityof many indigenous communities. In the case ofshoes, this is something that some indigenous
children are not used to. Not wearing shoes
became a mark of being an indigenous person
and a source of discrimination.

116  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Another example is the tendency to label
indigenous students as slow learners just because it takes more time for them to learn thecompetencies associated with literacy. Students
from communities whose communication andknowledge generation patterns are still very oral,
it is natural that they take more time to adjust
to a new system of communication and patternof thinking. Orality as a system of communication and thinking has different dynamics fromliteracy (Ong, 1982). While orality nurtures
linguistic intelligence, sharpens memory (voluntary, involuntary, iconic, implicit, semantic,
symbolic, and musical) and associative thinking, among others (Revel, 2005), it has been
given secondary attention in the contemporary
education system (Ong, 1982). Unfortunately,
instead of understanding the need of indigenous
students for some degree of transition from one
communication 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 discussed
as inferior or invalid when compared to ‘modern’ knowledge and skills. When indigenous
peoples’ life and being were discussed, there
was a tendency to misrepresent or misinterpretthem because of the prevailing prejudice. Theseexperiences show the failure of the mainstream
education system to address the indigenous
community context.

• Discussion limited to surface culture
In cases where the ‘culture’ of indigenous
peoples is included in the discussion, there isa tendency to highlight artifacts and practices(songs, clothes, etc.), such that the understanding of culture is limited to surface culture andthe tribe is associated with things instead ofthem being introduced as a people. This results in a shallow understanding of indigenous
peoples as people and culture as a process, andindigenous peoples’ identity being limited toblood affiliation instead of including the cultural
heritage and history of the community.

Impacts of mainstream school system
These indelible experiences of indigenous
students in the mainstream school system havethe following impacts at the individual level:
The overall impact of mainstream education
has been the alienation of indigenous youth
from their own communities, heritage, culture
and history and commonly manifested in thefollowing:
Broken intergenerational ties. Learningfrom school that indigenous peoples’ ways
are backward, indigenous youth consequently view elders as backward or inferior
since they are the living memories of theselife-ways. This is manifested in the youth’s
disrespect and sometimes blatant disregardof the elders, resulting in broken intergenerational 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 practices (IKSPs). With broken intergenerationalties passing on of indigenous knowledge,
culture and wisdom to the next generations
becomes inadequate. Knowledge that took
centuries to generate and validate havedegenerated and/or are being forgotten to
the point that today, when IKSPs are slowly
gaining recognition, communities could
not recall them anymore. The meaning of
cultural practices becomes distorted andsymbols are misused or desecrated when

Indigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  117

the younger generations try to practicethese without consulting the elders or thecommunity.
Demise of community reflection processes.
The indigenous peoples’ move and work as
a community and the oral nature of theircommunication patterns make reflection
and decision-making a very communal,
face-to-face act (Ong, 1982). With the
breakdown of intergenerational ties and thefocus on individual achievement, successand decision-making, community reflection
processes like storytelling and gatherings ofthe community are not convened, resulting
in fragmented views or half-baked understanding of situations. The latter disables
the community’s capacity to act on situations 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 indigenous
communities is the exodus of their schooled
youth because of the imbibed view thatworking in the ancestral domain is inferior
to working in semi-urban communities. For
those who stay in the community, their lossof respect for the land as a cultural spacetends to make them view the land only as
an economic resource, thereby undertaking
activities that are detrimental to the environment (like lowland slash and burn, illegal
logging, 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 as
a vibrant whole, many indigenous communities remain marginalized despite having
educated members. Individual success andgrowth of schooled indigenous peoples do
not translate into community growth andempowerment.
Dying spirit of the tribe. As one elder
put it, indigenous youth do not anymore
have a sense of the spirit of the tribe—that

which binds and moves them as one and is
the wellspring of the culture that they havegiven birth to through the centuries; that has
guided them as a people to live in dignity.
Along with the continued marginalizationof indigenous communities is the dying of
the spirit of the tribe and consequently, thedying of their culture.

