Project Report - La Trobe University

Project Report 

Indigenizing Education 

in a Kalinga Public 

School 

Maria Cameron and 

Edwin Wise 

July 2009

Contents 

Why this report? Introduction.......................................................................................................... 4 

Once upon a time… Project background.......................................................................................... 5 

The project at a glance....................................................................................................................... 7 

Our wish list Project goals and objectives........................................................................................ 8 

Arranging support Obtaining funding and forming working partnerships ...................................... 9 

How we did it Project methodology ............................................................................................... 10 

Creating the Ichananaw Children’s Storybooks An example of the process involved in making 

one of the indigenized educational materials ........................................................................ 12 

The tangible results Project outputs .............................................................................................. 15 

The intangible results Project outcomes ........................................................................................ 17 

Thank yous and goodbyes Project handover and wrap-up............................................................ 21 

How did we go? Project evaluation ............................................................................................... 22 

From here onwards Follow-on activities........................................................................................ 26 

Appendices Project schedule and project-related media .............................................................. 29 

Indigenizing Education in a Kalinga Public School | 2 

The Ichananaw’s rice fields are terraced with stone walls rather than by walls made 

from earth (as are the famous rice terraces of Banawe in the province of Ifugao).

Chananaw is surrounded by terraced rice fields, located 

halfway up a mountainside. 

Indigenizing Education in a Kalinga Public School | 3

Why this report? Introduction 

Maria hard at work in ‘the office’ – this time on a rock 

beside the Matû stream, near the waterfall where we 

would often join the village children for a refreshing 

swim during their midday break from school. 

Many different people and organizations have 

contributed to our work over the last five months 

with the Ichananaw tribe of Kalinga in the 

Philippines. One of the main purposes of this 

project report is to communicate to these 

individuals and organizations what the project in 

which they participated achieved overall, and the 

areas in which we hope they will continue the 

partnerships and the work we have begun. 

Second, some of the organizations that supported 

our work require us to report on the entire project. 

This report is also intended to meet the reporting 

requirements of the Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development of Ateneo de Manila University, the 

Philippines Australia Studies Centre of La Trobe 

University and the Volunteering for International 

Development from Australia program. 

Meanwhile, several people who have heard about 

our work have said they are interested to learn 

more about how the project came about, what we 

did, how we went about it and what comes next. 

We have written this comprehensive project report 

keeping this audience in mind as well, so as to 

communicate to a wider group our experience in 

general. 

Last, we should point out that this report is our one 

chance to tell our story in as much detail as we like. 

For us, and for the Dananao Elementary School and 

the wider community in Chananaw, this will serve 

as the documentation of our shared experience – 

although we should add that this report only 

reflects our own views, rather than those of the 

Ichananaw or any project partners. So, as you read 

through, feel free to skip to the parts that interest 

you most as not all will be equally relevant to all 

readers.

Once upon a time… Project background 

So many people have asked us, “Why did you 

choose Chananaw as the site for your project?” or 

“Why did you decide to work in Kalinga?” But we 

didn’t ‘choose’ Kalinga or Chananaw and we didn’t 

conceive of the project in abstract beforehand (as 

most research or community development projects 

seem to be). Instead, it all started with friendship, 

and we can’t stress the importance of this enough. 

We went to the Philippines for work and study. 

Edwin arrived in January 2008 to conduct a year’s 

fieldwork in Metro Manila for his doctoral thesis in 

urban sociology, which he is taking at La Trobe 

University in Australia. Maria followed in March 

2008 to work at the Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development of the Ateneo de Manila University 

with support from the AusAID-funded Australian 

Youth Ambassadors for Development volunteer 

program and the Philippines Australia Studies 

Centre of La Trobe University. 

The houses of Chananaw forms a crescent 

moon around a group of terraced rice fields at 

their center.

Below: children in Tu-u-an, one of the puroks of 

Chananaw. 

Opposite: the view from the house in which we were 

hosted by our friends Agom (Arlene) Dawing and 

Gaspar Dawing, which looks out across the village to 

some of the houses in Lappi, another purok in 

Chananaw. The houses are placed on a steeply 

ascending slope, so everyone has a good view from 

their porches or balconies. 


In April 2008, a mutual friend introduced us to 

Chananaw: Tim Andrews, another Australian. Tim 

was studying at Ateneo de Manila University on a 

student exchange from La Trobe University. He had 

made friends with Chananaw locals (‘Ichananaws’) 

by chance while travelling months earlier with a 

friend in the Cordilleras. The Ichananaws Tim met 

made such an impression on him that he returned 

to Chananaw for several more visits. Before leaving 

the Philippines at the end of his six-month student 

exchange, Tim took Edwin with him to Chananaw 

on his final visit. Edwin returned three weeks later 

with Maria. At that stage, we had no intention of 

working with the Ichananaw tribe, as we were 

both busy with our respective commitments in 

Manila. But it was the seeds of friendship sown in 

those initial visits that later blossomed to bear the 

fruit of our five-months’ work. 

