By THOMAS KILLIP*
www.nordis.net

GAWIS AY AGEW TAKO AM-IN! (Good Day to Everyone!) It was with great hesitance that I accepted your invitation to give a keynote message for this important occasion because I still believe that this role should have been given to our distinguished personalities who have done remarkable studies and researches on the areas of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP), gender, and bio diversity.

Although I am not sure if I can really give a sufficient keynote message to such a respectable audience like you, I am still encouraged to come and participate in my own small way because of the following considerations:

(1) First of all, I belong to one of the indigenous communities that inhabit the heartland of the Cordillera mountain region, and growing up in this region I had been privileged to observe the ways and practices of my fellow indigenous people as they continue to live their lives in a changing world that is now situated in that gray area between a traditional and a modernized commercial existence. Indeed, these are very crucial times for us, and the fragile situation among indigenous communities demands that we have to carefully define and re-define our ways and directions.

(2) We are also greatly encouraged by the fact that some of our educational institutions like BSU, different agencies or NGO’s, and scholars on their own personal initiatives are seriously looking back and initiating attempts to put deeper studies on these subjects. That whatever the outcome of all these educating processes and studies I am sure that it will redound to the welfare of all our indigenous communities whether in this region or beyond. And so despite my earlier reservations I am here with you today to be one with you in this noble activity. I am certainly honored.

Distinguished participants, with your kind indulgence, allow me to share some observations and thoughts in my own particular experience which I hope would contribute even in a small measure to give some flavor to this conference, thus:

(a) Our region here in the Cordillera is undoubtedly one of the most visited by local and foreign tourists alike. In particular they come to see our internationally famous man-made rice terraces. Visitors would view with awe and admiration how these mountainsides were beautifully carved by human hands to approximate giant stairways to the heavens. This romantic and aesthetic view of these wonders is mainly what our tourism industry advertises and sells to tourists all over.

From the native’s perspective however, these rice terraces have a deeper value and significance on their lives and their life-ways than what meets the tourist’s eye or his camera.

Is the tourist aware for instance that the waters that feed these rice terraces are tapped many kilometers away from river or stream sources before they reach the rice paddies? Is the tourist aware that the irrigation canals that wind for kilometers through different mountain sides were constructed through native engineering skills with crude tools? Is the tourist aware that in order to sustain these terraces a community has to protect forests many mountains away from the village to ensure the lifeblood of these rice terraces?

And is the tourist aware that taken collectively these rice terraces comprise an entire eco-system in which not only rice, but different edible plants, various insects, and fish thrive to form its own unique bio-diversity? To the indigenous community it is able to discern very well the inextricable connections of one element to the other.

In relation to this point, let me share with you a conversation I had with some women farmers in a remote village when I was still a mayor of my town. As part of my official concerns I try to determine how the common folk specially in the more far-flung barangays are keeping up with life specially with upland traditional farming and the more recent vegetable farming which is now the main occupation of many a household in the area of my responsibility.

When the topic touched on the introduction of commercial fertilizers and pesticides in the area these women-farmers told me that even after a few years use of commercial fertilizers whenever a rice terrace collapses due to weight of heavy rain falls they observe around 2 to 3 feet deep from the water surface of the rice paddy a floor of hardened residue similar to blackboard chalks has accumulated.

They further notice that aside from the decreasing productivity of the rice paddy some other life-forms no longer exist. They no longer see the jojo or the mudfish and other edible insects and plants which are also sources of food for the household and which form an integral part of the bio-diversity of our rice terrace culture.

Meanwhile as their menfolk are also engaged in commercial vegetable farming they observe that one of the most traditionally valued species of birds, the so-called “tala” in our local dialect is nowhere to be found.

This is a smaller bird that for its size can drive away the larger hawks and crows that prey on domestic chickens.

Likewise, this tala bird feeds on harmful insects that most likely have died of chemical pesticides and in the process suffer the same fate as the destructive pests. This farmer’s bird now faces extinction. Farmers in this region would value this bird more than the Philippine eagle for which we spend millions to preserve.

Even the cost-benefit analysis of the practical value and use of this type of bird is worth a serious study. For one, with the abundance of these birds in the environment the farmer does not have to spend his precious time everyday spraying pesticides and later end up poisoning himself and his environment.

