Project Report - La Trobe University

Appendix 2. Philippine Daily Inquirer article
Aussie preserves Kalinga tribe’s stories, songs in 26 books
By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Indigenizing Education in a Kalinga Public School | 31
First posted on the front page of the Sunday, July 12, 2009 edition of the Philippine Daily
Inquirer (sourced online from:
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090712-215050/Kalingatribes-stories-songs-in-26-books)
MANILA, Philippines—The mighty
carabao challenged a snail to a race on the
rice terraces in Kalinga.
He was confident of victory, but was
surprised to see the snail alongside him
no matter how fast he ran.
Tired and frustrated, the carabao finally
accepted defeat, not knowing there was a
snail crawling on every step of the rice
terraces.
This fable, told and retold by generations
of the Ichananaw in Kalinga, illustrates
what excessive pride can do. It is only one
of the tribe’s many legends that, the
elders fear, the younger generations
exposed to the modern world may no
longer get to hear.
Thankfully, Ichananaw lore has found an
ally in Australian Maria Cameron, whose
leisurely visit to the community last year
turned into a mission to help the tribe
preserve its oral customs and traditions
in storybooks.
Cameron, 26, lived in the remote
Ichananaw community of 104 families for
five months. She stayed with one family,
visited every house, talked with the elders
and listened to their stories.
Her husband Edwin Wise, also 26, stayed
in Metro Manila to coordinate with other
groups and collect more materials.
On Friday at the Australian Embassy in
Makati City, Cameron presented the fruits
of their work—26 books documenting the
stories and songs of the tribe.
“These books will help the younger
generation … appreciate their own
history,” Cameron said.
But the project means more to Cameron
than just helping an isolated community.
“We were able to meet a lot of very good
friends in one of the most beautiful places
I have ever seen,” she said.
3 hours on foot
The Ichananaw are among the tribes
living in the mountains of Tinglayan,
Kalinga. Electricity has yet to reach the
small community that lies at the end of a
three-hour trek from the municipal road.
It was Wise who first learned about the
Ichananaw from his friends, exchange
students at the Ateneo de Manila
University who found the community
during a trip up north almost two years
ago.
Wise, who was in the Philippines to do
research on Metro Manila for his doctoral
studies in urban sociology, made his own
visit to the community in January 2008
and quickly made many friends.
Two months later, when his wife, a
government employee in Melbourne,
Australia, arrived in the Philippines to
work as a volunteer at the Ateneo Center
for Educational Development, he took her
to the community.
Cameron fell in love not only with the
breathtaking view but also with the
people. “They took care of us superbly,”