Assertion by the Elders
Given the individual and community impacts of mainstream education, indigenous
community elders in different parts of thecountry express, though in different ways, thesame assertion underpinned with apprehension
for the future:
Their tribal and community life can only
continue if their youth- are rooted in their culture, IKSPs andthe ancestral domain,- grow up with a clear sense of identity,- are committed to meeting the challenges and issues that face the tribe,- can assert their self-determination,and- are conscious of being inheritors of aheritage and their elders for the coming generations.
Foremost in their minds is the crucial issueof the ancestral domain. What will happen to
the ancestral domains they are fighting for if thenext generations do not accept this generationaland historical legacy and take care of it accordingly? Elders reiterate that there are competencies needed by indigenous communities likeliteracy and numeracy that are learned fromschools, but they envision school education
without the adverse impacts and indigenous
peoples’ identity and self-determination constituting the central focus.

118  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

Culturally-sensitive educational interventions
Realizing the need to address the adverse
impact of mainstream education system on
the indigenous communities, some IPAs andreligious congregations started in the 1980s to
introduce culturally-sensitive educational interventions. At present, more culturally-sensitive
educational interventions have been introduced
that are classified into:• Indigenized formal education
In areas where there are established schools,
culture-sensitive education within the national
curricular framework required by the Department of Education takes many forms such as
the following:- Use of the local language when appropriate (as against the use of Filipino or
English languages as the sole mediumsof instruction)-	Discussion of concepts with local situations or examples (e.g., fermentation
and wine-making, counting and simple
weaving, etc.)- Inclusion of local knowledge in the topics (e.g., local identification system ofanimals and plants, or land and water
forms)- Addition of underlying values like identity and self-determination- Addition of local topics to particularsubjects (e.g., indigenous musical instruments in music class aside from the usual
instruments taught)- Inclusion of elders or experts from thecommunity as resource persons for some
topics (e.g., for indigenous musical instruments or weaving).
This type of education is employed in thefollowing areas:- Primary level - Sta. Cruz Mission, Lake
Sebu, South Cotabato; St. Francis Learning Center, Subic, Zambales; Diocese of-

TarlacSecondary 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 superintendent
allowed 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 inschool year 2007, the provincial government
and local office of the Department of Education
has become a partner in giving culture-sensitivity trainings to teachers stationed in Mangyan
communities.
• Indigenized Alternative Learning Systems
curriculum
The Alternative Learning Systems (ALS)of the Bureau of Alternative Learning Systems(BALS) in the Department of Education is theover-all curricular framework for non-formal
education system. Non-formal education programs 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 indigenous education programs with innovations
consisting 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 teaching aids.
The Sentrong Paaralan ng mga Agta in Nakar, Quezon under the support of the Prelatureof Infanta uses this curriculum.
• Own System
This approach is employed in areas where
the formal school setting is not applicable andappropriate (e.g., areas where the school is being introduced for the first time or is quite far
from the town proper), or the communities haveIndigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  119

decided to design their own school set-up in
response to the painful impacts discussed earlier.
In these initiatives, some of the innovations are
the following:- The community decides on their school’s
overall direction, management concerns
and key content that should be part ofthe curriculum-	While financial resources usually comefrom benefactors and/or funding agencies, the community participates in thesetting-up of the school and provides
counterpart resources for the construction of school facilities like labor, food,construction materials, etc.
-	Local materials are used in setting up thefacilities, like grass for roofing, etc.
- The architecture of the school building
is patterned after the indigenous architecture in the community- The management of the school includes
the local organization of the tribe orcommunity- Community disciplinary procedures areused 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 that
topics are discussed in direct relation tocommunity activity cycles- Indigenous competencies are included
and complemented with the competencies required by the Department of
Education- Some communities modify the school
calendar (without decreasing the required number of school days) to take
into 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 Occidental Mindoro
The variety of responses is largely due tothe variety of circumstances of indigenous
communities. In areas where the school set-up
is a familiar system, indigenous communities
tend to try the indigenized formal education
approach. In communities hardly reached byschools, the own-system type tends to be more
appropriate.
The articulated views of the partner indigenous communities guide the implementationof these efforts. Key differences of present efforts
from the previous ones are the following:•		Community-based. In the past, efforts werefocused on sending students to schools
away from the community or the setting
up schools in the community but managed
exclusively 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 establishing and managing the school or educational intervention in all their aspects.
•		Rootedness in the IKSPs. Previous efforts
focused largely on inculcating content,skills and learning processes determined by
the mainstream education system. Present
efforts start with the content, skills andlearning processes of the community andcontinue with, complemented by, mainstream content, skills and learning processes
as needed and appropriate.
•		Based on indigenous peoples’ worldview (philosophy, psychology, spirituality, etc.). Again,
previous efforts were based on mainstream
educational philosophies, psychology, etc.
The new efforts aim at education programs/interventions that flow from the indigenous
community’s worldview.

