Project Report - La Trobe University
Project Report - La Trobe University
Project Report - La Trobe University
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Below: children in Tu-u-an, one of the puroks of<br />
Chananaw.<br />
Opposite: the view from the house in which we were<br />
hosted by our friends Agom (Arlene) Dawing and<br />
Gaspar Dawing, which looks out across the village to<br />
some of the houses in <strong>La</strong>ppi, another purok in<br />
Chananaw. The houses are placed on a steeply<br />
ascending slope, so everyone has a good view from<br />
their porches or balconies.<br />
Indigenizing Education in a Kalinga Public School | 6<br />
In April 2008, a mutual friend introduced us to<br />
Chananaw: Tim Andrews, another Australian. Tim<br />
was studying at Ateneo de Manila <strong>University</strong> on a<br />
student exchange from <strong>La</strong> <strong>Trobe</strong> <strong>University</strong>. He had<br />
made friends with Chananaw locals (‘Ichananaws’)<br />
by chance while travelling months earlier with a<br />
friend in the Cordilleras. The Ichananaws Tim met<br />
made such an impression on him that he returned<br />
to Chananaw for several more visits. Before leaving<br />
the Philippines at the end of his six-month student<br />
exchange, Tim took Edwin with him to Chananaw<br />
on his final visit. Edwin returned three weeks later<br />
with Maria. At that stage, we had no intention of<br />
working with the Ichananaw tribe, as we were<br />
both busy with our respective commitments in<br />
Manila. But it was the seeds of friendship sown in<br />
those initial visits that later blossomed to bear the<br />
fruit of our five-months’ work.<br />
During our August 2008 visit to Chananaw,<br />
Fargwog (Daniel) Aga-id – friend, tribal elder and<br />
retired school teacher – invited us to stay in<br />
Chananaw for one year to help the Ichananaw<br />
document their ‘life system’ so that they would be<br />
able to pass their cultural heritage on to the tribe’s<br />
future generations. We weren’t able to dedicate a<br />
year, but we offered the first five months of 2009,<br />
after Maria would have completed her work at<br />
Ateneo and Edwin would have completed a year’s<br />
research in Manila. Edwin decided to take a fivemonth<br />
break from his PhD to work on the project.<br />
From the seed of Fargwog’s initial invitation, and<br />
through many conversations with our friends in<br />
Chananaw over cups of sweet coffee, we designed a<br />
five-month project to document the Ichananaw’s<br />
way of life and to develop ‘indigenized’ educational<br />
materials for use in Dananao Elementary School,<br />
their local public school, as the means for passing<br />
cultural heritage to the next generation.