During our August 2008 visit to Chananaw, 

Fargwog (Daniel) Aga-id – friend, tribal elder and 

retired school teacher – invited us to stay in 

Chananaw for one year to help the Ichananaw 

document their ‘life system’ so that they would be 

able to pass their cultural heritage on to the tribe’s 

future generations. We weren’t able to dedicate a 

year, but we offered the first five months of 2009, 

after Maria would have completed her work at 

Ateneo and Edwin would have completed a year’s 

research in Manila. Edwin decided to take a fivemonth 

break from his PhD to work on the project. 

From the seed of Fargwog’s initial invitation, and 

through many conversations with our friends in 

Chananaw over cups of sweet coffee, we designed a 

five-month project to document the Ichananaw’s 

way of life and to develop ‘indigenized’ educational 

materials for use in Dananao Elementary School, 

their local public school, as the means for passing 

cultural heritage to the next generation.

The project at a glance 

Timeframe 

Project duration: 5 months 

Project start: mid February 2009 

Project end: mid July 2009 

Location 

The upland-living members of the indigenous 

Ichananaw tribe live in the remote, small (104 

families, a population of 600-700 inhabitants) 

wholly indigenous community of Chananaw 

(formally known as ‘Dananao’), located in the 

mountains of Kalinga Province, Cordillera 

Administrative Region, Northern Luzon. Luzon 

is the largest island in the Philippine 

archipelago. No road accessible by vehicles 

reaches the village and there is no electricity 

supply. A cash economy is almost non-existent 

within the village since the community practices 

subsistence farming. Our project was largely 

carried out in both Chananaw and Manila, with 

short stints in provincial centers across the 

Cordilleras like Baguio, Bontoc and Tabuk. 

Key individuals 

The Aussies 

� Maria Cameron – overall project 

manager, educational materials 

developer, cultural documenter 

� Edwin Wise – educational materials 

developer, networking advisor 

The Ichananaws 

� Agom (Arlene) Dawing – project 

supervisor in Chananaw 

� Fargwog (Daniel) Aga-id – key tribal 

elder involved in the project 

� Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy – became 

Maria and Edwin’s unofficial ‘local 

counterpart’ as the project unfolded 

The Ateneans 

� Carmela Oracion – project director at 

the Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development 

� Mai Francia – project officer at Ateneo 

Center for Educational Development 

Key organizations 

� Dananao Elementary School – the 

project’s official ‘target beneficiary’ (the 

recipient of the educational materials 

developed), official host organization for 

Maria and Edwin in Chananaw 

� Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development, Ateneo de Manila 

University – key organization 

partnering with Dananao Elementary 

School for the development of 

indigenized educational materials 

� Philippines Australia Studies Centre, 

La Trobe University – supported Maria 

and Edwin in their work on the project 

by granting each of them Honorary 

Research Fellow status 

� AusAID-funded Volunteering for 

International Development from 

Australia – supported Maria and Edwin 

as volunteers hosted by Dananao 

Elementary School for their work on the 

project 

� Direct Aid Program, Australian 

Government – funded the printing of 

the educational materials developed, 

from a small grants program managed 

by the Australian Embassy in Manila 

� Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan (Ang 

INK) – 17 members of the Philippines’ 

premier children’s book illustrators’ 

association voluntarily illustrated 

several of the educational materials 

developed 

� Art Angel Printshop – printed all 

educational materials developed, 

volunteered graphic layout for several 

of the educational materials 

� Cordillera Studies Center, University 

of the Philippines Baguio – granted 

Edwin Research Affiliate status, 

provided links and contacts to assist in 

the collection of secondary materials

Our wish list Project goals and objectives 

We had a number of different goals we wanted to 

reach by the end of the project. 

At the forefront of our minds, and in direct 

response to Fargwog’s initial request, was our 

hope to facilitate transmission of the Ichananaw’s 

cultural heritage to the tribe’s next generation. 

Simultaneously, our twin goal was to improve the 

quality of public elementary education in 

Chananaw by making education more culturally 

appropriate. 

Specifically, our objectives relating to cultural 

documentation and education were: 

� Education through culture – to design, review 

and produce educational materials (for 

teachers and students), which are relevant, 

culturally-specific and appropriate for use at 

the Dananao Elementary School. 

� Culture through education – to incorporate the 

Ichananaw’s cultural heritage in public 

education, via instructional materials with 

Ichananaw-specific content. 

But apart from being clear about these goals and 

objectives, we didn’t specify exactly what shape the 

educational materials would take. 

As well as this, we also wanted to make the most of 

our own social capital (being educated foreigners 

with well-established networks in the Philippines 

in the spheres of development, academia and 

education) in order to link the Ichananaw to 

organizations who may also be interested in 

engaging with them. 

In a broader sense, we hoped that the five months 

would act as a springboard for future involvement 

with the Ichananaw – by us, by Philippine NGOs, or 

by any others interested within the Philippine or 

Australian communities – for development on the 

tribe’s own terms. We were especially conscious of 

how short a time we had to do anything in-depth. 

The stairs leading from the Dananao Elementary School 

grounds up to the Roman Catholic church in Chomang, 

another purok in Chananaw.

