Mangyan Heritage Center

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 remark about their culture and customs. So, they decided that I may know everything from now on, and they started to explain the rituals they had performed in the early morning. Joy and gratitude are still with me, journeying with the Mangyans for 24 years now.

There are close to 400 Million Indigenous Peoples in the world. If you asked them about their aspirations, there might be several answers. If you inquire about their problems, there would be two main areas: land, ancestral domain; it is getting smaller and is taken away. The second one is human dignity; they are mostly considered and treated as second-class people.

In Mindoro, Mangyan Mission, Overseas Missionary Fellowship and other groups assisted the Mangyans in different fields and ways for a long time. Twenty years ago, the Mangyan Mission Program was worked out with Mangyan leaders, responding to their expressed needs. In our work, we move within a milieu of the unique Mangyan cultures and imposing migratory influence, peaceful living traditions and threats of unjust social structures, wealth of nature and violations of the integrity of creation by development aggression. There is a continuous effort towards conscientization. All Mangyan tribes now have their own peoples' organizations and formed a federation. They speak for themselves and make their decisions for their own lives

We try to be in dialogue, always. We offer the Good News of Jesus, but our work is with all, baptized or non-baptized. The process of inculturation has to be done mostly by the 120 Basic Ecclesial Communities. It is not by sitting on the bamboo floor during mass that inculturation is achieved. There is a deeper meeting point between their culture and the Gospel. What are the longings and unexpressed expectations of the Mangyans which could be fulfilled and/or challenged by the Good News? How do we discern, together, the "seeds of the Word" hidden in their culture and living traditions? Thru genuine dialogue we might get a glimpse of the soul of the Mangyan people, their values, thoughts, songs, poetry, feasts, dreams and human potential, their indigenous laws, governance and problem-solving strategies. A great help is the Mangyan Heritage Center in Calapan with its anthropological research papers and reports.

How then is our witness? This is our continuing challenge. Can the Mangyans see and feel that the Good News of Jesus has become part of our own lives, that the Gospel shows us, how to behave in frustrations, how we solve conflicts and that we are joyful about the coming Reign of God.

In the name of the co-workers, past and present, and friends of the Mangyan Mission, I accept this award.

January 29, 2010. Ewald Dinter