Natives or Natives?
What comes to your mind when you hear the word indigenous? How about indigenous people? Indigenous people are the first person in a certain place, they are the natives of it they are the ancient people. Indigenous people are the originals, here in the Philippines we have a lot of Indigenous People, indigenous groups, but the question is How Indigenous are Filipino Indigenous peoples? Are the Indigenous People really Indigenous or not? How Indigenous are these people that we regard to be as indigenous people? We’re they really indigenous? What it really means to be indigenous?
First of all what is an Indigenous People, according to the U.N.(United Nations) Indigenous peoples are the holders of unique languages, knowledge systems and beliefs and possess invaluable knowledge of practices for the sustainable management of natural resources. They have a special relation to and use of their traditional land.
At elementary we have been thought about the “Wave of migration” the Negrito, Indonesian, Malay theory (Meyer, 1948) that they are the first inhabitants of our country. Negritos are the original people of the Philippines but they are pushed off the shore to the base of the mountain by the Indonesian’s, Then the Malay’s came and the Indonesians are pushed to the base of the mountain, and the negritos are pushed to the summit. That is what they thought us from since we are kids. Although it’s thought in elementary it is still debated because it does not have a proof and it is inaccurate. Then it will lead us to a two new hypothesis that may answer the question “How Indigenous are the Filipino People?” The First one: The Bellwood Hypothesis. (Bellwood, 2004) believed that ancient Filipinos first came to Taiwan from South China when Taiwan was a part of the mainland of China, the second hypothesis is “The Nusantao Hypothesis. (Solheim, 1981)” The other hypothesis is that ancient Filipinos’s entered Palawan during the Late Pleistocene when it was joined to Borneo and the latter was a part of the Southeast Asia mainland as a result of the greatly lowered sea level during the late Ice Age. With this hypothesis we can already tell that the Indigenous People of the Philippines are not really the natives of their own country. “Tabon Man” or “Taong tabon” they said that this people are really the natives of the country but they are not because they also migrated. {In V. Almario (Ed.)(2015)} . With these theories you can say that at first there is no Philippines, there are no thousand islands there is no Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. Philippines is formed as a result of subduction after the collision of the three plates, the Eurasian Plate, the Philippine Sea Plate, and the Indo-Australian Plate. All of the people that we call natives are migrants. In a smaller scale does our indigenous people here in bicol really from bicol or just migrants or not really a Indigenous people? Dr.Danilo M. Gerona Said that “The agta’s are not really agta, the remotados among the agta are just like us, fair complexion, they are just like us, they are not different from us because of the nature, they are different from us because of the culture.So why are we still calling them indigenous people if they are not natives of our own country? Why are we still calling them indigenous people if they are not really natives? If you look at the timeline yes, they are not indigenous people, they are not natives, but you should look at it in a different perspective. We should look at more sophisticated perspective. Why do you think Magellan, the Spanish Government called the called Filipinos Barbaric? It is because of their resistance. We all know that Spanish Government are, they forced their culture on to us, they changed us on who we really are our bloods are not pure. That is why some of our fellow Filipino’s rebelled against them. You should look at the Indigenous People in a more sophisticated perspective, do not look at them like they are some sort of an artifact, Indigenous people are the sign of our resistance against the colonial government, instead of battling a battle that they could not win, a battle of artillery, they fought using their pride, using themselves, separate and isolate themselves to the Spanish colonial government, they separate themselves and climb to the mountains and protect it from the Spanish colonial government. The Indigenous people of the Philippines are the symbol of us Filipinos. These indigenous people of the Philippines did not just grow like a mushroom out of nowhere, these are not ordained nature.The indigenous people climb the mountains because of the mistreatment because of the oppression from the past. If the Indigenous people in the past are afraid of the mistreatment and oppression, why are they still up in the mountains and separating and isolating themselves form everyone the people from lowlands, it is because of the same reason, discrimination, mistreatment, injustice. Despite a constitutional guarantee and the passage 23 years ago of a special law for the protection of the rights of indigenous peoples in the Philippines, the marginalized group that represent 14 percent of the country’s 100 million population still complains of discrimination that suppresses basic rights and development
We’re they really indigenous? There is no exact classification on being indigenous, but yes the natives of our country are indigenous.
What it really means to be indigenous? Here in our country, indigenous people are not just natives of our land, they are not just the first people that exist in our country some of them migrated from the neighboring countries, some of them local Indigenous group are not really from the local area, they may not be really from our country but they did what it takes to be a indigenous people they held their held up high to retain and resist in the past, they are stil battling until now. They are not just indigenous people, they are humans, treating them as an artifact from the past is wrong, because the indigenous people represent us on how Filipino we are, they are us. They are our symbol of resistance against the colonizers, they are the symbol of us Filipino’s a love for freedom, they are not just uncivilized people, they we’re the one who fight on what is right in the past. They are the indigenous people.