Advocate's Overview: The women from Kiltepan

patnugutan July 5, 2015 columns, Cordillera, Featured, opinion

By ARTHUR L. ALLAD-IW
www.nordis.net

It was a Wednesday morning in June. The amam-a (or elders) were gathered in dap-ay Kilong. As part of their traditional systems, they discussed the problem that threatened Tekeng, their ‘aayagan’ or spiritual ground located on a mountain peak that overlooks eastern Sagada’s four villages: Kilong, Tetep-an Sur, Tetep-an Norte, and Antadao, popularly referred to collectively as Kiltepan.

Their discussions were very substantial on the indigenous usage of Tekeng as their spiritual grounds and how the state system was used by a politician and his heirs to transfer his rights to a land-claim or “rights” to a millionaire-buyer, who wanted to transform the area into a center of tourism. But the elders stood pat and asserted their since-time-immemorial right over the area as part of the community’s sacred grounds. They traced the land’s history, and pointed out the maneuverings done by the said politician who is not from their villages.

This historic discussion would be utilized by the professionals from the said villages to contest the move to privatize the area in favor of the millionaire and as facilitated by the very same government agency that boasted to champion the rights of indigenous peoples.

Equally historic in the event was the role of our women – both the elders and the younger ones. I could count with my fingers elder women who joined the discussion. It showed that the decision making was not only for men, and like any other social concerns besetting the community, they participate in the dap-ay — our indigenous socio-political institution–where each family belongs to, although represented by their male adults from their families.

And concretely in the case of Tekeng as the aayagan or spiritual ground, the women, particularly grandparents, are usually the people performing rituals or prayers in relation to a member of a family who is sick or beset by any problem. “That is our hospital in the olden days as our ancestors ran in the area for rituals that would cure illness encountered by family members and even the community as a whole,” pointed elder Pal-ang Agetyeng.

But what made me realize and appreciate the role of the younger women was they insured there was food for all the participants during that occasion. From the various dumap-ay (members of the dap-ay) in the said villages, there were more or less 60 elders who participated in the gathering.

While the discussions were going on, the younger women prepared and cooked the pig butchered by the younger male members of dap-ay Kilong. And the pork was served, with indigenous rice, for our lunch which was right on time as the discussions were wrapped up by Lakay Pelked Olowan.

The role of elder and younger women are somewhat delineated in social occasions. The elder women had a say in decisions as they gained wisdom from their existence in their village, in fact even the performance of ritual as mandated by their family’s existence. The younger women performed other tasks like cooking, as they too had developed such “mastery” and are more capable of accomplishing such kind of tasks.

The women’s role therefore is an integral part of any collective occasion in our community life ways as members of the Kiltepan villages. And in the community struggle for their rights over the Tekeng spiritual ground, the women’s role will contribute in the outcome of the struggle. # nordis.net