Slide 2

In order to have a deeper understanding of the indigenous knowledge, there must be a familiarization of
the key players in comprising this knowledge base.

Slide 3

Indigenous people are also Filipinos but what makes them different from the majority of the Filipinos?

Slide 4

Comparing the indigenous people from a typical Filipino, the indigenous people, as defined by the
Indigenous Peoples Rights Act of 1997, are groups of people or homogeneous societies which are
usually identified by attributes specific to them,

Second, indigenous peoples are characterized as organized in defined territories, and under these
defined territories which they have occupied, possessed, and utilized; they were able to share common
bonds of language, customs, traditions and other distinctive cultural traits.

As a result to their resistance to political, social and cultural inroads of colonization, and non-indigenous
religions and cultures, they have become historically differentiated. And lastly, they have identified
themselves as indigenous on account of their descent from the populations which inhabited the
country; they have retained some or all of their own social, economic, cultural and political institutions.

whereas a typical Filipino is characterized by a little bit of all the cultures put together.

Unlike typical Filipinos who are divided geographically and culturally into regions. Each regional group is
recognizable by distinct traits and dialects. (http://fpe.ph/indigenous-communities.html/view/where-
are-indigenous-peoples-distributed-in-the-philippines)

Slide 5

Indigenous communities are found mostly in the upland and rural areas and usually interact among
themselves as a group or as a community. This lifestyle has allowed them to preserve their own
traditions and practices. However, this has also caused for them to be marginalized by the mainstream
majority (Contreras, 1997).

Additional: Indigenous Communities interact as a group in terms of lifestyle. Most of the remaining
indigenous tribes in the Philippines reside in upland areas and in remote mountainous regions of the
country. As a result, their way of life is generally unchanged despite the cultural diversity that pervades
most of the country.

Slide 6 and 7

Indigenous practices are not limited to farming practices but in this presentation I will only be limiting
the scope of the indigenous practices to farming practices. As an example, here is the more common
indigenous or traditional farming practices practiced by the Ifugaos of Mountain Province exemplified in
the Sagada Rice Terraces. Other indigenous farming practices include the Common dibble planting
method by Molbog and Batak of Palawan that minimizes soil erosion and the pud-pu-sit of Alangan
Mangyan, a bamboo sprayer that sprays pounded sunflower leaves to control insects.

Slide 8

National oppression is manifested by the difficulties experienced by the indigenous people.

Slide 9

1. Worsening Poverty:

Cordillera region remains to be one of the poorest and most marginalized regions in the country.
According to National Economic Development Authority, the poverty incidence in Cordillera region is
17.1 %.

On the other hand, extreme poverty lies in Mindanao for it contributes to 39.1% to total poverty in the
country

Source: http://capiznon.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the-state-of-ip-in-the-philippines.pdf

http://www.focusonpoverty.org/download/reports/Poverty%20and%20Marginalization%20in%20the%
20Philippines%20-%20A%20Primer.pdf

http://www.neda.gov.ph/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/CAR_RDP_2011-2016.pdf

Slide 10

a. Another cause of poverty is rooted on their subsistence way of living. Lack of marketable surplus
hinders generation of income among the indigenous people. And worse, even if their farming
production is based on subsistence, they do not necessarily eat 3 meals per day.
b. Poverty among indigenous people is brought about by the remoteness of their locations. As a
result, they become out of pace from the rest of the society due to the limited access to
productive assets and business opportunities.
c. Lastly, there is also a decline in the productivity and profitability of farming due to the high cost
of inputs.
Sources:

http://www.ruralpovertyportal.org/country/home/tags/philippines

http://www.ifad.org/english/indigenous/pub/documents/tnotes/philippines.pdf

Slide 11

These difficulties may possibly result to:

a. Environmental degradation due to exhaustive use and exploitation of resources

 b. Migration due to loss of ancestral land brought about by infiltration of development
projects and extractive industries
c. Death, not only physical death due to malnutrition and incidence of disease but also death
of the culture.
a. In 2014, the highest rate of malnutrition was recorded in Palawan, with a rate of
33.85 % (source: http://www.asianews.it/news-en/The-paradise-of-Palawan,-amid-
nature-and-children-dying-of-hunger-31861.html)

