Beatrice Colmo

“Indigenous Peoples (IP) Perspective on Interfaith dialogue and Peace Education”

Plenary Presentation
Presented at the " Mindanao Community-based Institute on Peace Education"
November 28, 2007

Mopian Solom, good morning, maayong adlaw, assalamu alaykum, mgandang umaga, buenas dias.

When I was invited to speak in this forum, I readily accepted the invitation thinking that I am prepared to present an IP [Indigenous Peoples] perspective on Interfaith dialogue and Peace Education, being an IP myself, and a member of an OBO Manobo tribe from Mt. Apo; I did convince myself that since I survived the first invitation in Miriam College where I met Dr. Swee-Hin, Dr. Cawagas, Bing and many others, I thought I am going to survive this one too, in the Ateneo de Zamboanga University.  Yon po ang akala ko. Ngayon naintindihan ko na kung bakit maraming namatay sa akala.

After listening to the presenters or panelist yesterday and after which not so easy questions were raised, I began to realize that beyond the mountain ranges of our IP communities, Peace is a complicated matter with complex mechanisms, interconnections, structures, actors, reactors and detractors…  Thus, it needs proper communication, mediation, facilitation, negotiation, education, transformation… and you can name more.

Confronted with these unpeaceful realizations, I was tempted to put more “isms” and “tions” in my presentation today to cope with the expectation of this intellectual audience.  But that was I think a better option than having been tempted to pack and leave, is it not? After all the presentation of the panelist, I felt like a “bulinaw” in a sea of whales.

Since I decided to stay and survive the day, you have no option but to bear with me because/ I have to present my views from an indigenous people’s way.  That means no “isms,” no “tion,s” and no PowerPoint.  I will just be telling stories, histories, and memories of peace and the absence of peace, and interfaith dialogue. I hope along the way you peacefully pick up powerful points even in the absence of a PowerPoint.

For the Lumad or indigenous people of mindanao, Peace is an outcome and an evidence of our faith in action, Peace is our way of life. Thus peace is not regarded as an opportunity nor a privilege but it is a responsibility where everyone in the community should take a part. In IP communities, culturally every action and decision is geared towards the attainment of harmony in the society be in small villages or large settlements. For this reason, in the olden days, the tribal chiefs were highly regarded not due to their material possessions, but they were revered because they were masters in the art of Conflict Resolutions. We have a jail-less society, yet it did not breed criminals, and terror, never reigned in our territories. If chaos now reign in our lands, it is not our own making but by those who have interest on our domains and wanted to have power over us.

From the point of view of those who live and nurtured by “culture of violence,” we Lumads are the weakest among the tri-people of this island because we do not resort to violence as a way of asserting our rights. there are groups, or many groups who think that we do not deserve assistance because sometimes in a middle of a struggle, we tend to deviate our ways to maintain peace among us. To those who always equate struggle with winning, we seem to be a failure. What we are perceived to be, depends on the color of the glass of those who perceived us. But our consolation however, lies on the point of view of Monama, magbabay, God or whatever we call him to be, the creator who is the author of peace.

From the creator’s point of view, we are a people with strong spirit to carry on with life in spites of all odds and have done his will of making peace earth possible. It is so easy for us Lumads to involve in entertain dialogue because we live what the Christian and other religions preach. We love our neighbor, thus we respect the boundaries and sovereignty of other territories. We see the hands of God/Monama behind our history. The Lumads availed of what God promised in the Bible. “Blessed are the peace makers for they shall have peace”. We sustained peace in our respective territories even after the coming of Islam in the 13th century, after the coming of the Spaniards in the 16th century even after the coming of the Japanese, the Americans and the settlers. The Lumads has been through many wars, but no war has ever killed or taken away the “Culture of Peace” in their hearts.

It would be good for the Peace Advocates and Peace Educators to understand the Peace for the Lumads is not preached as a Gospel -planned as a program or an agenda. Peace to the Lumads is a way of life handed down from generation to generation with parents, grand parents, immediate clans and tribe’s leader as agents; though peace is a social and a Supreme Being Monama/Magbabaya or God. That is how peace education among the Lumads is done and sustained.

Personally, I choose to be a peace advocate not only because I belong to a tribe practicing a “culture of peace” but also because I decided to live peace, having faced the challenge of death and violence.

 I earned my peace education the hard way.

I have told this story once and I have to tell it again and again, if I needed to in order to promote the understanding of peace.

In the early 70’s when I was about 10 to 11 yrs. Old during the so-called Christian-Muslim conflict in North Cotabato, while I was on my way to the market I have seen dead bodies piled, one on top of the other in a car in front of a funeral parlor. Some of the bodies were disintegrated while their blood were dripping out of the car and was running through the canal. That was the first image of violence printed in my mind. So I asked why these things happened but nobody had given me a clear answer.
    
 Then a year later, some villages in the town of Tulunan were razed to ashes and since there was information that Kidapawan will be next, the Governor gathered the people and campaigned with the clear message saying, “We have to fight.” My brother, who attended the Governor’s meeting, modified the message to us and so he said, “We have to survive.” He then dug a pit at our backyard of what he called “the foxhole”. Each one of us was given instruction and a role in that game of survival. Mine was to take charge of my 7-year-old niece and 5-year-old nephew and to craw towards the foxhole at first sound of gunshot or bomb. We crawl a number of times but those were just a false alarm.
  
