Bu-lat-lat (boo-lat-lat) verb: to search, probe, investigate, inquire; to unearth facts

Vol. V,    No. 8      April 3 - 9, 2005      Quezon City, Philippines

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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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© 2004 Bulatlat  Alipato Publications

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