I chanced upon this post on Facebook from Christopher Domulot, who is spending some time in Japan, studying sustainable agriculture at the Asian Rural Institute. Christopher, nicknamed “Butog” is a graduate of the Aeta leadership course run by the Education for Life Foundation.
LAKAS Pinatubo: our Ancestral Land, and to this place, we shall return
Many years have passed. I am 28 years old now. I have been to many places here to talk about my experience as an aboriginal youth.
Our forests are now dwindling fast. Many of the floods, disasters and droughts we are experiencing have a strong link to our disappearing forests.
What can education do?What can ordinary citizens do to save our forests?
In many fora and conferences, we hear the buzzword “biodiversity”.
What does this mean in our daily life?
It is the web of life. Nature and people are one. We can have many many species of animals and plants in this planet. The living species thrive with us, humankind.
When the volcanic Mount Pinatubo erupted in 1991, its lava and ashes destroyed many surrounding villages – including the traditional homeland of the Ayta, indigenous people descending from the first inhabitants of the Philippines. Today, resettled elsewhere on Luzon island, they are trying to preserve their traditional culture and community integrity through education and theatre. These efforts are supported by the Ayta organisation PBAZ, part of the Education for Life Foundation. Going back to the abandoned village is one way of keeping memories alive.
Yesterday, Ka Carling of LAKAS and PBAZ called me on the celfone: “The ceremony granting us the CADT to the 15,000 hectares will happen in the Botolan town plaza on January 14. Please come.”
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to go, since I have a previous engagement. But I and the rest of ELF will be there not only in spirit, but in other ways.
It’s one thing to get the title to their ancestral domain, which significantly includes Mt. Pinatubo. It’s another thing to be ale to develop it to benefit the Aeta communities while conserving biodiversity and protecting the forests and watersheds.
The Aeta leader-graduates and educators who have formed PBAZ – Paaralang Bayan ng Ayta sa Zambales, are the main strategic partners of ELF.
ELF met with some Aeta leaders a few years after the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 displaced the Aeta communities from their homeland and dispersed them to different resettlement areas. Since then, they have struggled to sustain their livelihood, and their culture and identity. Integral to this struggle is their effort to have their rights recognized to their ancestral domain.