They were once referred to as Cultural Minority or Minority Group, a construct advanced by colonizers and their collaborators who arrogantly believed that theirs is a superior culture.
Do we still remember PANAMIN, otherwise known as Presidential Assistant for National Minority? Do we know that there was once a government agency named Bureau of Non-Christian Tribe (BNCT) that took charge of “non-Christian and wild tribes”? Have we heard of Commission on National Integration (CNI) whose mandate is “bringing about, as rapidly as possible, the moral, material, economic, social and political advancement of the non-Christian Filipinos and of making real, complete and permanent their integration into the body politic?”
Sadly enough, the so-called superior culture proved to be superior. There was no place on Earth that it has not reached and along the way, the minority culture got decimated. Ethnocide is indeed real.
Thanks to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA), the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples can now assert their so-called 4 Bundles of Rights. Chances of having the minority culture survive and flourish become possible … if and when appropriately supported by the duty-bearers.
FDAI is always supportive of the Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples. It has partnered with Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples in program/project implementation. It has program specifically dubbed as Cultural Re-Awakening.
As we close the celebration of Indigenous Peoples Month 2021, FDAI asks each and every advocate and supporter of Indigenous Cultural Communities/Indigenous Peoples to reflect on the following:
- What aspects of Indigenous Peoples’ culture need to be re-awakened?
- What aspects of Indigenous Peoples’ culture need to be deeply and seriously examined… and may be abandoned?
In a recently-held IP Month Celebration 2021 facilitated by FDAI SHA-CFCD Team in Barangay Maliwanag, Municipality of Esperanza; some answers to Question 1 were highlighted.
It is our hope that in one way or another, FDAI contributes to the so-called Cultural Re-Awakening.