Slide 12 and 13

2. Land conversion

a. Caused displacement among indigenous people. In the Philippines for example, the
government gives high priority to mining as one of the paths towards economic growth even
if this may lead to displacement, conflicts, and increasing violations of the rights of
indigenous peoples to their territories and resources.
b. Production change: In Cordillera, rice terraces are being planted with commercial crops.
Adoption of modern practices leads to changing culture of the people. It may not be feasible
for indigenous people to shift from producing low value crops to high value crops. If worse
comes to worst, it may lead to food insecurity.
Source:
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/20711/sunflowers-bode-ill-for-banaue-rice-terraces

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:63UDc0qevwEJ:www.un.org/esa/socdev/unp
fii/documents/vtc_ecosoc_05.doc+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=ph

Slide 14 and 15

3. Aggressive Development is usually accompanied by militarization wherein army troops are deployed
in the territories of indigenous groups to forcibly implement destructive mining, logging, and energy
projects. All of these activities can lead to loss of livelihood or violation of settlements which can result
to urbanization and eventually loss of indigenous knowledge or culture loss.

Slide 16

Therefore, what can be done by students in order to address the difficulties among indigenous people,
or more specifically what can possibly contribute to the sustainability of this traditional knowledge and
local culture in order to address problems faced in food, agriculture, and environment.

Slide 17: just sum up slide 10-15

Slide 18 and 19

Knowing the difficulties and consequences, this is when students take action. This is where the
university intervenes in order for these consequences to be transformed into opportunities, and one of
the opportunities it include is the expansion of knowledge base. student research is the concrete
student action in the UPLB in order to Sustain Traditional Knowledge and Local Culture and Effectively
Move Forward in the Field of Food, Agriculture and Environment. The commonly used research
methods, immersion and ethnovideography, had promoted a reconnection between students and the
various aspects of studying agriculture. The students research outputs contribute to the expansion of
knowledge base specifically on indigenous farming practices for these researches are actually being
utilized in classroom and field discussions.

Slide 20 21 22 Framework

The interface between research and education is best exemplified in the studies done by UPLB students.
On that account, student research and documentation can be useful in bringing out the opportunities to
expansion of knowledge base.

a. Immersion Service Program: a specific example immersion is the ISP or the Immersion
Service Program conducted by UPLB Ugnayan ng Pahinungod. It is an investment on
students to let them experience and reflect on the different needs of different communities.
Their immersion activity included leadership training capacity building wherein students had
a lecture on income generation through production of non-timber products (bamboo,
rattans, fruits, medicinal plants), and focused group discussion on developing community-
based programs geared for tourism, since Tourism commercializes indigenous cultures
through promotion of local festivals, tourist related infrastructures, and eco-tourism.
Source:

http://www.devcom.edu.ph/site/cdc-and-uplb-ugnayan-ng-pahinungod-learning-while-serving.html

http://capiznon.files.wordpress.com/2009/10/the-state-of-ip-in-the-philippines.pdf

Slide 23

b. Ethnovideography: is used to document and analyze the indigenous knowledge and

practices of the community relative to environmental conservation. In the special problem
conducted by Development Communication graduate school student Lorena R. Baares, IK
elements and practices are captured through ethnovideography, which forms the basis of
analyzing IKs role in environmental conservation. Data were collected through, again
immersion by engaging in participant-observation and informal interviews captured through
film. These clusters of video-footages are structured and identified IK elements that have
been practiced by the community since time immemorial.

Slide 14 Conclusion

The university directs student action through student research. More specifically, expansion of
knowledge base through student research can be achieved through immersion and documentation with
the use of ethnovideography.

a. The worsening poverty situation of indigenous people can be alleviated through capacity
building programs conducted by students in the Immersion Service Program.
b. Land conversion and aggressive development brought about by development projects resulting
to the indigenous people forcibly abandoning their territories and also forcibly assimilating them
 to modern society will only be justifiable if the documents supporting this claim say that
indigenous practices have no contribution to environmental conservation.

The answer to the problem of national oppression of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines is the
recognition of their collective right to self-determination, or their right to determine their own
economic, social and cultural development. That is, to let their practices thrive or teach them how to
increase their productivity in such a way that these practices will remain to be their attribute. After all,
these practices can be integrated to modern culture towards advancement and development without
necessarily invading the sustainability of traditional knowledge and culture.

Source: http://www.iwgia.org/human-rights/self-determination

Slide 15: Recommendations