By Jill Cariño
TFIP Executive Director
Indigenous knowledge is gaining recognition internationally as a valuable knowledge system that we all have much to learn from. Sadly, this wisdom is increasingly being lost and many traditional values are no longer being practiced and transmitted. There is clearly a problem in the effective transmission of this knowledge to the younger generation due to various threats and factors.
Fortunately, recent education policies in the Philippines have opened up opportunities for teaching indigenous knowledge in schools. Department of Education Order 62, series of 2011, recognizes the right of indigenous peoples to culture-rooted education. The Enhanced Basic Education Act of 2013, or K to 12 Law, promotes education that is inclusive, culture-sensitive, and flexible enough to allow localization and indigenization of learning.
Given this favorable policy context, it is necessary to maximize newly opened spaces for indigenous learning in the formal educational system. We need to innovate and link up with educators and learning institutions to keep alive the indigenous wisdom of our community elders. It is also important to correct misconceptions and discriminatory attitudes towards indigenous peoples that are being spread via textbooks and develop a greater appreciation for indigenous knowledge as a viable and relevant source of guidance in our daily lives.
The Philippine Task Force for Indigenous Peoples Rights (TFIP) has had rich experience in conducting community-based participatory action research on priority indigenous issues in response to the dire lack of researches written by indigenous peoples. We have published researches on food security, indigenous knowledge systems, customary law and free prior and informed consent. While our past researches have proven insightful and valuable, these books are used primarily as reference materials by the academe and as evidence-based material for advocacy campaigns. They are not readily accessible or easily understood by indigenous communities and the youth, who should be among the priority targets of our education work.
This project is a partnership between TFIP and the Partners for Indigenous Knowledge – Philippines (PIKP), in response to the felt need for relevant and accurate educational material on indigenous peoples. PIKP is a broad network of indigenous knowledge holders and advocates who, for the past several years, have been doing their own initiatives to promote indigenous knowledge. Together, we aim to enable indigenous elders, women and youth in the Cordillera to contribute what they can to culture-rooted Indigenous Peoples Education (IPED) in the schools. We seek to foster participatory and community-based learning through storytelling and learning exchanges, and to come up with educational materials that are useful, easily understood and readily accessible to indigenous communities, organizations and schools, as well as to the wider public.
The concept is innovative and collaborative, linking up indigenous knowledge holders, educators, researchers, artists, writers and people’s organizations. The use of creative forms of communication and activities will hopefully capture the interest of the youth to learn and promote indigenous wisdom. In addition, the project serves to strengthen the network of PIKP and provide an opportunity for various groups and individuals to come together and learn from each other’s experiences and strategies that have proven effective in promoting indigenous knowledge.
The project “Keeping Alive the Wisdom of Cordillera Indigenous Peoples” is supported by VOICE, an innovative grant facility initiated by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs together with Oxfam Novib and Hivos. VOICE supports the most marginalised and discriminated people to amplify and connect their unheard voices in efforts to leave no one behind.