For these birds to abound in your surroundings you do not spend time and labor to guard both your chickens and your vegetables. We only have to prevent their untimely extinction. These few instances somehow reflect how fragmentized many of our “developmental approach and thrusts” are as we tend to focus on one part and fail to consider its effects on the whole.

At this point, you might wonder why I always talk about women when I speak of indigenous knowledge. It should not surprise us that women are very rich sources of knowledge and information specially in the indigenous communities because they deal directly with the most detailed livelihood activities. From the moment they wake up to face life from the household to the fields and so every minute of the day they virtually monitor the life and pulse of the community.

At this point we should discern more deeply the wisdom of the woman’s advise as well as the other observations because in broader terms, it is saying that the official policies of the state and the concept of progress and development the way it was introduced and undertaken by government has pushed many of our environments, our culture, our economy, and our social life into crisis levels.

During my younger years there used to be a common practice among traditional folks in many of our indigenous communities in the hinterlands. Whenever somebody or a group embarks on a journey or an undertaking they perform a ritual and then observe various signs or omens around. If along the way or in the process they encounter unusual signs in the environment they pause and observe if the atmosphere is favorable before they proceed. Others simply go back. As a principle and practice, elders always observe both social and natural indicators seek an equilibrium or a space for peaceful co-existence, how they relate among themselves inside the village, or between their village and other communities around, or between themselves and their environments, or even with the spirits that abound in their world. The whole point is that such a practice whether regarded as superstition reflects the significance of our spirituality, of our ability to intimately communicate and come to terms with our fellow human beings, with the spirits, and with our natural environments.

Because many of the so-called “developments” are propelled by selfish profit-motives and interests oftentimes at the expense of smaller peoples like us, despite the tremendous advance in science and technology, despite the extensive formal education in our midst, and despite the policies that government has crafted for the nation, the assurance for a better and sustainable quality of life for us indigenous peoples in the coming years is not an overnight process if ever it will come at all. Much of what our future holds will still be through our own initiatives and empowerment as a self-determining people.

When I was still a mayor of my small town of Sagada, I was curious to find out the extent of empowerment that communities in my area of jurisdiction have at that particular point in time. Although we are aware that the entry of Western formal education, the church, and the subsequent intervention of national government with its Manila-crafted laws, policies, and programs have vastly eroded much of our indigenous socio-political systems. I still felt that there were traces of the spirit of our indigenous socio-political systems that can be tapped for a good and effective governance. I thought that in this respect, history has not been all that unfortunate for us. Upon the entry of the different colonial powers into the islands our region in the Cordillera was inhabited by different tribal communities independent from each other but maintaining socio-economic relations with each other. Unlike other societies in the islands where wealth and authority were dominated by a datu or a sultan on a broader feudal scale, our tribal societies in the Cordillera allowed for greater democratic space. There could have been petty chieftains but they did not hold absolute sway over our socio-political or economic life. The process of decision-making was essentially consensual and the result of deliberations from the household to the “dap-ay” or “ator” or during a “bodong”. Such a wide latitude for democratic processes is still evident to this day in the way that decisions or opinions in most of the present communities are arrived at. In fact we can see a wider and more direct participation of women. It is this traditional character of our indigenous communities that can be further developed into a more substantial and meaningful community empowerment.

Our communities must be more discerning and discriminating because not all the type of “development” and “progress” that has been taught and brought to us is always right and correct. Like the practice of our traditional folks we must learn to pause and listen carefully to what our world is telling us. The collective wisdom, the values, the spirituality, the social make-up of our community, our traditional governance, our whole culture which evolved and accumulated over the years since time immemorial is still a precious legacy that we can reflect on whenever the going is uncertain. #

* Thomas Killip, was Vice mayor then mayor of Sagada, Mt. Province, then became presidential assistant for Cordillera affairs and one of the founders of the Sagada Coffee Council, which since 2005 advocated the production of Arabica. He has consistently been an advocate for indigenous peoples issues and welfare. This was his keynote message to the First National Conference on Biodiversity, Gender and Indigenous Knowledge held at the Benguet State University on October 6-8,2010.