Schools of Living Traditions

The Schools of Living Traditions or SLTs are community-based schools that facilitate the transmission of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices IKSPs from Indigenous Elders to Indigenous Youth of the same ethnolinguistic group. In the Philippines, the SLT is a flagship program of the National Commission for Culture and Arts or NCCA. In the province of Agusan del Sur, the Agusanon-Manobo – Schools of Living Traditions is a collaboration among the NCCA, the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, and specific Agusanon-Manobo communities or sectors in the municipalities of Bunawan, La Paz, and Esperanza. The courses taught in the Agusanon-Manobo SLTs are wide-ranging and include those on Indigenous language, ancestral domain, customary law, leadership, gender, embroidery, weaving, beadwork, musical instruments-making and performance, chanting, dancing, traditional housebuilding, spirituality, environmental protection, food, and plant medicines.

Feedback re. the Agusanon-Manobo Schools of Living Traditions in the municipalities of Bunawan, Esperanza, and La Paz (translated to English from Agusanon-Manobo or Binisaya):

Since culture is our concern, let us analyze the state of our traditions. If you hide them, sooner or later they become rusty.
Second, they will be eaten by mice, and third, they will disappear. So why do I say that it is a good thing for our Cultural Masters to help each other at the School of Living Traditions? It is so they can promote our flickering Indigenous languages, knowledge of embroidery (and other forms of Indigenous knowledge). Let us teach all the knowledge that we have so these will be developed, and (our culture) appreciated. If it were a candle, let our knowledges blaze again.
– DATU MALINOGLINOG HELARIO BEBERO, Agusanon-Manobo Cultural Master for Language and Customary Law, Loreto, Agusan del Sur

For a long time, We, the Agusanon-Manobo people have been discriminated against because of an educational system that has erroneously claimed Indigenous Peoples as ignorant, uncivilized, and superstitious; religions that have unjustly professed Indigenous Peoples as Godless heathen who pray to trees if not are outright demonic; and politics that have refused to recognize Indigenous systems of governance as valid ways of social organization. These systems of oppression have led other peoples to discriminate against us for decades if not centuries, driving many of us to disavow our identities and to leave our ancestral ways and lands behind.

Thanks to our Agusanon-Manobo Schools of living Traditions, I observed that our students are now proud of who they are and their identity. I used to worry that I am always the one to talk. I have heard the same sentiment from other Manobo elders. Because of the ASLT, however, there are many now who can speak, having gained confidence and knowledge. Now they stand up, make reports, tell stories. This makes me happy. Many more are interested to study at the ASLT. Even those who have graduated want to come back. They have become encouraged by what they have learned here.

To our students, may you not forget the IKSPs that you have learned from our SLT classes. May you keep them alive because they constitute our identity, integrity, and pride in knowing that we still carry the values, knowledges, systems of governance, and customary laws of our ancestors. The beauty of our IKSPs is they are our TREASURES that cannot be soused like cloth or torn like paper or lost like an object, but only IF we continue to inhabit them each day.
–BAE MANYAGUYAD LUCY RICO, Manobo Cultural Master for Mediation and Customary Law, Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

Unlike in the past when no one cared to learn our culture, customs and traditions, because of the SLT, our children now see for themselves that these traditions are easy to learn, not to mention they can generate income for their livelihood. Because of this, our children are now interested to learn more. Our tribe, itself, now also gives more importance to our musical instruments, songs, weaving, embroidery, beadwork. In addition, we have become known and praised by government agencies that all this time believed we have all gone (extinct or assimilated).
– POLDING TAWIDE, Maligdong no Otow, La Paz, Agusan del Sur

To my fellow Cultural Masters, let us share what we know, because our traditions will not be transferred to the next generations unless we teach them.

As far as our ancestral domains are concerned, there is no difference between what the IPRA Law and our Customary Laws state, which is to protect and care for our ancestral domains because in this time of climate change, humanity’s survival rests on Indigenous communities that own ancestral domains and who keep alive our Intangible Culture Heritage about sustainable human-nature relations.
– BECKY BARRIOS, Mapandoy to Pasak no Kabilin, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur

To the Agusanon-Manobo Youth, I appeal to you to listen to the messages of your Elders. Heed them so that our tribe will remain strong.

Respect nature and do not mock it. We Indigenous Peoples have important obligations to nature that we stand by. And although we may profess different faiths, I have much respect for you as I stand by our common identity as Agusanon-Manobos who are not ashamed of who we are but are proud. I know that you have gone to school and have obtained a good amount of knowledge but I hope that you will not disregard other Manobos, who, despite being unschooled, possess a great love for our indigenous communities and ancestral domains.
– DATU KANIMBAYLAN REMY “BOYET” REYES, Mapandoy to Pasak no Kabilin, Loreto, Agusan del Sur

Indigenous spirituality should be taught at home. The discovery of who is to become a Baylan (Shaman) cannot be entrusted to a school wherethe teachers is not Baylan. But there are basic things that can be taught in school, though not all, like the names of rituals, especially of simple rituals that can be done by non-Baylans who know how to seriously invoke spirit.
– DATU MAKALIPAY IRENEO RICO, Mapandoy to Kuna Ta Ogkakitaan/ Baylan (Shaman)

It makes me happy to see our youth learn how to play the Kugot (one-string fiddle) because in the past I only saw performing as a game. When I saw my student begin to play well, I came to appreciate my instrument more since I was able to turn my knowledge into an inheritance that I can pass on in a good way.
– ROSALINA DUMANGLAY, Mapandoy to Kugot, Tumalog, Talacogon, Agusan del Sur

The students are persevering when it comes to Suyam embroidery, they easily understand the designs that we teach them.
– ABINA T. COGUIT, Mapandoy to Suyam, La Paz, Agusan del Sur, Gawad Manlilikha ng Bayan (National Living Treasurer for Suyam)

Through the ASLT, we have been able to take pride in our very own culture and craft like the suyam (embroidery).
– GEMMA GRACE GONZALEZ, SLT graduate from La Paz, Agusan del Sur

I thank Bae Suyam Emeluz Espana for teaching me Suyam embroidery. I am confident that I can later pass on this knowledge to the future generations so that they too will continue our practices and nothing will be lost.
– LUCKY ALEXIS RICO, SLT graduate from Esperanza, Agusan del Sur

I persevered here at the SLT because as a young parent, I want to be able teach my three children the Manobo culture that I did not grow up with. In our home, Manobo language was not spoken. I don’t know why my father did not teach us this language, so we grew up not knowing it. Second, as a schoolteacher who handles Grades 5 and 6 classes, I want to impart what we learn from the SLT to my students who have also lost our Manobo ways like rituals because they have adopted the ways of the city, of the outside world. I want to help them recover who they are and develop themselves while carrying their tribe and culture. I want to help them stand up to people and the world and not be ashamed.
– JUNELY AYALA, SLT graduate from Bunawan, Agusan del Sur