CLIMATE AND CULTURAL IDENTITY:

STORIES FROM THE PHILIPPINE INDEGENOUS PEOPLE

by Maria Raiza Javier

Land and identity of people are intimately linked. For many Filipinos, the land and
sea are where they draw their life, livelihood, and more importantly, their identity. They
take pride in their practices and way of life that have developed over centuries around
the seasons and the natural environment. Such is the story of the Ifugao, whose very
name as a people means “inhabitants of the known earth.”
The Ifugao are an indigenous people from Northern Luzon, Philippines, whose primary
means of livelihood are agricultural terracing and farming. They are known worldwide for
the Ifugao Rice Terraces, recognized as a World Heritage Site and described by UNESCO
as “a living cultural landscape of unparalleled beauty” and “an enduring illustration of an
ancient civilization that surpassed various challenges and setbacks posed by
modernization.”
The people of Ifugao, however, worry that their cultural heritage and the identity might
not be as enduring in the face of climate change, according to stories of their
representatives in the recent hearings of the National Inquiry on Climate Change (NICC).
According to William Mamanglo, a Tuwali Ifugao and Project Development Coordinator
of the Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office, the changes in the climate such as prolonged dry
seasons followed by sudden persistent rains have caused the erosion their 2,000-year-
old rice terraces. “And who are we as humans? Hindi naman talaga madaling ibalik kapag
nasira ang isang rice terraces kasi it is very costly(It’s not easy to rebuild the rice terraces
because it is very costly). You cannot even (be) compensate(d) (with) what you get from
(it),” he said, citing this as a reason for the displacement of their farmers in search for
greener pastures.
“(This) will lead to the low production of our farmers…(O)f course our farmers will be
dismayed, and come the next harvest, the tendency is, (they would say), Hayaan mo
na(Leave it). I will just go (to) other places, and I will just work and buy rice,” he said.
This became the fate of Dalia Nalliw’s parents who were both Ifugao farmers. Due to the
damages brought by unpredictable seasons, and in turn, insufficient income from their
harvest, her father left farming and worked instead as a miner in Baguio City, Nalliw said.
Her mother on the other hand, shifted to taking contractual jobs from road projects of
the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
This is the case for many of the Ifugao people, said Buucan Hangdaan, 70, a culture
bearer and a farmer, as he witnessed the decrease in the number of farmers in their
community.
“The problem is they rarely come back. ‘Yung iba, hindi na umuuwi (Others do not come
back at all),” he said. Hangdaan said the payiw (rice terraces) owned by those who
migrated are left completely idle.
Meanwhile, those who choose to stay, like him, till their terraces amid the unpredictable
climate.
“Noon…may sarili kaming kalendaryo kung kalian kami magtatanim kasi alam naming na
maganda ang panahon…pero ang problema, may pagbabago sa panahon, hindi mo na
matantya kung kalian uulan sa amin, dumadadating pa sa point na hindi kinakaya ng
aming palayan yung volume ng tubig (Before, we had our own cropping calendar. We
knew when best to plant rice. But with the changing climate, we can no longer tell when
the rains would come. There are times when our rice terraces cannot hold the volume of
rainfall),” he said.
According to Hangdaan, the shifts in seasons also affect their cultural practices,
specifically, the baki, or a rice ritual performed as thanksgiving to the agricultural gods.
It is supposed to be observed during the start of the planting season, but because they
can no longer count on their cropping calendar, most of them just forgo the tradition.
Because of this, Nalliw said, other young people from Ifugao are losing interest in the
observance of their practices as they would rather live in the city than continue farming.
This is why the 24-year-old said she personally sought to learn about her culture by
working in the Ifugao Cultural Heritage Office, for fear of losing it.
Rica Cahilig, an Aeta youth leader from Bataan, shared the same fear on her testimony
during the first NICC hearing, specifically on the loss of the Aeta tradition pagdadanso.
In this cultural activity, the Aeta go up the mountains for one to two weeks, bringing only
rice and grains of salt. Cahilig said they used to be able to find everything they need
because the forest is their home, but now that the intense heat has dried the forest, they
can no longer do the same.
While the witnesses could not technically explain the concept of climate change, their
testimonies provided examples of how it manifests in the lives of indigenous peoples and
affects not only their environment, but also their identity intertwined with it.
“In our place when I ask people alam niyo ba ang climate change, wala silang masabi na
ito talaga…but they will tell their stories…and we will understand (In our place when I
ask people if they know what climate change is, no one could say what it really is. But
they will tell their stories…and we will understand),” Mamanglo said.