I am Bukidnon!

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #CebuBloggingCommunity

caption: DUAL SIM (School for Indigenous Minorities). This structure serves two purposes: as community chapel and as learners’ center to children who can’t travel 13 kilometers a day to the nearest regular school facility.

BUKIDNON, NORTHERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES — Maayad masulom!

This is a chant carried by the morning breeze across gurgling Bobonawan River, past a squeaking footbridge that leads to a community of Higaonons, a group of indigenous people.

On the mountains of Tamusan (some two hours away from Mindanao’s gateway in the north: Cagayan de Oro City), I become Bukidnon – maayad masulom (good day greeting or good morning). I become as good as the hearts of the settlers there: naive but enriched with the wisdom of the old earth, pastoral but ever-embracing to migrants.

I have this adulation for tribes. In fact, my online chatting handle is tribal wisdom. I consider it mortal sin to stop learning more on that thing you are passionate about. So when the invitation to visit Bukidnon for an outreach program cranked up my email inbox, I replied by being right here where I’m most needed.

The “outreach” tackled on documenting the concerns of the tribe, most importantly ancestral domain, schoolbuilding, decent farm-to-market roads, unified position against joining revolutionary groups that purportedly recruit members.

Maayad masulom!

This is a trill conveyed by the mid-morning sun across tall grasses before they were cut, roots pulled out, to give way to a patch for sweet potatoes. I am a tall grass pulled out of my comfort zone, my conventions, my convictions. I am replanted in Tamusan to learn that children report to “school” under the roof of an unfinished community chapel. The river spillway was destroyed by Typhoon Sendong and has not been replaced yet. The kids would rather gather in a makeshift classroom rather than travel 13 kilometers by foot to the real schoolbuilding.

Maayad masulom! This is a warble lugged by the approaching high noon across the richness of Bukidnon’s plateau marked by towering Kitanglad range. The potential to continue feeding a nation is promising here. The fruits of the earth, the rewards of agriculture are awesome. Name it, Bukidnon can cultivate it — agrinanas, pineapples, grapefruits, papayas, tomatoes, durians, lanzones, marangs, aubergines, bell peppers, rambutans, cayennes. I could only gosh forever!

Bukidnon is so blessed that even libgus (uncultured mushroom) grows just about anywhere the fungus can get a hold of.

Among the hands that toil for our food basket are those mayad (beautiful) and mayad tungkay (handomse) lumads (natives). I think that’s big, maayad reason to further take care of them, being essential in reinvigorating our granary, as we hew a path to sustain sustainability.

But some of them are already leaving their lands behind them as they seek overseas contractual jobs. Now, quite losing the battle for ancestral domain as they are recognized for stewardship only, and no legal holds to individual land titles.###

Understanding Mindanaw, Higaonons

by Maria Eleanor E. Valeros, #netizenmedia

MISAMIS ORIENTAL, NORTHERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES — Every summer has its own great story. Mine involves membership (finally!) to an indigenous people’s community.

The trip took six of us to Talusan, Balingasag here in Misamis Oriental wherein we were oriented of Minkadelum – the old Mindanao.

Tibalen, believed first man of Minkadelum (the old name of Mindanao), is said to have instructed his two daughters to look for freshwater sources in the event of a dry spell.

The elder, Si Dumalaguing, went eastward while the other, Si Maraweh, took westward. The former found Lake Ke-angkabeg while the latter found Lake Lanao. The sisters were able to locate two important water sources to ensure water supply despite an extended dry season.

Datu Dencio “Lolong” Lipiahan Sr., the Supremo of Talugan Ta Tagoloan – Higaonon Tribal Communities Federation, in a four-year documentation pursuit, shared “tribal wisdom” in our so-called adoption to the Higaonon community last April 2, 2015 here in Talusan, Balingasag, Misamis Oriental. After a ritual, we migrants are already called “bilaw” and are required to study customary laws. Two of six in our group have “lumad” bloodline, or are descendants of an indigenous tribe.

Contrary to previous impression that Manobos, Talakags, Matigsalugs, Talaandigs are separate tribes, it was made known that these are so called “ascriptions of Higaonons distributed all over Mindanao.” Therefore, a Talakag woman who joined our “adoption ritual” performed at the farmhouse cum office of Ritalinda, or Bae Makabulig (wife of Datu Lolong), is considered a Higaonon by bloodline.

Datu Lolong, a seventh-generation Higaonon chieftain, corrected initial information that early Higaonons were refugees from southern Asian regions like Borneo, Sabah, or Sumatra. He said that Higaonons are the original settlers (thus, indigenous) of ancient Mingkadelum, considered a nation in the Dawn Age of Mindanao. The Malay intermarriages happened when missionaries Sarip Kabunsoan married Dumalaguing, while Sarip Alaweh married Maraweh. These Malaysian brothers were also looking for freshwater sources while they were traveling through land bridge referred to as Ngembalukan. In fact, the intermarriage also symbolized unity of two nations.

Upon discovering the same lakes on top of mountains, the brothers have both blurted: Lenggad Min Danaw (danaw means lake in Malay), to their joy and excitement.

Today, Higaonons reach an estimated 1.8 million households. However, this is based yet on a 1986 census. They were said to be coastal people but were driven to the uplands by colonizers. The “nangalasan” lived in the forests, while the “nababalay” dwelled in the coastal areas. Ascriptions were based on how they were distributed all over Mindanao in time: Matigsalugs (near rivers), Talaandigs (on rolling areas), Ipatagen (plateau of Bukidnon).

They continue to till their lands. Some have found employment in haciendas cultivated into plantations of banana, pineapple, durian, marang, aside from cash crops and other vegetables. They were also tapped in the government’s national greening program. Some of them have already found employment out of the country with the help of technical skills training.###