A Day in the Life of the Aetas: A Photo
Essay
Home is where the
heart is. No volcano eruption, land grabbing, or mining operation can
drive the Aetas away from their home in Camias, Porac, 92 kms north of
Manila.
Text and photos by Aubrey Sc Makilan
Bulatlat
(Note: Click on the image for
its full size)
Home is where the heart is. No
volcano eruption, land grabbing, or mining operation can drive the Aetas
away from their home in Camias, Porac, 92 kms north of Manila.
The road to Camias is
not just bumpy – it feels like trudging on a desert in the first half of
the travel. Temperature turns to extremes by the presence of solid lahar
that is formed from the ash flows that spewed from Mt.
Pinatubo’s historic eruption 14
years ago.
Porac is not just
home to the Aetas. Just off the desert-like road, a wide sugarcane
plantation occupies nearly half of Barangay (village) Planas. Kabyawan
(milling season) starts from November and ends in February. With
planting of sugarcane and other crops seasonal, kasamas (farm
workers) work as contractuals.
Signs that you’re
approaching the Aeta communities are when you hear cheers of children.
Neighbors would gather under a tree and start the socialization, or simply
rest together.
Because they live
with nature, Aetas are greatly familiar with their environment. They live
a life of their own up the mountains than in the plains.
Before noon, fewer
Aeta men could be seen in their communities as many are busy with charcoal
-making and farming in
kaingin (swidden farms) on the hills and mountains. They return home
in less than 20 minutes to take lunch with their families.
For meals, the Aetas
would pick a young papaya fruit behind their house and cook it with dried
fish broth. Or they could just catch a hen roaming in their backyard or
hunt a goat and wild pig for special occasions.
The
peace-loving Aetas sometimes trade their goods with cunning merchants. A
merchant, for instance, would price the Aetas’ sack of gabi for P30
in exchange for their plastic of rice that costs P50. In the end, the
Aetas would still have to pay the P20 balance.
Children have their own share of
chores. At an early age, Aeta children are taught how to use the spear,
bow and arrow for hunting and for defense. Some just stay at home taking
care of younger siblings when their parents attend to their farms.
But children are
children. Young Aetas could be seen playing piko, moro-moro
or even basketball.
When these children
grow up, they would later be climbing up and down the mountains, to bring
their struggle to self-determination in every arena the situation may
require them to do so.
Bulatlat
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