What's On & Expat - Philippines

Good morning, visitor!” That’s the chorus that greeted me as I reached the top of a small roadside hill. Around ten Grade-4 T’boli students, pencils and notebooks in hand, were diligently listening to their teacher’s lecture when I, an unexpected guest, ascended.
  Having just pulled over to ask for directions on the way to Lake Sebu in South Cotabato,

The T’boli Sikiat on top of a small roadside hill

T’boli children taking a break after class

I saw these huge nipa huts on the hilltop on the other side of the road. It was a very heartwarming sight as these well-behaved indigenous children under the thatched roof of their open classrooms welcomed me with a polite gesture.
   This is the Sikat, the Schools of Indigenous Knowledge and Traditions. Put up in 2002, this community-owned culturally-responsive school serves as a learning institution for the 140 T’boli elementary children residing in the area. While the curriculum has the same math and science subjects as in other schools, the children here also learn their native T’boli alphabet, songs, poems, proverbs, history, literature and sayings. They are also taught “Indigenous Faith and Good Values” and participate in traditional sports and dances which

“Our classes depend on the weather,” explains the Grade 4 teacher as they hold classes under a thatched roof

they practice every afternoon.
  The parents of these children are usually makers of T’boli arts and crafts. Some make colorful bead necklaces and bracelets while the others weave the T’nalak, a fabric made from the abaca plant that

A T’Boli lady selling her wares (right) of beaded necklaces and hand-made scarves outside the school

has this distinctive teardrop red-brown-and beige design.
  The T’boli tribe is the most populous of the more than 500,000 indigenous peoples (IPs) living in South Cotabato. They join in the total of five million tribal Filipinos in Mindanao. And just like the other seven million IPs throughout the Philippines, the T’bolis are in a constant struggle to retain their sacred lands. Marginalized despite being the first settlers, they are in constant efforts to establish their cultural

The Grade one pupils learning English

identity in the process of winning their ancestral domain.
   Seeing the innocent faces of these T’boli children and how they strive to educate themselves against the manifest challenges in their environment, I can’t help but be moved at the thought of their virtuous efforts. It is both captivating and endearing to witness their simple lives and how much hope they bear for the future of their peoples.