Indigenous Peoples Report

Module 1: Teaching
Indigenous People
Prepared by: GLORIA ENOMAR TUDTUD BEED4A
CULTURE: As a process and Product
What is culture?
Culture is a way of life of a group of people the behaviors,

beliefs, values and symbols that they accept, generally without
thinking about them, and that are passed along by communication
and imitation from one generation to the next. People are what
they learn.
Where are these people living right now?
• Today, the indigenous

groups in the Philippines
remain in their original
ancestral lands as they
preserve their cultural
practices and traditions.
Process of consolidating indigenous
peoples ideas and concerns.
• In cases where the ‘culture’ of indigenous peoples is

included in the discussion, there is a tendency to
highlight artifacts and practices such that the
understanding of culture is limited to surface culture
and the tribe is associated with things instead of
them being introduced as a people. This results in a
shallow understanding of indigenous peoples as
people and culture as a process.
The indigenous peoples experience of
education
• School as a venue of discrimination

Until today, discrimination persists as one of the traumatic
experiences of indigenous students, with the school being a key
venue of such experiences.
An example is the requirement of uniforms and shoes, things beyond the

financial capacity of many indigenous communities. Not wearing shoes
became a mark of being an indigenous person and a source of discrimination.
Schooling as an experience of non-being.
• Indigenous peoples who have gone to school recall how

their way of life and the indigenous peoples in general
were usually seen as backward and belonging to the past,
When indigenous peoples’ life and being were discussed,
there was a tendency to misrepresent or misinterpret
them because of the prevailing prejudice.
Culture in other terms:
Culture is a set of rules for behavior. You cannot "see" culture

because you cannot see the rules; you can only see the products
of culture, in the sense that you can see the behaviors the rules
produce. Cultural rules help you to know how to hold a baby,
shape food preferences; whether you wear a dress or pants, or
nothing at all. These rules give is that produce the behaviors.
Culture is characteristic of groups
The rules of a culture are shared by the group, not invented by the
individual; the rules of the group which are passed on from one
generation to the next form the core of the culture. Every person
develops a unique personality as a result of their personal history,
and at the same time develops within a cultural context with some
behavioral characteristics which are shared with other members of
the group.
Culture is learned
No one is born acculturated; rather, we are born with a biological

capability to learn. What each person learns depends upon the
cultural rules of the people who raise them. A person can also
become bi-cultural or tri -cultural by learning the rules of cultures
other than his or her own primary group.
Individual members of a culture are embedded
to different degrees within their culture
As children are acculturated they usually learn the core rules

of their culture, yet they may not always learn every cultural
rule equally well. Some families are more tradition oriented
others less.
Life-Stories Woven into the tribe’s Story, Woven
into the bigger story of the nation and the world.
EDUCATION OF IP’S
The 1997 (IPRA) Act of right promotes, recognize,

and protect the rights of every indigenous people
which as a citizen of this country also practice.
Education has always been an identified priority

concern, with the Indigenous Peoples Apostolates
(IPAs) formulating their own programs or
depending on the availability of resources and
other considerations.
Common interventions were basic
literacy-numeracy and scholarships.
Modefied Inventions
Graduates of indigenous communities were viewed as success stories both by

the communities and the congregations or IPAs, and these graduates learned,
as individuals, how to navigate their way in the wider social demands of
mainstream society. The backdrop, however, of thesethese few success
stories was the reality of a much bigger number of drop-outs because of the
following:
• Comprehension difficulties
• Adjustment difficulties
• Discrimination
Education programs for indigenous peoples
Community organizing – involves building Socio-economic assistance to small scale

community organizations and providing assistance in projects and cooperatives,including
areas of situational analysis, organizational management
management and project managemen. Rehabilitation including assistance to
Research and information – updating and validating communities affected by natural calamities
data on community concerns and issues and or conflicts such as forcible displacement as
disseminating it to the community and broader a result of militarization or development
public; specific research projects are undertaken for projects
use by the community, especially in the fields of Community health - education promoting
agriculture, forestry and natural resource traditional medicine and other efficient and
management, appropriate technology among others. inexpensive healing methods.
Education – some of the topics are: human rights Linkages and international relations
and indigenous peoples’rights (including ancestral including networking with different
land issues, environment, cultural indigenous organizations and individuals in
conservation/renewal and development, self- the country and internationally.
determination), gender and peace building.
SPIRITUALITY :Expression of Faith life, Values and Beliefs
Values and Beliefs
The religious beliefs were as varied as the languages of the

country. Their reasons for these beliefs usually stemmed
from the fact that they often would hear the names of new
deities, concepts, beliefs, etc., or of chants, sometimes epic
in nature. Also, general knowledge respected hierophants
were often uncooperative with non-initiates.
Belief In Supreme God
The belief in a Supreme God seems to be one of the most natural

and simplest of beliefs. The Filipinos had a belief in a Supreme
Creator God. The name of this god varied depending on what region
is discussed. Among some of the names are: Bathala, Diwata,
Kabunian, Mansilatan, Makaptan, Laon, Lumauig, Mamarsua, Tuhan,
etc.
Who is the Supreme God?
The Creator God was almost always said to be invisible, or

without form. The name was considered sacred, and very rarely
uttered, usually only in sacred rituals by special initiates.
Generally, the Supreme God was seen as distant and too involved
in higher matters for direct worship. The lower gods were known
by names like diwa, diwata, tuhan and anito.
ANIMISM
The ancient Filipinos believed, like many animistic peoples, that all objects had spirits or were
inhabited by such. Even seemingly inanimate objects like rocks, mountains, lakes, etc., and
natural phenomena like wind, thunder and fire were said to be inhabited by particular spirits, or
to be governed by certain gods.
AFTER LIFE
Filipinos had a belief in the afterlife. Generally, it was believed the good went to heaven, or its
Philippine equivalent, while the evil went to hell, although in some cases something like purgatory
exists. However, in many cases, there was a belief that each individual had more than one soul.
COSMOLOGY
Many of the Philippine peoples viewed the cosmos as consisting of

multiple heavens or universes each without form or boundary. These
heavens were not stacked one upon the other. Hell in the Philippines
went under a variety of names including Kasanaan. It was the abode of
demons and those who had done evil on earth.
COSMOLOGY
Usually, the Supreme God was

associated with langit or the
heavens and sky, while Bathala,
Diwata, Kabunian, were connected
with the Sun, the heir of the sky.
The third component in this trinity
was a type of pantheistic spirit or
body that was sometimes known as
Laon.

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Module 1: Teaching

Culture is a way of life of a group of people the behaviors,

• Today, the indigenous

• In cases where the ‘culture’ of indigenous peoples is

• School as a venue of discrimination

An example is the requirement of uniforms and shoes, things beyond the

• Indigenous peoples who have gone to school recall how

Culture is a set of rules for behavior. You cannot "see" culture

No one is born acculturated; rather, we are born with a biological

As children are acculturated they usually learn the core rules

The 1997 (IPRA) Act of right promotes, recognize,

Education has always been an identified priority

Graduates of indigenous communities were viewed as success stories both by

Community organizing – involves building Socio-economic assistance to small scale

The religious beliefs were as varied as the languages of the

The belief in a Supreme God seems to be one of the most natural

The Creator God was almost always said to be invisible, or

Many of the Philippine peoples viewed the cosmos as consisting of

Usually, the Supreme God was

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