Be a Locavore

Boiled cassava served with freshly harvested honey

Not everyone is lucky enough to have a food garden or live next to a forest to hunt and gather from. But more and more people are doing the next best thing in choosing their food: eating local produce in season, and eliminating food miles.

Yes, in these times of crisis and climate change, it matters how far your food travels before it reaches your mouth. It seems that eating local has even a greater impact than eating organic.

In rural areas, and during simpler times, it is/was common to walk a few steps to the home garden, pick a few veggies for a simple meal, or butcher the chicken ranging freely for a more elaborate one. For a snack, harvest the cassava or camote and serve with honey.

These days, especially for us city folks, we need to exert more effort. Maybe start a small home garden, even in containers where there is no available space. Maybe beg a few sayote from a kind hearted neighbor. Or go to the market, and ask a few questions before handing over the cash.

Is that orange a a local variety, or did it come from China months ago, thereby needing preservatives? Is that garlic from Taiwan, or from the Ilocos? Are those noodles imported or locally produced? How far did that squid or chicken travel, since they come frozen in boxes, and have to be thawed in basins full of water? Is that NFA rice a product of Thailand or Vietnam?

Of course, you can also go visit Balatinaw Store at #16 Dizon Subdivision, Baguio City, and be sure that all products on display are locally produced, and good for your health. This past month, I got the following from this store: peanut butter; dried legumes and traditional beans from Kalinga; beautiful organic tomatoes, lettuce, mustard; sili; all kinds of vinegars, pickles, wines, jams and jellies; ginger from Abra; squash noodles made in Sagada; maskobado sugar from Abra; bananas from Kalinga. If you want to start a garden, you can buy compost to help you out. 

And please bring your visitors for souvenirs, like wood carvings, woven items, music, and books. There's something for everyone.#

Bakun Folk Fight Large-Scale Mining

Bakun landscape

Our host warmly invited us to her home for 2 nights

Pila for dinner

Solidarity for the Bakun people's struggle

Communities in Bakun, Benguet are fighting to maintain their lifeways, livelihoods, and culture, as they confront the mining exploration operations of the Australian mining company Royalco. They are questioning the Free Prior Informed Concent (FPIC) which Royalco claims the communities have given them.

In order to call attention to their problem, Gambang community in Bakun volunteered to host one of the five celebrations of Cordillera Day this year. They mobilized their women, youth, elders, officials, and welcomed some 1000 participants and visitors from Baguio, Benguet, Metro Manila and other parts of the Philippines, Germany, Taiwan, Japan and the United States. 

We felt the warmth and vitality of the community folk from our arrival on April 23 until our departure on April 25. They shared their music which ranged from the traditional tallak (musical wooden rods) to original country songs with Kankana-ey lyrics, performed complete with electric guitars and drums. All expressed their love for their high mountains, the vegetable gardens, their small scale mines, and called for Bakun folk to guard their ancestral land. Each piece was outstanding, and earned the lively applause of the audience, some of whom were a bit surprised to find such musical excellence in a remote mountain barangay.

The Bakun women earned special citation from Congresswomen Luz Ilagan of Gabriela Women's Partylist, for their hard work in preparing for the Cordillera Day celebration, and their visibility during the program, on top of their other tasks as gardener, mother, wife.

Cordillera Day is indeed a rare occasion to show solidarity for the Cordillera IPs fighting for their land, life, and rights; a valuable opportunity to link up with community folk, to enjoy their music and dance to gongs, to go back to a simpler lifestyle if only for a few days; to recharge and regain some of that strength, as we continue in a protracted struggle for a better life. 

It is also a good way for city bred children to spend a few learning days during their summer vacation.

Deepening the Exchange with the Talaandig Tribe

Cultural Exchange and Workshop with the artists of Talaandig Tribe

April 26, 2009 at the Victor Oteyza Community Arts Space  (VOCAS)

Baguio City

Waway tells stories of reviving the Talaandig instruments

Balugto, Waway. Soliman, and Tambuloy

It started last year when we visited the Talaandig community in Barangay Sungco, Lantapan, Bukidnon. We were impressed by the steps the community had taken to assert their identity with the full and creative participation of the elders, youth, women, children. Our two-day stay in the area was packed with discussions and learning, and it was suggested that the exchange would not end there, but be deepened in future activities.

The idea for cultural exchange between the Talaandig artists and the Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera (DKK) was brewing, on our 12 hour journey from southern to northern Philippines. Seldom indeed is the opportunity for indigenous artists from opposite ends of the country to meet and learn from each other.

Thus, Waway and his troop arrived in Baguio City last April 22, in time for travel to Sagada, Mountain Province to participate in the 25th celebration of Cordillera Day, a story for a later post maybe by someone else, since I attended the Cordillera Day Celebration in Bakun Benguet.

On their final day, the Talaandig artists conducted a workshop with local artists and students in Baguio city. They shared their music, dance, and soil paintings, which showcased the creativity and integrity of contemporary Talaandig art.

This exchange is made possible with a grant from the Prince Claus Fund for Culture and Development. It will continue in October, when DKK members will travel south and visit the Talaandig community. Abangan...

LEARNING FROM THE AETAS OF KANAWAN

The kulot and unat children of Kanawan

We started from the Bataan Technology Park which used to be the sanctuary for the Vietnamese boat people decades ago. We took a ten minute ride to the hanging bridge and a 15 minute walk up the mountain to Sitio Kanawan, Morong Bataan, home to the Aeta community. 

We were there for a third in the series of  cross visits or Lakbay Aral of the Traditional Knowledge Network. 

This time, we wanted to hear the voices of the Aetas, and learn from them. And lessons were plenty: on sustainable hunting and foraging, on respecting the sacred sites, on understanding the signs of the seasons. The Aetas over generations built their expertise on surviving on the fruits of the forest, while conserving the biodiversity it contains. We were told that the US troops in Subic and Clark used to invite them to share their knowledge and skill in jungle survival.

Ka Rudy and Joseph told us of the livelihood seasons which the Aeta follow. They gather honey from December to May, after which they do not disturb the bees, and allow them to reproduce and produce more honey. May is the time to plant the upland rice, just enough to feed their families for the season. June starts the season for hunting the wild boar, which ends in September. In September, the wild boar are mating; in October and November, they are pregnant; in February, they give birth; and by June, they are big enough to be hunted.

The Aeta possess rich and precise knowledge about the creatures in the forest, which forms the basis for their sustainable management of the forests they live in. They can teach us simple living, being content with what is available, and knowing the meaning of enough.

Our lunch was a concrete lesson in traditional knowledge.  Our rice was cooked in bamboo tubes. Our lunch was served in giant leaves from the forest. Everyone enjoyed the simple shared meal with gusto.

sharing lunch, the Aeta way

The Traditional Knowledge Network is a loose network of indigenous peoples from different corners of the Philippines. It was born from conversations among indigenous leaders who meet each other during occasional conferences on IP concerns. It is a learning network, where the experts are the traditional knowledge holders, and the students are those who recognize the value of such knowledge in caring for the planet, and biodiversity conservation.

The cross visitors to Aeta land

Sitio Kanawan, Morong, Bataan

April 17, 2009