Gone were
the days when Igorots[1]
were unjustly looked down and wrongly
perceived as filthy barbaric savages with tails like that of monkeys. The
discriminatory perception of Igorots before even resulted to an attitude of
disclaiming any relation or affiliation to the Igorot people. Today, much have
changed as Igorots find their niche all over the social, political and economic
spectrum and the awareness of the mainstream population have been considerably
enlightened.
Still, a lot
of people in the Philippines have little knowledge about the Igorots or where
they come from, their culture and traditions. One of the usual questions when
Filipinos meet other people, aside from asking their names, is “taga-saan
probinsiya ka?” (which province do you come from?) When I respond with,
“Mountain Province”, I get a lot of perplexed facial reactions that can only
mean they do not know where the hell that place is; and when I say, “Sagada”, I
get a lot of “ahhhs” and “ohhhs” for those who have been to Sagada or who have
heard about it and have it on their list of places to visit. Still, a lot of
Filipinos do not also know where Sagada is. But if one mentions Baguio, people
respond with so much familiarity. This may be attributed to the fact that it
has always been a famous destination since the American colonization, and has
been so popularly promoted especially when it was referred to as the “Summer
Capital” of the Philippines. The familiarity of almost all Filipinos with
Baguio City inclined me to just respond with “Baguio City” when people asked me
where I come from. Not only that I am legitimately a resident of Baguio City,
but more because I wanted to avoid the exasperation of having to deal with
people who did not know their geography.
But as I
went into the advocacy of indigenous peoples’ rights, I told myself that if I,
an Igorot, was not an instrument in
raising the awareness of people about my place and my culture, then who do I
expect to do it for me? How would the non-Igorots know about the Igorot people
if I did not tell them about it? Since then, every time I get the question,
“taga saan ka?”, I always responded with “Sagada, Mt. Province” and sometimes,
I would add, “the Cordilleras”. I did not mind if I had to answer more
questions of the curious few or the inquisitive bunch or explain that this
place is located north of the Philippines to which I get another question –
“malapit sa Baguio?” and I would always say, it is six hours away by public bus
from Baguio, 4-5 hours if by private car. And guess what? It always does not
stop there. The next question would always be, “ahh, so ilocana[2]
ka?” (Oh so you are an Ilocana?) To which I would always respond – “No, I am
not an Ilocana but I know how to speak the Ilocano[3]
language. I am an Igorot.”
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