120  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS•		Stresses identity, cultural heritage and selfdetermination. Previous efforts glossed
over the context of the community since
what was viewed as important was for the‘educated’ to be effectively assimilated into
mainstream society. Today, more and more
efforts recognize that the education programs/interventions should be anchored on
and responsive to the context of indigenous
communities and thus the focus on valuing
cultural heritage and identity, and asserting
self-determination.
•		Focuses not only on cultural manifestations(songs, dances, stories, etc) but also on culture as
living process. While there have been efforts toinclude cultural products like songs, dances,stories, artifacts, etc. in the curriculum, they
touch only the surface of what culture is.
What is needed is the appreciation of culture
as process - how the cultural products cameabout, why they are changing, discussions
on the impact of cultural change on communities and identity, the maintenance ofintergenerational ties, etc. It is the understanding of cultural processes that will help
indigenous youth to better understand why
their community is what it is today and how
to concretely maintain their community andculture as a living entity.
•		Responsive to present needs and situation (complementation with Department of Educationcompetencies). Equally important as being
rooted in their culture and heritage is theindigenous youth’s capacity to face today’s
world and dynamics. Thus, the program orintervention should harness the necessary
skills and impart the needed content andvalues for them to be able to become active
participants in shaping society and the future(not merely adapting to the projected society
and future).
•		Systematic, not reactive, response. There weretendencies in the past to focus only onchanging content and making these changes
only when problems arose that needed tobe solved. With the present view, it is thewhole system that has to be addressed, andit should be done systematically.
These views have been reiterated by indigenous community representatives themselves
during the first ECIP-IPA Convention on
Indigenous Peoples Education held in May
2006. They identified the fundamental qualities of the education they envision for theircommunities:•		Rooted in indigenous peoples history andculture•		From the community, managed by the community 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 participants in mainstream society without being
dominated by globalization, and•		Deeply into values creation.

An education system appropriate toindigenous communities
To further specify what the key components
of an education system appropriate to indigenous communities are, IPAs and their partner
communities consolidated common and fundamental viewpoints and principles shared bytheir efforts and expressed them in relation to
five components of an education system. Thiswas done during the 2nd National Convention
on Indigenous Peoples Education attended bytwenty-seven dioceses and sixteen tribes. The
five components discussed were: education philosophy, curriculum and evaluation processes,
teaching-learning processes, instructional setup, and school management.

Philosophy
Fundamental to the education philosophy is the recognition that indigenousIndigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  121

peoples have an education system thatshould be the foundation of the educational
interventions.
Where before the end goals of the efforts
were to instill mainstream competencies
and learning processes, and getting themassimilated in mainstream society, the end
goals 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 selfdetermination.
To reach these goals, indigenous peoples
education should be founded on the following:• CULTURE (as process and product)• HISTORY (life-stories woven into thetribe’s story, woven into the bigger storyof nation and the world)• HERITAGE (a sense of being a descendant 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 andwonder, wisdom, sacred, heritage, etc.)
practicing multiple forms of storing andexpressing knowledge (body movement,
music, chants, crafts, etc.)• Integrating indigenous peoples’ psychology• Recognizing orality or their oral dynamicof storing and passing on knowledge andwisdom• Recognizing and giving space for theintuitive ways of expressing knowledge
like weaving for math and crafts for thesciences.