Arranging support 

Obtaining funding and forming working partnerships 

Before commencing the project in mid February 

2009, we spent some time arranging support for 

the project from various sources. Maria developed 

all applications and proposals, always in close 

collaboration with relevant host or partner 

organizations. 

The Dananao Elementary School applied to the 

AusAID-funded volunteer program Volunteering 

for International Development from Australia for 

two volunteer positions for us. The Philippines 

Australia Studies Centre of La Trobe University 

supported us by giving us Honorary Research 

Fellow positions for the research elements of the 

project. We approached the University of the 

Philippines Baguio’s Cordillera Studies Center 

about becoming Research Affiliates (and although 

our application was successful, we didn’t follow 

through with formal affiliation in the end due to 

logistic and time constraints). 

Dananao Elementary School partnered with the 

Ateneo Center for Educational Development for the 

development and publication of indigenized 

educational materials. This marked the 

continuation of a partnership between Ateneo and 

the school facilitated by us in 2008, when we 

profiled the school (at the school’s request) and 

produced a School Profile Report, which outlined 

the school’s unique situation and suggested 

priority areas for improvement. The Ateneo Center 

for Educational Development then applied to, and 

was successful in obtaining, a small grant (Php 

275,000, approximately AUD 7,000) from the 

Australian Government’s Direct Aid Program to 

cover publishing costs. We began initial 

discussions with Art Angel Printshop regarding 

printing of all the materials within our very tight 

timeframes. Also through our Ateneo networks, we 

began to explore options for a partnership with 

Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan to develop illustrated 

storybooks as a key project output. 

Edwin (standing in the foreground) and Apalis 

(Ombin) Abaggoy (standing at the back to the right of 

Edwin) in the classroom with a group of about 50 

children with whom we conducted an art activity. 

Apalis told the children stories (first about a monkey 

and a turtle and then about a snail and a water 

buffalo) and then we gave them colored pencils, 

crayons and pastels to illustrate scenes from each 

story. This was the first time most of the children had 

ever drawn with colors.

How we did it Project methodology 

Maria sits with the ‘tools of the trade’ beside her: 

paper, notebook, pen, hip bag with voice recorder, and 

a cup of very sweet, hot coffee. 

Kasoy (Levemay) Abaggoy reviews the first draft of 

Filluruu, the first oral story we documented in writing. 

The story was retold by Kasoy’s mother, Fai (Ernesta) 

Aga-id. Beside Kasoy, her son Ayfa (Edmar) Abaggoy 

gives a big smile. 

In terms of geographical location, we split 

ourselves across the two main locations where we 

needed to be to conduct the project. Maria was 

based in Chananaw and Edwin in Manila, though 

we both spent short stints in provincial centers like 

Bontoc, Tabuk and Baguio. Also, Edwin spent a 

total of six weeks in Chananaw and Maria spent a 

total of five weeks in Manila. Refer to the project 

schedule at Appendix 1 for further details as to 

where each of us was located through the course of 

the project and the general focus of our work at 

each stage. 

As well as managing the project overall (including 

preparing all applications and proposals associated 

with the project), Maria focused on working within 

the community of Chananaw itself, conducting 

most of the ethnographic fieldwork, primary data 

collection and community engagement aspects of 

the work. All of this was done hand-in-hand with 

participating community members. Meanwhile, 

Edwin was based in Manila to gather all materials 

from external sources, to liaise with project 

partners and to coordinate the input of the Ang 

Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists for storybook 

illustrations. However, we both helped each other 

out in our respective areas of work and ‘filled in’ 

for each other on many occasions. 

As well as being flexible regarding our respective 

roles, we approached the entire project with a very 

flexible, open mind – regarding timing (within the 

confines of our overall five-month project 

timeframe), the actual content of the project, the 

people involved, communications with the various 

project partners and stakeholders, and our 

methods of carrying out the work itself.

At the forefront of our mind was our wish to 

respect the community itself, and to honor the 

invitation to be in Chananaw in the first place – we 

wanted to do what we’d been invited to do, 

without bowing to external pressures or 

expectations. We also tried our best to be as open 

and transparent as possible about our intentions 

and our activities with the community. This 

included explaining our project during our first 

week in Chananaw at a large community meeting, 

and also having a community-wide project 

presentation in our final week, where we explained 

exactly what we had done in the five months and 

presented the Dananao Elementary School with the 

educational materials we had made. 

Maria listens to an elder, Peter Bakidan, reflect on 

some of his life experiences, in the front yard of our 

host family’s home. All data collection took place in 

informal settings like this. 


Agom (Arlene) Dawing looks over her two youngest 

children Akunay (Greziel Dee) Dawing and Karen (Irish 

Grace) Dawing while Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy sits 

nearby reading through a draft of Annaja Ukali Ta-u, 

the book written by tribal elder Fargwog (Daniel) Aga - 

id.