I asked my brother why this thing happened, but he could not give a clear answer. That was in the early and mid 70’s.
   
In the mid 80’s when I was documenting situation of women and children in conflict situation in Tulunan, Cotabato, where families group themselves into cluster for fear of the Tadtad who were known to strike at night to attack and chop especially community leaders. Mothers worry to loss their children thus they call them every now and then. I asked why those things happened but no one could give me a clear answer.
    
In the late 80’s up to early 90’s, I cared for the children victims of war in a center in Kidapawan called “Pagsagop.” Children with age ranging from 4 to 13 years old took shield in that center after their communities become battlefields, their parents were salvaged or massacred, their homes were crossfired bullets of the AFP and rebel groups. Some of them were injured themselves. They were experts on the language of war. They could recognize the sound of M16, M14 and M79 and they know the actors of war. They call the other “Sirs” and the opposing party uncle or “kuya.” But they don’t know the reasons behind their wars.

     The ancestral domain of the Lumads is being robbed of their minerals and fertile soils but the Lumads do not in return rob the robbers. Human beings did not choose the way what they wanted to be but it was Monama (God) who choose them the way they are.

Monama (God) created man distinct from each other yet destined him to become interdependent with each other. He even authored the equal distribution of wealth. One which the oil will not have the fertile soil like most countries in the middle east and the ones with a fertile soil like the Philippines should produce food and other agricultural goods to support the other. Those which do not have the fertile soil or the oil will have the deposits of gold, ore and other minerals. Hence they too would depend on the fertile soil and oil of the other.

But God’s design of apportioning spaces on earth for specific race on tribe with corresponding resources has been violated by men because of the human greed. One overrules and grabs the resources of the other for selfish satisfaction and interest. This started the description of peace among mankind. So nation did rise against nation, brother against brother, and neighboring territories. We have the world war as proof of this. This happened to the world as it happens to our island Mindanao. We tend to robs one another instead of loving one another. The Lumads lost their lands through organized and institutionalized thieves. Yet they did not take arms because they respect lives of other people, which is also given by Monama. But this does not mean that the Lumads welcomed their oppression. They had tried to find peaceful means to assert their rights. It has been a long process but their voices have been heard by the congress and the senate and it gave birth to the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act. RA 8371 of 1997. Up to the present, we are still airing our voices which show that we are not passive to the oppression over us. But as I have said through out history and even at all odds we tend to be peace loving as we can be, even at the most difficult circumstance.

Those children have many “war” stories and they could narrate every detail. There was one girl who shared the story which amused the other children. She said because there was a constant between the army and the rebel group in their community, the people had decided to organize themselves and to orient each member of the family on what to do during the encounter for them not to be cross fired. She said that all their things were always put in sacks and each member of the family has to take thing assigned to him/her at the first sound of gunshot. Her mother took responsibility of her younger brother and sister, her brother was assigned to bring water and beddings, her father has to take bolo and the rice and to her was assigned the cooking pot and a match.

One day while she was sleeping, an encounter happened near her village and she woke up there was no one in the house and all things were gone except for the cooking pot and a match. She jump out of bed took the cooking pot and match and joined their neighbors who ran towards the north. When they were far from their village and the fighting, she realized her family has ran towards the other group towards the south. She doesn’t belong to that grouping, and so during that day her family was not able to eat because although they have the rice and water, she has the cooking pot and match. People learn the art of survival. But they deserve to live normal lives.

The children “war” stories were filled with actions and emotions. They know a lot about “wars.” But when it was the children’s turn to ask me, “why these things happened?” I could not give them a clear answer.

They asked me the questions I ask for almost two decades. So when I went back to my community in Mt. Apo, I asked the elders why these things happened, and they shared to me a holistic perspective of Peace which to me is so valuable hence I have to share it with you.
       
Our elders say when Monama (God) created men, he already set them to be unique, different and has given them a specific and special place for them to dwell on earth. The Chinese with slant eyes and yellow skin has to occupy China, the blacks has to dwell in Africa and we brown skinned people has to live in the Philippines. Even in the islands are divided into distinct and different territories. Although there are 18 indigenous peoples, ethnic groups in Mindanao, each one has his particular territories. The OBO Manobo for example has spread over the northwestern and northeastern plank of Mt. Apo down to the plains, the Subanen of Zamboanga, the Aromanon in North Cotabato towards the mountains of Bukidnon and so on. Even the animals were also given specific territories. As you can see, there are no tigers and elephants in the Philippines but you cannot also find carabao in America.

Even different trees in certain areas have to grow with various varieties because even the different birds have different kind of food. It was only through the elders that I know that what Kalaw bird eats is different form what the Maya and Pirok-Pirok eats. That was how God created us with our uniqueness.

Our elders say, no matter how much land people will expand for themselves, one day land will finally own them when they rest in peace. So in conclusion, I would say all the violence I have been exposed to, leads me to affirm my culture of peace and hopefully as peace advocate would help others to follow the path of peace and make peace be our ultimate legacy to the next generation.

Peace be with us. Thank you.