INDIGENOUS PEOPLE

The Philippines is home to around on

 110
 Approx. 15 to 20 million in population
 More than 60% in Mindanao
 30% in Luzon
 10% in Visayas
While varying in ways of life and cultural heritage, they
share similar experiences of discrimination and marginalization.

In 1997 Philippine government passed the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act or Republic Act
8371 that recognizes and protects the rights of indigenous communities. Its effective
implementation, however, is still to be seen and asserted by indigenous communities.
1980s The various forms of interventions done by IPAs and religious congregations were any
or a combination of the following:
 Teaching basic literacy-numeracy to children and adults based on mainstream
approaches, methods and content (BASIC LITERACY)
 Provision of adult-based trainings based on mainstream approaches and content
(LIVELIHOOD EDUCATION)
 Provision of school supplies, scholarships, tutorials (SUPPORT TO ENTER SCHOOL)
 Provision of infrastructure, personnel (usually lowlander),curriculum evaluation tools,
books and school calendar based on mainstream education system (SCHOOL
BUILDINGS)

Reasons for education intervention are the following:

 The need to understand the system of transacting business in the marketplace
 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 (finding
employment)
 The need to access health services, and going to school is equated with being
‘educated’ and education means liberation from poverty

IP experiences in education
 School as a venue of discrimination
- Prejudice
- Financial inadequacy
- Comprehension difficulties
 Adjustment difficulties

Impact on Mainstream School System

 Alienation of indigenous youth from their own
communities, heritage, culture and history.
 Misuse and abuse of cultural practices, and
dying indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSPs)
 Graduates or schooled youth leaving the community or
abusing the ancestral domain.
 Continued marginalization of communities.
 Dying spirit of tribe

Culturally-sensitive educational interventions

Indigenized formal education

 Use of the local language when appropriate (as against the use of Filipino or English
languages as the sole mediums of 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 of animals
and plants, or land and water forms)
 Addition of underlying values like identity and self-determination
 Addition of local topics to particular subjects (e.g., indigenous musical instruments in
music class aside from the usual instruments taught)
 Inclusion of elders or experts from the community as resource persons for some topics
(e.g., for indigenous musical instruments or weaving).
 Indigenized Alternative Learning Systems Curriculum
The ALS curriculum is applied to the indigenous education
programs with innovations consisting of the use of indigenous
learning and teaching techniques (i.e., more group work, use of
the outdoors as venues for lessons) and increased use of
indigenous materials for teaching aids. The Sentrong Paaralan ng
mga Agta in Nakar, Quezon under the support of the Prelature of
Infanta uses this curriculum.

Own System

1. The community decides on their school’s overall direction, management concerns and key
content that should be part of the curriculum.
2. While financial resources usually come from benefactors and/or funding agencies, the
community participates in the setting-up of the school and provides counterpart resources for the
construction of school facilities like labor, food, construction materials.
3. Local materials are used in setting up the facilities, like grass for roofing, etc.
4. The architecture of the school building is patterned after the indigenous architecture in the
community
5. The management of the school includes the local organization of the tribe or community
6. Community disciplinary procedures are used in maintaining discipline among the students
7. Indigenous teachers are prioritized in selecting teachers
8. The curriculum design is based on the flow of community life in such a way that topics are
discussed in direct relation to community activity cycles
9. 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.
10. Indigenous materials are used as teaching aids as appropriate
11. Indigenous teaching and learning methods are incorporated as teaching methods.

An education system appropriate to indigenous communities

Philosophy
To instill mainstream competencies and learning processes, and getting them assimilated in
mainstream society, the end goals now are to nurture their sense of identity/indigenous personhood
and instill competencies and learning processes both from their system and the mainstream to enable
them to assert their rights and self-determination.

To reach these goals, indigenous people’s education should be founded on the following:
 CULTURE (as process and product)
 HISTORY (life-stories woven into the tribe’s story, woven into the bigger story of nation
and the world)
 HERITAGE (a sense of being a descendant and ancestor)
 SPIRITUALITY (expression of faith life, values and beliefs)

Teaching and learning processes

 Revealed knowledge (dreams, etc.), ancestral domain, and elders as teachers
 Tribal language
 Community teaching- learning processes complemented by mainstream ones.

The Indigenous Peoples Education System

Indigenous communities have a system of education

 Each tribe in the country has a system that started since time immemorial of transmitting
knowledge and forming the youth to become responsible human beings.
Learning is everywhere and at every moment.
 This similar to the ‘lifelong learning’ concept in education circles today. This indigenous
education system that has been practiced for centuries has to be recalled by indigenous
communities.
 In some tribes, learning venues or institutions are also present like the dap-ay (for males)
and ulog (for females). These are venues for youth to gather and, in interaction with the
elders, learn about community dynamics and practices.
Indigenous Peoples have a curriculum too
 The indigenous peoples have a sequence of content and competencies to be taught based
on the stage of growth of the person. Indigenous education therefore has a curriculum,
which varies depending on the situation of the tribe.
Indigenous books and knowledge storage system
 The elders are the repository of knowledge. Their memory is the library of indigenous
communities
 knowledge is also stored in songs, chants, dances, rituals, and day-to-day activities of the
tribe
  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 is called cellular memory (One example is the
competency, which evolved through the centuries of making rice
 Terraces, of indigenous communities of the Cordillera Mountains)

“This is a natural competency among the members of the indigenous community that cannot be taught in any Master’s or PhD course anywhere in the world. It can only be
learned 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 to. 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 indicators of 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 teach
others. Some tribes have titles for the experts in their communities equivalent to today’s Master’s
and PhD degrees.
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

(a) There is a need to consciously affirm indigenous peoples’ sense of personhood and
reflection. Learning indigenous competencies does not necessarily translate into a
deep sense of indigenous peoples’ identity.
(b) The indigenous communities recognize the need to document IKSPs that are
almost forgotten.

Culture is at the core of being human, an expression of how we have

encountered God through life questions. It contains the blessings or
graces of God to a people which, if nurtured well, make us able to share
these blessings and graces with each other. In the case of our
indigenous brothers and sisters, they have shared their blessings with
us but were abused, neglected and ridiculed in return. We hope to
continue journeying with our indigenous brothers and sisters as they
articulate and define an education system that will once again nurture
their tribe, communities and culture, before it is too late.
Name of Student : Name of Teacher :  Darling Mae G. Maluya
Grade Level/Section :     Subject : DISS 11
Date : Semester/AY : 2Nnd / 2020-2021

I. Direction: Translate each phrase/sentences using Philippine indigenous tribe

dialects. Use different dialects each number.

PHRASE TRANSLATION INDEGENOUS TRIBE

Ex: Good morning Good morning Agutaynen
Ex: Thank you Madakel a salamat Maranao
1. I love you
2. Good evening
3. I miss you
4. Congratulations!
5. I am sorry
6. My name is (state your
name)
7. I don’t know
8. You are beautiful
9. Hello!
10. How are you?

II. Direction: Research one indigenous tribe and write down how these tribes were
formed and how they preserved their cultures and traditions. Cut out, paste or
draw a picture of the chosen tribe.

PASTE/DRAW INSIDE THE BOX