I am Carol, an Aeta from Zambales, Philippines. My country has diverse cultures and people of 110 ethnic groups who are still living in each distinct cultural identity. I belong to the 15, 185 Aeta living in Botolan, Zambales. My ancestors, the Aeta, were one of the first groups who landed in the Philippine archipelago. They settled at the foot of Mt. Pinatubo, which we believed to be a sacred place of Apo Namalyari, the supreme God who created us and provides everything we need.
I am very honored to speak before you to share issues of the youth in education. I would like to do this by sharing my own story. From our elders we were told that we have already developed our indigenous knowledge, systems and practices before the invaders from foreign countries colonised Philippines. Colonisation had devastated the system that we had. We looked at ourselves as lesser members of the society because our ancestors did not embrace the lifestyle culture offered to them. As we grew, our parents sent us to school where our culture and identity was discriminated.
Aside from losing most of what our ancestors treasured, a disaster destroyed our ancestral domain. One of the tragic experiences we had was the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991. I was born in the place where today it is buried by tons of tons of volcanic soil called Lahar. We had resettled many times from one place to another until we found the area where we started our life all over again. But we held our faith that Apo Namalyari was with us then.
Fortunately, even though we faced these challenges, our community still fostered our own culture led by elders and leaders. I graduated Bachelor of Secondary Education in 2008 together with my fellow Aeta. Two of us were asked to teach in a community where many Aetas returned and lived near Mt. Pinatubo. We were asked to teach because our fellow Aetas wanted to learn how to write, read, and count because many non-Aeta treated them unfairly in their business transactions.
I was a fresh graduate from formal school so I found it difficulty to integrate with the Aeta children although we spoke the same language. I discovered that my teaching style and content of the lessons were not suited. As a literacy worker and in talking with other educators, I realised that the relevance of curriculum and the way of teaching are issues raised by the youth, not only by indigenous youth. I had to learn again from NGO trainings how to teach literacy and numeracy according to our culture and integrate it to the formal school competencies. For three years, I did not only teach, but I also learned many things from my students and community.
The literacy programme became successful and the children and their parents experienced the achievement toward self-determination. The parents dreamed of an Aeta school so their children can continue to learn more. They see value of education, their culture, and the integration of knowledge and skills in today’s world. That time, in our country, there were no policies that recognised indigenous learning system. But we continued with our dream.
In year 2010, we finalised our Indigenous People (IP) Education curriculum and modules in literacy-numeracy. These modules have been registered in the Philippine National Library. The Department of Education in our province evaluated the modules to be recommended later to all Sambal indigenous peoples schools in our province. For our school building, this was built in native materials and designed like their house by the community as their counterpart. As I emerged myself in my teaching, it came to my awareness that we can have our own indigenous people’s education system that would empower us to be who we truly are and to be able protect our land. Now I am teaching Aeta youth in our community and continuing the advocacy to the education really suited for us.
Since 2013, I had the privilege of interacting with other youth in the Asia Pacific who also faced challenges in education. From my friends Sifa from Indonesia, Shanti from India, Prity from Bangladesh, and Fonseca from Timor Leste, we realised that what is common in our story of empowerment is the support we got from NGOs in learning subjects and also in developing our leadership skills. We faced many challenges in life and it was important to build confidence in ourselves and not accept our situation as our destiny.
Ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning oppurtunities for all is a big challenge not just for the youth but for all us. Thank you for creating a space for us youth that our voice will be heard.
