We are not artifacts

My recent trip to the Aeta community in Nabuclod in Floridablanca and Pasbul in Porac is not another photography shootout. These are two barangays that are inhabited by the province’s ethnic group. I was warned the last time I went here by the elders that people should refrain from photographing them as they feel it’s an abuse of their culture and an exploitation of their ethnicity. ” We are not artifacts,” said Roy Bacani, a kagawad and a leading representative of the community in Nabuclod, an Aeta community in Floridablanca, Pampanga. My wife is a public school teacher taking up a master’s degree and is also involved in the protection and security of the rights of the Aetas in their community. ” We have long been treated as low, uneducated, and lazy by the lowlanders, and yet we have been here for more than 30,000 years,” he added.

Along with a couple of faculty members and students, I was accompanied by the Dean of the School of Design and Arts, Prof. Gerry Torres of De La Salle College of St. Benilde, for a project on which we are collaborating. As a representative of an international organization called the International Photography Awards, the De La Salle College of St. Benilde AB Photography Department and IPA is in search of an IP (Indigenous People) that will be given a scholarship for a 4-year program. But unlike the common scholarship that is given to this particular indigenous people, which is usually a degree in education for an Aeta graduate to teach in the community, the project is offering a full degree course in photography. 

“People from the government would just suddenly appear, telling us that we were part of an event, and they would oblige us to wear our traditional “pinang” and even require us to speak Tagalog to attract tourists,” he narrated.

“You’ve never seen an Aeta who is a lawyer, a famous actor, a famous artist, a dermatologist, an army general, a manager in a fast food chain, or a taxi driver. The list goes on. It’s a question we have been asking,” Bacani stressed. Bacani laments the lack of education of the lowlanders in the present situation of the Aetas, treating them to some museum pieces that are good for visual spectacle. ” People have disrespected us in terms of making us re-enact our supposed sacred rituals and chant during their festivals. People from the government would just suddenly appear, telling us that we were part of an event, and they would oblige us to wear our traditional “pinang” and even require us to speak Tagalog to attract tourists,” he narrated. ” But we cannot do anything about it as we have become slaves to this perception,” Bacani added.

“You’ve never seen an Aeta who is a lawyer, a famous actor, a famous artist, a dermatologist, an army general, a manager in a fast food chain, or a taxi driver. The list goes on. It’s a question we have been asking,”

Roy Bacani, an Aeta leader

Teary-eyed, the dean, Prof. Gerry Torres, cannot help but get carried away with the sentiments, as it was the first time he encountered the situation. ” I admit I wasn’t aware of this reality. But I hope the offer of a scholarship program would help by just starting as a single scholar with a guided education, ” he said. The session that Gerry led is a process where the best photography students in the AB Photography Department will undergo a workshop with an international master photographer provided by the IPA. The master photographer, Indrani Pal-Chaudhuri, an Indian-Canadian-British, will mentor these students on the concept of story-telling and process in a documentary setting that will take place in the community itself. 

The students will immerse themselves in the community, and along the way, they will find from these families students who may have a great interest in photography or visual arts. Unlike the usual process of making surveys, this method is more like a real-life search based on the experiences of these students. It’s finding a photography scholar using photography itself. Indrani, a celebrity photographer who was the resident photographer of David Bowie and other celebrities such as Jennifer Lopez, Anna Hathaway, and Kate Winslet, recently created the latest music video for the band, Bon Jovi. She is a cultural anthropologist who is a graduate of Princeton University with Latin honors. She has been in collaboration with NGOs as her expertise is in Southeast Asian studies, doing projects to empower women and underprivileged people.

” Most of the scholarships that were given to us only reach up to high school. There were incidents where, along the way, an Aeata student stopped studying as the supposed funding for him was never delivered fully, only to find his way back to the mountains and continue the usual cycle of life, ” narrates Bacani. “Some people from the government use it for their ulterior motives. Funding that is given to us is like buying ice. It was given to these officials in full. By the time it reaches us, this funding has turned into a small portion, and you may wonder where the other pieces have gone,” reiterated Bacani.

Observing the current state of the community, I’ve seen how they embrace a contemporary setup, watching television, and some of them even own cell phones and are active on social media. But Roy Bacani, feels that they are the least priority of the government, as jobs and opportunities for people like him are elusive. ” One time there was one Aeta who lived there in the amboka ( first part of the village). He was able to enter PMA and train as a policeman. But he got home and told me his disappointment. He was being ridiculed. They always tell him. ‘What if there is a criminal bigger than you? How can you apprehend him? ‘ Then, all the people will laugh in unison. It hurt our feelings, Bacani sadly said.