THE IGOROT MOTHER BLOGGER

“Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family; Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one!” A quote by Jane Howard (1935-1996).

To educate solecism and correct the ill stigma concerning how our fellow countrymen see us, THE IGOROTS, may be impossible. A mother who belongs to “this” tribe who happens to blog, only dreams she could help educate the implications of ignorance about her people. But, what if she tries?

Native Cordillerans who’re from the Northern part of the Philippines with the following Provinces: Abra, Apayao, Benguet, Baguio City, Bontoc , Kalinga and Ifugao, are the IGOROTS, who often referred to as the “people from the mountains”. With which in it’s context is literally true, but sometimes, it is abused and used as a derogatory remark by those who doesn’t really know us.

True, we are ‘taong bundok’(mountain people) because our homes are situated in the mountains but that doesn’t mean we’re lesser humans than the people from Iloilo, or Manila, or any other parts of the Philippines. For one we don’t have curly hair, not of dark complexion, almost 90 percent of literacy and English is widely spoken than our national language - Filipino.

I don’t need to enumerate who is who but just like any other Filipino, many of us are professionals from doctors, to nurses, lawyers, artist etc… Some were successful in businesses that had given prestige to our country like the Narda’s Handwoven Arts & Crafts among the many.

Each of our different ETHNIC GROUPS: Bontoc, Ibaloi, Ifugao, Isneg (or Apayao), Kalinga, Kalanguya and the Kankana-ey, is rich in customs and traditions. The preservation of our culture that was not heaved by the Spanish regime is very symbolic of our ancestor’s antagonism to whoever wants to strip our roots- OUR IDENTITY. Neither the American’s influence did not eradicate our fashion sense of not to wearing our ‘kubal/kuba’(G-strings) for men, ‘tapis’ for women during special occasions nor our dancing with our gongs and solibao(Igorot drum).

Head hunters? Yes, the Igorots specifically the Kalinga tribe had this practice but that was only true in the past. It had been abolished long before our parents were born.

Seeing our “kind” at the Botanical Garden and Mines View Park being paid to have photos with you as the picture of who we are as Igorots is another limited or unwitted perception. To rather see the dignity of not resorting into stealing just to put food in their mouth is more dignified. “Picture taking”, their job, is more noble than wearing ‘Barongs’ as they comfortably sit “on” government offices corrupting people’s money.

Sure, you see some beggars asking you to spare a dime while you sit at Burnham Park. An old lady in particular would even decline food if you you give him that instead of money. Again, that is not the generalization of who we are. Like any other Filipino group, there are less fortunate and your alms are their means to meet their ends.

So next time you scare your children saying, “Sige kayo, kukunin kayo ng Igorot!..”(the Igorots will get you) or when your kids are uncontrolable and you blurted out, “para kayong mga Igorot, doon kayo sa bundok!”(you’re like Igorots, stay in the mountais.)… you are doing well in teaching racism and is successful in miseducating them.

“I am an Igorot. Let me be treated as I deserve—with respect if I am good, with contempt if I am no good, irrespective of the name I carry. Let the term, Igorot, remain, and the world will use it with the correct meaning attached to it.” –Jose Dulnuan