Tuesday, April 03, 2007 Oledan: Innovative approaches By Radzini Oledan Slice of Life
NEW insights are revealed when we learn to listen to local folks and communities.
What started out purely as a documentation project with and for the tribal community in Paquibato turned out to be a start of a process for the community itself to engage and participate in looking back at a tradition almost lost, comparing it with new practices, reflecting on the current situation and the effect of assimilated culture in their respective lives.
It brought forth the much contested space of development, with various initiatives, including investment projects that purport to provide economic incentive to the people in the area, ensure their rightful share in the exploitation of the natural resources, and provide better life for their children.
After all, economic activities are expected to spur better access to schools and facilities and greater economic benefits for the people.
But the same activities are seen by tribal peoples as a threat to their culture, and even to their own survival. The continued assimilation of tribal communities also brings with it their silent struggle to keep their lives intact and protect their heritage and identity as a people.
There could be glimmer of hope, in the promise of development and at the same time, fear of losing touch with themselves, with their ancestral lands and indigenous practices subjected to the interpretation of outsiders in the community and of 'experts' who knows best for them.
The narratives would show that there will never be a single template that will suit the priorities, let alone the needs of indigenous communities. The effective response may be found in a coordinated "menu" of different options for protection that will allow them to assess their interest and capacitate them to choose their own direction and use of their knowledge systems.
City Planning and Development Coordinator Mario Luis J. Jacinto succinctly put it: "The insights of indigenous peoples are invaluable resource to change and improve local conditions, and most especially in the design of development projects especially in the area of environmental management and agriculture."
Sadly, young people from indigenous groups have become disinterested of their native culture, opting instead to blend with the rest of the group. Those who have the opportunity to attend school and finish a course, have shifted to other concerns, some have become mediators between other interest groups and the lumads while a very few have find their way back home to help out their own community.
Despite outside influences, tribal groups have found a way to keep their identities intact.
The lack of systematic recording of their culture has made it hard to pass on their indigenous knowledge to the young, much less allow other people outside from understanding and respecting their way of life.
Maintaining the distinct indigenous knowledge system is vital for intellectual and cultural vitality. It is their identity and hence, inseparable from their very way of life, cultural values, spiritual beliefs and customary legal systems.
What makes knowledge "traditional" is not its antiquity: much is not ancient but is a vital, dynamic part of the contemporary lives of many communities today. It is knowledge, which is developed, sustained and passed on within a traditional community and generations.
For most lumad communities, the traditional knowledge is often part of their cultural or spiritual identity. It is being created every day, and evolves as individuals and communities respond to the challenges posed by their social environment.
The challenges confronting many upland communities make it vital for legal protection to be in placed. It is not only desirable to develop a protection policy that documents and preserve the knowledge which is on the brink of disappearance but also consider how to respect and sustain the development of traditional knowledge systems.
The common thread is that protection should principally benefit the indigenous communities and seek to pass it on between generations.
However, the external social and environmental pressures, migration, the encroachment of modern lifestyles and the disruption of traditional ways of life can all weaken the traditional means of maintaining or passing knowledge on to future generations.
We are facing the real risk of losing the very language that gives the primary voice to a knowledge tradition and the spiritual world-view that sustains this tradition. Either through acculturation or diffusion, many traditional practices and associated beliefs and knowledge has been irretrievably lost.
Preserving the knowledge that is held by elders and communities can only be done if this is passed on to the younger generation. The changing lifestyles, priorities and availability of modern amenities results in diminishing dependences of the younger generation on the traditional and indigenous knowledge of their elders.
This could be another step in promoting peace and respecting cultural diversity, which is the very essence of traditional knowledge systems, precisely because they are so closely intertwined with the cultural identity of many diverse communities.