In summary, indigenous culture, history,
heritage and spirituality are the foundation
on which an integrated sense of self andidentity is built. Mainstream educational
competencies, learning processes and worldview are learned to enable the indigenous
people to engage the contemporary times.

Curriculum and evaluation processes
In terms of curriculum, it should:• Mirror the community’s situation andenables learners to deal with the challenges the community faces• Conceptualized with the community• Based on IKSPs and indigenous peoples
competencies, and complemented bycompetencies (Department of Education
required competencies) needed to engage
the contemporary world• Flows with the cycle and situation of thecommunity.
Testing and evaluation processes shouldbe:• A complementation of community andmainstream assessment and evaluation
tools and processes•	Done with participation of the community.

Teaching and learning processes
Indigenous teaching and learning processes 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-up
should necessarily include:• Adjustment of the education calendar to122  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

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 culturesensitive and based on indigenous architecture.

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 education their tribe and community needs.

The Indigenous Peoples Education System
During the 2 nd National IP Education
Convention in May 2007, the reports on key
findings of case studies done in four areas in
the country significantly articulated what theindigenous education system was. The following are the key points shared so far:Indigenous communities have a system of
education
Each tribe in the country has a systemthat started since time immemorial of transmitting knowledge and forming the youth tobecome responsible human beings.
This view is similar to the modern concept of “education,” a word derived from theLatin word educare meaning ‘bringing up or
rearing’ (Frankena, 2003). This also relates
to the international concept of indigenous
knowledge systems and practices (IKSPs), thesystem 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 ofcreation.’- Hopi elder, 1993 (Survival, 1994)

The ancestral domain – school of indigenous 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 moment.
The learning space is the ancestral domain.
This similar to the ‘lifelong learning’
concept in education circles today. This
indigenous education system that has beenpracticed for centuries has to be recalled byindigenous communities.
In some tribes, learning venues or institutions are also present like the dap-ay (formales) and ulog (for females). These arevenues for youth to gather and, in interaction with the elders, learn about community
dynamics and practices (Fiag-oy, 2005; Alangui, 1997).

The sources of knowledge and wisdom
Who taught our ancestors? The elders
say that anyone is a possible source ofknowledge and companion in the learning
process - parents, grandparents, elders who
have recognized expertise, even peers, andIndigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  123

younger children.
What is passed on from one generation to the next is usually called traditional
knowledge (Castellano, 2000 cited in Steinhauer, 2002). Perhaps if there is one teacher
unique to indigenous peoples, it is theancestral domain or creation. Elders speakof particular creatures ‘telling us’ or ‘teaching us’. Another unique ‘teacher’ would
be dreams, with some tribes learning theirweaving designs, medicinal plants and otherknowledge through dreams (Fiag-oy, 2005;
Peterno, Alvina & Javellana, 2000). Dreams
as a kind of ‘teacher’ is also called revealed
knowledge (Steinhauer, 2002). It is unfortunate that today, these types of knowledge
have been labeled as superstitions.

Indigenous Peoples have a curriculum too
The indigenous peoples have a sequenceof content and competencies to be taught
based on the stage of growth of the person.
Indigenous education therefore has acurriculum, which varies depending on thesituation of the tribe.

