A Bedtime Story

The following is a remarkable but true story. In 1997 the Philippine parlement voted a law that gave indigenous people the opportunity to become the official owners of their ancestral lands (the Indigenous People's Rights Act). The Bagobo-Tagabawa are one of the indigenous groups who went through the whole procedure of documenting their history, genealogy and cultural practices to prove that they are the rightful owners of their ancestral domain (Mount Apo) and that their ancestral lands are essential to the survival of their culture. Kapwa helped the Bagobo with getting all of the documents together and preparing the application to be submitted to the NCIP (National Council on Indigenous People). There was one problem, however. According to the belief of the Bagobo, you will die if you reveal the history of your tribe. Apo Amman Anga, the official keeper of the Bagobo oral history, made a brave but fatal decision. Old and sick at heart he could feel that his time had come. To help his tribe obtain the ancestral domain title and secure its ownership of Mount Apo, he walked the long way to Tudaya to reveal the whole history of the Bagobo-Tagabawa. Six hours later he was dead...