Creating the Ichananaw 

Children’s Storybooks 

An example of the process involved in making one of the 

indigenized educational materials 

Chumanay (Elisa) Dawing (center) retells the tale of Majagwon and 

Fasnî. Her daughter-in-law Agom (Arlene) Dawing (far right) 

translates the story orally from Chinananaw to English. Maria 

(second from left) documents Agom’s English translation. 

Chumanay’s granddaughter Monique (Marriel Lyn) Dawing (left) 

and husband Maglim (Jose) Dawing (near right) listen to her story. 

For each story, the Ichananaw 

storyteller told the story orally in 

either English or Chinananaw (the 

Ichananaw’s indigenous 

language), usually over a cup of 

coffee in their home, on the porch, 

or in the front yard. All 

storytelling took place in informal 

settings, and was usually either 

voluntarily offered by the 

storyteller or followed our or a 

fellow Ichananaw’s request for a 

particular story. Some stories 

were told by young children who 

had heard them from their 

parents or grandparents, but most 

were told by adults. 

If told in Chinananaw, an 

Ichananaw friend, relative or 

companion translated the story 

orally paragraph by paragraph as 

it was told. Maria noted down by 

hand the oral English version of 

the story as it was told, and 

sometimes we used a digital voice 

recorder (to be used for reference 

purposes only).

Maria drafted the written English 

text based on the oral retelling of 

the story. This was then reviewed 

by Agom (Arlene) Dawing or 

Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy in 

Chananaw. The English written 

versions for about two thirds of 

the stories were translated into 

Chinananaw and Tagalog by 

members of the tribe, including by 

several of the schoolteachers. All 

Chinananaw translations were 

then reviewed by either Agom or 

Apalis. 

Next, members of the Ateneo de 

Manila University community 

edited or created the Tagalog 

versions, through the coordination 

of Carmela Oracion and the 

Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development. Maria edited and 

compiled the different 

translations of each story. 


Apalis (Ombin) 

Abaggoy (left) and 

Agom (Arlene) 

Dawing (center) 

work hard to 

translate the 

stories from 

English to 

Chinananaw. 

Agom’s husband 

Gaspar Dawing 

(top) helps Agom 

to find the best 

Chinananaw 

words for the 

English terms. 

Fâ-ras (Lucas) Badong (left) tells the 

story of The Marriage of Fanna and 

Ragkunagwa. Apalis (Ombin) 

Abaggoy (center) translates the oral 

story from Chinananaw to English 

while Maria (right) writes down the 

English version. Apalis carries his 

sleeping son in his arms and Fâ-ras his 

sleeping granddaughter on his back.


With the encouragement and 

coordination of artist and 

architect Jomike Tejido, Ang 

Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists 

illustrated sixteen of the 

storybooks pro bono. Edwin 

liaised with the artists via the 

internet, and almost all artwork 

was submitted electronically. 

Three members of the Ichananaw 

tribe voluntarily illustrated three 

stories, and we illustrated a story 

each. Art Angel Printshop 

volunteered the final graphic 

layout of the stories, and printed 

all storybooks. 

Romnay (Shirley) Sangoy translates the story of 

Filluruu from English to Chinananaw. 

Some of the Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists 

display the Ichananaw Children’s Storybook that 

they illustrated at the dinner we held to thank them 

for their contribution on July 10, 2009 in Quezon 

City. From left to right: Lesley Lim, Ma. Yasmin 

Doctor, Pergylene Acuña, Rex D. Aguilar, Nina Fides 

Garcia, Zeus Allen C. Bascon and Aldy C. Aguirre. 

Three of the Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists were 

able to join us at the Australia Center, Makati for the 

Australian Embassy’s NAIDOC Week celebration on 

July 10, 2009. Here, Jenny Jasmin Lacay displays the 

book she illustrated: Chongkaw.

The tangible results Project outputs 

We produced the following materials and 

resources for use in the Dananao Elementary 

School: 

Ichananaw Knowledge Bank 

A set of nine hardbound volumes of secondary 

materials (i.e. gathered from outside Chananaw) 

relevant to the Ichananaw tribe. One volume is of 

materials gathered which relate to Chananaw 

specifically; one is of materials relevant to Kalinga; 

one is of materials related to the Cordilleras in 

general; and the remaining six volumes are entire 

books with relevant historical or ethnographic 

accounts. Our intention here was to ‘bring back’ 

some of the results of the research conducted by 

academics in the past to the subjects of their 

studies. 

Ichananaw Children's Storybooks 

A series of 21 colorfully-illustrated, individual 

storybooks (10-22 pages each), which retell some 

of the Ichananaw’s legends, fables and history. 

Sixteen storybooks were illustrated voluntarily by 

Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists, three by tribe 

members, and we illustrated one each. All books 

are in multiple languages simultaneously on each 

page – English, Tagalog and two thirds with 

Chinananaw (the tribe’s indigenous language). 

Members of the Ateneo community voluntarily 

edited or produced the Tagalog translations, 

through the Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development’s coordination. From our initial 

intention to make one or two storybooks, this 

ballooned into a massive project involving direct 

input from almost 70 people (some from as far 

away as Japan, Singapore and Australia), to 

produce the series of 21 storybooks. This became 

by far the largest component of our project in 

terms of time, effort, cost and output. 

