One Decent Meal A Day (posted Aug. 2007)

"It's time for your morning snacks, children," I shouted out to a group of children busily drawing illustrations that depicted happy memories in one session of the visual arts workshop of the 2007 Children's Summer Art Camp.

Mariel, a 12-year-old girl from the Dumagat tribe looked up at me with wonder and said, "Are we eating again?"

I smiled at her and said, "Yes, we are eating again". Then, I proceeded to call the other children participants to take a break from their various activities and enjoy their morning snacks.

Mariel's question struck me with curiosity. So, I looked for Mang Pitoy, the Dumagat elder who accompanied the four Dumagat girls to the summer camp. I asked him what Mariel's question could have meant. Mang Pitoy smiled before answering me. This unraveled a deeper understanding of the Dumagats and their struggle as indigenous people.

The Dumagats, according to Mang Pitoy, cultivate the land in a nomadic way because they believe no one can own the land, which is only borrowed from past and future generations. They lived in largely forested areas. In cultivating a small piece of land to feed a family, the Dumagats select only a small portion of the mountainside with trees that are mature enough to cut down as firewood. This is to preserve the primary forest. After trees are turned into firewood, they cultivate the land and plant root crops or other low-cost agricultural products. They rely on backward farming tools such as "bolos" or agricultural knives to cut down weeds. They cultivate the land mostly by hand.

While waiting for harvest season, Dumagats of the olden days relied on the bounty of nature for their sustenance. They hunt, gather fruits and other forest products, or fish in the river. After a year or two, the family will move to another part of the mountain to allow the patch of land they cultivated to "heal" and to allow trees to grow on it again.

This lifestyle was sustainable lifestyle for them until big loggers came in and denuded their forests and poisoned their rivers. Their community's primary sources of sustenance were destroyed.

Settlers from lowland communities also exploited the Dumagats. Capitalizing on their low educational background and their inability to read and write, the settlers forced them to sell their ancestral domain. Big capitalists and landlord settlers drove them to increasing poverty.

These days they even experience months with no harvest and children and their families start their day with just a hot cup of brewed roasted rice. They go on with their household and farm chores for the day and expect only one, not so decent meal, usually for dinner, everyday.

Thus, this explains the incredulity of the Dumagat girls who experienced days when they could eat three-full-decent meals and still have some snacks in between during the summer camp.

A few days after the end of the summer camp, some ARCSEA colleagues and Italian guests visited Mariel and her community at Sta. Inez, Tanay, Rizal. We met Mariel with her friends. At one point, she pulled me aside and whispered to me that all her friends want to be invited to next year's summer camp. They want to experience days where they could enjoy three full meals while having fun and learning together with other children from other communities.

Summer Camp children busily engrossed in their creation of
mandala-like art patterns

Mariel and a friend from the Dumagat village in Tanay, Rizal eagerly
displaying their art work.