Indigenous Peoples

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

by Antonio C. Antonio

October 30, 2014

Most urban dwellers will always look at squatter communities or informal settlers as the poor sector of society.  Perhaps the term poor should be examined and analyzed in terms of applicability.  Poor is defined as lacking sufficient money to live at a standard considered comfortable or normal in a society.  If this definition is acceptable, the urban poor can be considered poor.  But the urban poor still have access to utilities like electricity and running water not like the poor in the uplands who do not enjoy these amenities.  Therefore, the poor in the uplands will step-down to another category: “poorest of the poor”.

Most upland dwellers, the poorest of the poor, are the indigenous tribes.  In a blog earlier this year titled “Author’s Prudence” (http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/06/authors-prudence.html) I mentioned the more dominant and prominent tribal groups living in the remote upland and coastlines all over the archipelago.  “There are numerous tribal groups in the Philippines.  Usually living in remote and isolated areas, they have managed to retain most of their cultural traits.  Some of these distinct tribal groups are:

1. The Igorots who are primarily located in the highlands of the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR).
2. The Ilongots who are a head-hunting tribal group living in the Caraballo Mountains.
3. The Lumads of the Island of Mindanao composed of several tribes like the Manobo, the Tasaday, the Mamanwa, the Mandaya, the Bilaan and the Kalagan who inhabit the uplands of the Caraga and Davao regions.
4. The Mangyans of Mindoro Island.
5. The Palawan tribes which are a diverse group of tribes inhabiting the elongated strip of Palawan.
6. The Negrito, Aeta and Batak tribal groups which are spread all over the Philippine archipelago.
7. The Kagayanen tribe which also live in Palawan.
8. The Molbog tribe which can be found in Balabak Island and other islands in the Palawan group of islands.
9. The Tausug tribe in western Mindanao.
10. The Tagbanwa tribe who are also scattered in different islands in the Philippines.
11. The Taaw’t Bato (people of the rock) is another distinct tribal unit in Palawan.
12. The Tumandok tribe which inhabit the Island of Panay.”

Indigenous peoples are those groups specially protected by specific international and national legislation as having certain protected rights based on their historic ties to a particular territory, and their cultural or historical distinctiveness from other populations.  These legislations are predicated on the fact that certain indigenous peoples are vulnerable to exploitation, marginalization and oppression.

One of the dictionary definitions of indigenous peoples is “a body of persons that are united by a common culture, tradition, or sense of kinship which typically have common language, institutions and beliefs.  The World Bank describes indigenous peoples as “Indigenous Peoples can be identified in particular geographical areas by the presence in varying degrees of the following characteristics:

1. Close attachment to ancestral territories and to the natural resources in these areas;
2. Self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural group;
3. An indigenous language, often different from the national language;
4. Presence of customary social and political institutions; and,
5. Primarily subsistence-oriented production.

Most indigenous peoples, especially upland dwellers, regard the forest with a very strong spiritual and religious sense (Antonio, 2014, “God and the Forest”, http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/god-and-forest.html); and, therefore must be protected and preserved.  Forest protection is a shared cause by many environmental advocates and activists with their upland counterparts… the indigenous peoples.

Just my little thoughts…

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