Annaja Ukali Ta-u (Here is Our Culture) 

A 66-page, A5-size book authored by Fargwog 

(Daniel) Aga-id, the Ichananaw elder who initially 

invited us to do this work Edited by Maria, the 

book contains accounts of aspects of the 

At the July 3, 2009 celebration in Chananaw where we 

presented the community with the educational 

materials we produced, Maria (right) shows Fâ-ras 

(Lucas) Badong (left) the Ichananaw Children’s 

Storybook she herself illustrated, in which Fâ-ras 

features as a main character. The story, Fangkugwoy 

2, is a funny play on the older Fangkugwoy story the 

Ichananaw have told each other for generations.

Fargwog (Daniel) Aga-id, the elder who initially 

invited us to help document the tribe’s ‘life 

system’, reads over the final draft of one of 

the chapters of his book, Annaja Ukali Ta-u, 

which we produced as a teachers’ resource for 

the Dananao Elementary School teachers. 


Ichananaw’s cultural beliefs and practices and 

customary law (consisting of inter-tribal peace 

pacts), along with a collection of 34 songs Fargwog 

composed, sung and taught to his own pupils 

during his 29 years as a teacher in the Dananao 

Elementary School. 

Ichananaw Songs and Stories 

A 272-page, A5-size book compiling all songs and 

stories documented during the course of the 

project (63 in total). This book includes Fargwog’s 

34 songs and the 21 stories that we made into the 

series of illustrated Ichananaw Children’s 

Storybooks, along with two songs and six stories 

not printed elsewhere. 

Namamfaru gway imis ru-atana na achu gway bendisyon 

(A warm smile opens the door to many blessings) 

A 200-page coffee table book comprising a 

collection of our photographs, along with a few 

taken by Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy and David 

Cameron. The photographs offer a visual account 

of the tribe’s current way of life. For the largely 

illiterate community, this is likely to be one of the 

most important outputs, as the entire community 

can enjoy looking through the book. We provided 

the school with two copies, so that one can be 

stored for the future – hopefully in many years 

they can look back and see a snapshot of village life 

as it is now. 

Towards a Chinananaw-English-Ilocano-Tagalog Dictionary 

A first draft of a four-language dictionary and 

phrasebook, comprising almost 2,000 words and 

phrases documented during the five months. We 

will use this as the starting point for further work 

towards developing a comprehensive dictionary, 

which compares the indigenous language 

(Chinananaw) to the two mediums of instruction in 

schools (English and Tagalog) and the Cordillera’s 

lingua franca (Ilocano), for eventual use in 

Chananaw.

The intangible results Project outcomes 

Less tangible than the educational materials, but in 

some ways far more valuable, are the relationships 

formed as a result of the entire experience, and the 

opportunity to learn from each other. 

The beginnings of long-lasting relationships 

Dananao Elementary School, as well as the broader 

Ichananaw community, has been able to develop 

its networks with other organizations through the 

course of the project. The outcome is a series of 

new partnerships and friendships with potential to 

blossom into long-lasting, fruitful relationships in 

the coming years. The key organizations and 

individuals which we helped link to the school are: 

Ateneo Center for Educational Development 

The school had already been ‘adopted’ by the 

Ateneo Center for Educational Development as one 

of its partner schools in 2008 through our 

introduction of the two organizations to each 

other. But during this project their relationship 

deepened as they partnered together to develop 

the indigenized educational materials at the core of 

our project. Also, over the five months, the school 

received several quality educational materials, 

including lesson guides for teachers and 

workbooks and reading books for students. We 

have transported these to the community on our 

several trips from Manila to Kalinga. Ateneo has 

already expressed its intention to continue its 

support of the school through similar targeted 

interventions, so we are confident this relationship 

will continue into the future. 

Cartwheel Foundation 

This is a Philippines-based NGO which supports 

education in remote indigenous communities. We 

brought a staff member of Cartwheel Foundation 

to visit the community in February 2009, which led 

to Cartwheel Foundation running its Music and 

Arts Program in Chananaw. This will also 

contribute to the development of indigenized 

Key Cartwheel Foundation members attended the 

July 10, 2009 NAIDOC Week morning tea at the 

Australian Embassy, at which we presented our 

project. From left to right: Cartwheel Foundation’s 

Coleen Rae P. Ramirez (Communications and 

Development Officer), Rojean Edith C. Macalalad 

(Executive Director), Maria, Gaspar Dawing (Barangay 

Captain of Chananaw) and Cartwheel Foundation’s 

Michael ‘Ambo’ Tito P. Ubanan (Programs Officer).