Indigenous books and knowledge storage
systemThe elders are the repository of knowledge. Their memory is the library ofindigenous communities. Elders say thatknowledge is also stored in songs, chants,
dances, rituals, and day-to-day activities of
the tribe. One elder stressed that day-to-day
living and the cycle of life of the community
was the ultimate repository of knowledge,
for it was in living the knowledge that its
remembrance and storage were ensured.
Another repository of knowledge iscalled cellular memory (Steinhauer, 2002).
One example is the competency, which
evolved through the centuries of making riceterraces, of indigenous communities of theCordillera mountains (in northern Philippines) to work with rocks, mountains andsoil. This is a natural competency among themembers of the indigenous community thatcannot be taught in any Master’s or PhD
course anywhere in the world. It can only belearned by being part of the ancestry (blood)and living in and working in the ancestral
domain so that this competency (which
includes psycho-emotional components) is
nurtured and practiced.

Evaluating learning – Indigenous Peoples
have exams too
The elders see application of knowledge
as the test in itself, with the outcome being
the 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 Mangyan
hunter is in making the trap. Another indicator of learning was the capacity to teachothers. Some tribes have titles for the experts
in their communities equivalent to today’s
Master’s and PhD degrees.

Indigenous Peoples education philosophy
The tribe’s worldview guides the wholeprocess of learning the IKSPs of the community.
A worldview is “a unified vision rather
than an individual idea.” (Redfield, 1982,
cited in Steinhauer, 2002). Below are thewords of Macli-ing Dulag, a Kalinga tribal
elder killed in the early 1980s as he led his
community in its opposition to the buildingof the Chico Dam in northern Philippines.
These few poetic lines articulate the deep
meanings of his tribe’s reason for being:
Afo Kafunian, Lord of us all, gave us lifeand placed us in the world to live human
lives.
And where shall we obtain life? From theland.

124  HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION IN ASIAN SCHOOLS

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 nurtured.
To enrich it is the eternal exhortation of Afo
Kafunian to all Kafunian’s children.
Land is sacred. Land is beloved.
From its womb springs our Kalinga life.
(Anno, 2003)

That land is life and is sacred is fundamental to their worldview, and this permeates their
IKSPs where the ancestral domain is classroom
and teacher at the same time, and nurturing andprotecting the ancestral domain is a fundamental
tenet in molding the young.

Teaching-learning strategies
Among tribes, there are some common
teaching-learning strategies such as demonstration, actual activity, apprenticeship (for specialized roles like healers and shamans), and direct
instruction.

The key concerns on Indigenous Peoples
education
Aside from articulating the foundations ofan education system appropriate for indigenous
peoples, two key concerns were also mentioned
during the second Convention:• There is a need to consciously affirm indigenous peoples’ sense of personhood and reflect on what this means through formation
processes. Learning indigenous competencies does not necessarily translate into a deep
sense of indigenous peoples’ identity.
• The indigenous communities recognize theneed to document IKSPs that are almost
forgotten. However, they do not accept irresponsible and insensitive research done in
the past.

In response to this, the Indigenous Peoples
Education Program together with indigenous
communities are trying to systematize culturalprocess research that:- recognizes research as a necessary component in developing the indigenous
component (content, competencies, etc.)of the whole educational experience- heals the breakdown of intergenerationalties and the demise of communal knowledge-generation processes- goes beyond the “book-making” conceptof research- stresses research that views culture as
living and lived process, and not justproducts.
The 2007 Convention also recognized that
there are key concerns or challenges that anygroup doing an education intervention should
continually 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 knowledge generation processes?
- nurture the indigenous peoples’ senseof personhood as reflected in their connectedness with the ancestral domain andassertion for self-determination?
- celebrate the tribal spirit that, given
proper recognition and respect, renews
their culture?

Conclusions
Given the results of this consolidation effort,
indigenous communities with their partner
IPAs and religious congregations are now better
guided 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Indigenous Peoples Education - Philippines  125

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 final
analysis, 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 indigenous sisters and brothers, be so assertive about
it? It is not just because of its aesthetic value, or
its uniqueness or the economics of it. Culture
is at the core of being human, an expression of
how we have encountered God through lifequestions. It contains the blessings or graces of
God to a people which, if nurtured well, makeus able to share these blessings and graces witheach other. In the case of our indigenous brothers 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 articulate
and define an education system that will once
again nurture their tribe, communities andculture, before it is too late.

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