Mangyan Heritage Center

Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD
LIVING WITNESS TO DIALOGUE

       For Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD, the mountain peaks of Oriental Mindoro are more than a place of mission. It is his home and the Mangyans are his family. Amang, as the Mangyans fondly call Fr. Dinter, has been living with the natives for 24 years now. The first 10 years was spent with the Hanunuo tribe one of the eight Mangyan tribes in Mindoro, each with their unique language and culture). Unsurprisingly, he has already embraced the Mangyan culture. In fact, he has mastered their ancient writing system and speaks their language.

       As a formator, he became the first rector of the St. Augustine Major Seminary for seven years; and as a member of the Divine Word Missionaries, he served the last SVD Mindoro Regional Superior and the first Provincial Superior of the SVD Philippine Central Province in 1982.

       Fr. Dinter is an advocate for indigenous peoples' education, believing that education can make help them more of their kind and eventually uplift their human dignity and attain their full human potentials in the world, without losing their identity and culture. He co-founded the Mangyan Heritage Center in Mindoro. As well, he is currently the CBCP's Executive Secretary of the Episcopal Commision on Indigenous Peoples.

       As an educator, Amang has sent thousands of Mangyans to 30 elementary schools which he himself established. More than 300 Mangyans have since graduated from college. One became an SSpS nun nad one is now a priest, Fr. Gabby Oybad.

       Amang is a missionary, a priest, an educator, and a man whose advocacy for education and culture is immesurable. An SVD who feels proud to be one with people he never had the chance to grow up with half his life, but has learned to live with for most of his life.

       The Society of the Divine Word Philippine Central Province, in giving the ST. JOSEPH FREINADEMETZ MISSION AWARD to Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD, recognizes him as the best example of living witness to prophetic dialogue and inculturation.

(from the SVD MISSION AWARD brochure)

RESPONSE

When I moved into the mountains of Mindoro to live with the Mangyans, I asked them casually about their rituals. They said they would no longer practise them. After some more evasive answers I suddenly realized they did not like to tell me about it. A long waiting followed. Then, one day I was invited to a feast. We ate and shared some betel nuts. Two elderly Mangyans approached me. They said that all had observed me and found out that I had never made any negative...

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