VIDA’s Austraining Country Manager, Jonas 

Tetangco (right) shares a stimulating 

conversation with Ichananaw Manny Onalan 

(left), Maria’s father David Cameron (center 

left) on vacation from Australia, and his son, 

Miguel Tetangco (center right), in Manny’s 

home in Tabuk, the capital of Kalinga 

Province. We stopped by Manny’s on our way 

to Chananaw for Jonas’ monitoring and 

evaluation visit and David’s two-week visit to 

Chananaw, to recuperate after the overnight 

trip from Manila. As always, Manny treated us 

to good coffee, good food and good 

conversation. 


educational materials. After a series of workshops 

which culminated in a cultural performance in 

Manila at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, in 

which 15 Ichananaw participated, a manual will be 

developed by Cartwheel Foundation to assist the 

teachers at the school to incorporate their 

traditional dance, music and art into the 

curriculum. The school intends to continue the 

relationship begun with Cartwheel Foundation 

during the last five months, initially to complete 

the educational manual as the final stage of the 

Music and Arts Program. But the community also 

hopes to avail itself of Cartwheel Foundation’s 

other programs in the future, for example their 

college scholarships to study at the Pamulaan 

Center for Indigenous Peoples’ Education in Davao, 

Mindanao. There is also the possibility of the 

school becoming familiar with other similar NGOs 

that support indigenous peoples through their new 

relationship with Cartwheel Foundation. 

Volunteering for International Development from Australia 

The VIDA Austraining Country Manager, Jonas 

Tetangco, visited Chananaw for monitoring and 

evaluation purposes in May 2009. This visit made a 

strong impression on Jonas and the beginnings of 

what we hope will be a long-term, supportive 

relationship was formed. At a broader level, due to 

the success of our five-month project in Chananaw, 

VIDA has expressed its enthusiasm for future 

engagement with the Ichananaw in terms of 

sustainable development with support from 

Australian volunteers. 

Philippines Australia Studies Centre, La Trobe University 

There is potential for future research to be 

conducted in Chananaw with support from La 

Trobe University, given the successful precedent 

set by our project. 

The Australian Embassy in Manila and the broader Australian community 

The Ateneo Center for Educational Development 

applied, on the school’s behalf, to the Australian 

Government’s Direct Aid Program for a grant to 

cover the publishing costs for the educational 

materials produced by this project. This was 

successful, and led to us being invited to present 

our project at a NAIDOC Week morning tea at the 

Australian Embassy in July, 2009, which was 

attended by four Ichananaws central to our 

project, as well as various leaders from the nongovernment 

and Philippine government sectors 

dealing with indigenous, cultural and educational

issues. It is possible that the networking 

opportunity and media exposure provided by this 

event may have opened doors to more links 

between the Ichananaw and Australia, not just for 

education, but in other areas as well. 

Building capacity 

Through the course of the project, we have been 

able to exchange skills and build capacity amongst 

the Ichananaw we worked with. While most of this 

occurred informally while working alongside each 

other, some attempts at consciously building 

capacity have had the following outcomes: 

Increased computer skills amongst schoolteachers and community members 

Several of the teachers now have email accounts 

and have had the opportunity to learn a few basic 

web browsing and word processing skills, as a 

result of a training session Maria provided over the 

summer vacation in Tabuk, the provincial capital. 

Maria held a one-day training session for most of 

the schoolteachers, the school principal and five 

other community members in the provincial 

capital, Tabuk, at an internet shop. By the end of 

the day, they could all conduct a simple Google 

search and five had set up email accounts, as well 

as having set up an email account for the school. 

Even during our project, we were already able to 

benefit from these new skills acquired by our 

Ichananaw friends, as we communicated with them 

from Manila to receive the last Chinananaw story 

translations via email from Tabuk. 

Greater awareness of project proposal writing amongst community leaders 

Maria discussed at length the process, use and 

skills involved in developing a successful project 

proposal, with the school principal, the barangay 

captain and the barangay secretary. 

Exposure to alternative teaching methods for schoolteachers 

All the teachers had the opportunity to consider 

different approaches to dealing with the problem 

of teaching in English or Filipino to students who 

barely speak these languages. We arranged a 

seminar for the Dananao Elementary School 

teachers on the First Language Component 

Bridging Program by its creator, Dr. Gloria 

Baguingan from Nueva Viscaya State University. 

This was held in Tabuk and was attended by 


On April 6, 2009 in Bulanao, 

Tabuk, Ichananaw teachers 

and community members 

listen to Dr. Gloria Baguingan 

(left) as she shares about the 

First Language Component 

Bridging Program.

Opposite top: at our July 3, 2009 celebration and 

project presentation in Chananaw, Maria gives Rubfin 

(Rufina) Liyaban the first look at book 21, the story of 

Kimfangunan, the pregnant woman who wanted to 

become tattooed. This book was illustrated by an 

Ichananaw, Rubfin’s son-in-law Randy Oplay. 

Opposite center: the presentation of educational 

materials on July 3, 2009 was preceded and followed by 

dancing and beating of gongs. We joined in, Maria 

dancing with the women and Edwin beating a gong. 

Opposite bottom: at the Australian Embassy’s NAIDOC 

Week event on July 10, 2009 Ichananaw project 

supervisor Agom (Arlene) Dawing (center) met for the 

first time project partner Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development’s Managing Director, Carmela C. Oracion 

(left). Here, they pose for the media with the Charge 

d’Affaires Steven Scott and VIPs from the government 

and non-government sectors which work with 

indigenous peoples. 

Below: also on July 3, 2009, Agom (Arlene) Dawing 

(second from left in the foreground) and Maria (center, 

holding a stack of books) explain what the Ichananaw 

Children’s Storybooks are to the assembled community. 

Agom points to the first book in the series of 21, the 

story of the magic Filluruu shell, explaining that it was 

retold by Fai (Ernesta) Aga-id (left) and illustrated 

voluntarily by a Filipino artist, Lesley Lim. 


almost all of the teachers, along with other 

Ichananaws. This was useful in that it gave the 

teachers an example of an alternative teaching 

method they may wish to apply, to deal with the 

problems they face with having to teach in English 

and Filipino while the schools’ pupils start out only 

speaking their indigenous language, Chinananaw. 

Also, we hope that this initial opportunity to meet 

marked the beginning of a fruitful relationship 

between Gloria and the school. As the seminar was 

conducted in the summer, and the new school year 

has only just started, it is still too early to see any 

changes within the school as a result of this 

exposure, but we received positive feedback from 

the teachers at the end of the seminar. 

Initiated a community-wide census 

In response to the barangay captain’s request, 

Maria designed and initiated a barangay-wide 

census, the results of which would benefit the 

barangay, the barangay health clinic and the 

school. In April and May 2009, half the households 

were surveyed by Maria, with assistance from 

several Ichananaws. In late May 2009, Maria 

trained the barangay midwife Manay (Marcelina) 

Sagmayaw in the surveying technique, enabling 

her to complete the census. Maria hopes to provide 

the community with an interim report on the 

findings to date, to be communicated via email.

Thank yous and goodbyes 

Project handover and wrap-up 

We arranged a series of events to conclude the 

project, first in Chananaw and then in Manila. 

On July 3, 2009 we hosted a community-wide 

celebration cum project presentation, farewell 

and general thanksgiving for our five months’ 

stay. The event had all the trappings of a typical 

Ichananaw ‘occasion’: gongs were beaten; there 

was dancing; elders composed songs on the 

spot about our time in Chananaw, in the ullalim 

style for which Kalinga is famous; and the entire 

community ate their fill of rice, pork and forat 

(broth). Intertwined with this, we explained and 

presented the educational materials we had 

developed and produced, one by one, to the 

Dananao Elementary School and thanked the 

community for sharing the entire experience 

with us. 

In Manila, we presented our project as the 

centerpiece of the Australian Embassy’s 

NAIDOC Week celebration: a morning tea held 

at the Australia Centre in Makati on July 10, 

2009. This provided several of the different 

groups who had contributed to the project with 

a unique chance to meet each other: four of the 

Ichananaws who had been central to our work 

in Chananaw came to Manila to attend the 

event, along with key members of the Ateneo 

Center for Educational Development, Cartwheel 

Foundation, Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan, and 

Volunteering for International Development 

from Australia. 

Also on July 10, 2009 we held a dinner for the 

Ang Ilustrador ng Kabataan artists who had 

contributed to our project, to thank them and to 

present each artist with a complementary copy 

of the book he or she had illustrated, and the 

collective with a full set of the storybooks for 

their library.

How did we go? Project evaluation 

Gaspar Dawing sings a song he composed some years 

ago about Chananaw (included in our book Ichananaw 

Songs and Stories). His daughter Karen (Irish Grace) 

Dawing stands nearby, listening to the song. Our digital 

voice recorder sits atop a pile of books, recording 

Gaspar’s song. 


Now, with hindsight, we can sit back and reflect on 

how the entire project measured up against our 

initial hopes. 

Overall, we, and everyone else involved, it seems, 

are very pleased with the entire project. We 

managed to create, produce and present to the 

Dananao Elementary School a suite of high quality 

educational materials, all in a relatively short time. 

Sixty-seven individuals from across four countries 

directly contributed to these materials, with many 

more providing indirect support. Most importantly, 

the educational materials are a considerable first 

step towards documenting the Ichananaw’s rich 

cultural heritage to assist its transmission to the 

tribe’s future generations. We initiated a series of 

partnerships between the Ichananaw and various 

sectors of the Philippine and Australian 

communities which already show promise to 

continue in the project’s wake. We parted with the 

community on good terms, with some tribe 

members, who may have been initially suspicious 

of the project and our underlying intentions, 

expressing their gratitude for what we’d done and 

inviting us to return for further work. This is 

important as it sets a positive precedent for future 

involvement we (or others connected to us) may 

have with the Ichananaw. Also, as we’d hoped, the 

five months has opened up several new avenues 

for further engagements both by ourselves and 

others. 

Why was it so successful? 

Given the apparent success of the project, we think 

it is worth asking: why were we able to pull it off in 

such a short time, and with what some may 

consider limited resources? This has been valuable 

for us to consider simply for ourselves, but may 

also hold useful lessons for others conducting 

similar community development or social research 

projects. The following are what we consider to be 

the main factors contributing to the success of the 

project:

Friends first 

Probably the single most important factor is that 

we were friends with the Ichananaw first, and the 

friendships counted (and still count) for more than 

any aspect of our formal work. The project was 

only conceived in the context of trust and 

friendship, which was formed in turn through a 

series of visits to Chananaw. So we were friends 

with our Ichananaw project supervisor, and other 

key people with whom we worked, before the 

project began. This meant that there were no 

relationship issues or personality clashes to 

negotiate. And at a deeper level, our personal 

relationships established with the Ichananaw 

translated into long-term commitment to doing our 

very best by the community in terms of the project, 

always keeping in mind potential long-term 

implications of our actions. 

Respecting the community’s wishes 

We were doing something that was actually 

requested by the beneficiaries of our project. This 

was important to us in principle, but also had 

useful consequences in practice. We didn’t need to 

‘win’ the community over to get them involved – 

everyone we interacted with was enthusiastic to 

participate and all involvement was volunteered. It 

also meant that all aspects of the project were 

considered important by the community. In 

practical terms, we couldn’t have done anything 

without community support and participation: the 

Ichananaws’ involvement was essential to most 

aspects of our work on a daily basis. Also, during 

the course of the project, we allowed the 

community’s wishes and interests to direct our 

activities. For example, the development of the 

four-way dictionary came about largely in 

response to the strong community sentiment that 

it would be a useful resource not just for the school 

but for the entire community. 

Flexible about everything… 

We were flexible. Flexible about what we wanted 

to achieve (we adjusted our ‘wish list’ of project 

outputs many times, without worrying about not 

meeting any preconceived ideas of what we 

wanted to produce), flexible about our roles (we 

‘filled in’ for each other when necessary or 

convenient), flexible about our location (we moved 

between Chananaw, Manila and across the 

Cordilleras as needed), flexible about the resources 

available to us (we were prepared to make do 

without funding for publishing if the grant 


To top off our project presentation and celebration in 

Chananaw on July 3, 2009, Maria sings a song she 

composed in Chinananaw to a common salidummay 

melody. The song tells of our time in Chananaw, our 

plans to return in a few years, and thanks the 

Ichananaw for the shared experience of the last five 

months. Good friend and supervisor Agom (Arlene) 

Dawing supports Maria by singing with her, while 

Edwin stands by for moral support.

Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy reviews yet another English 

version of a story while his son Ayfa (Edmar) Abaggoy 

sits in his lap. 


application was not successful, or without the 

input of professional artists, for example). This 

approach meant that we could easily adapt to 

changing circumstances and unexpected challenges 

(like when Edwin returned to Australia for almost 

a month in response to a medical emergency). It 

also meant that we could easily take all 

opportunities as they arose, like the chance to 

incorporate the work of the Ang Ilustrador ng 

Kabataan illustrators. 

…except time 

The only parameter which we didn’t treat flexibly 

was the project timeframe: we were adamant that 

we must complete the project within five months. 

This was useful in that it forced us to produce 

something fast without the luxury of stretching the 

timeline out indefinitely: we needed to produce 

something tangible before we left Chananaw when 

the five months was up. 

The right people for the job 

In terms of us as the two individuals driving the 

project, two characteristics probably contributed a 

lot to its success. First, the fact that we are a couple 

meant that we knew each other well, enjoyed 

working together and could provide a lot of 

support to each other in a way impossible if we 

weren’t already so close, to the point of taking over 

from each other when needed. In terms of being 

foreigners, the fact that we’d lived in the 

Philippines for a year before commencing the 

project meant that we didn’t have any cultural 

adjustment issues and we already had strong social 

and professional networks to draw on. 

Genuine partnerships, not charity 

We focused on only building genuine working 

partnerships. We weren’t seeking charitable 

support for the Ichananaw – not least since we 

consider them a resourceful, capable community 

with the ability to solve their own problems 

without the need for charity. Genuine partnerships, 

however, where each side contributed and each 

gained something from the interaction, were the 

vehicle we used to achieve those aspects of our 

project which we couldn’t achieve alone. This was 

important, in our eyes, to maintain the dignity of 

the Ichananaw as the official project beneficiary. 

But it also meant that, even though most of the 

contributions to our project were volunteered, all 

involved were serious and committed and 

produced work of a high quality.

What challenged us? 

The main challenges we faced sprang from the 

limited timeframe. For example, we weren’t able to 

even start on some of the educational materials 

we’d hoped to produce, like a history reader with 

local content, given the lack of time. Also, we didn’t 

have time to translate all of the stories we 

documented into Chinananaw. One compromise 

we made to meet our deadline was to rush the 

graphic layout and printing of the educational 

materials (Bebs Pavia and Pinky Pavia at Art Angel 

Printshop did a magnificent job of helping us to 

meet our deadline and still produce high-quality 

outputs). Due to time constraints, the books were 

not as polished as we’d have wished (according to 

our personal standards only, that is – the 

community, the school, the artists and Ateneo were 

very pleased with the final output). We chose to 

rush the final layout and printing so we could still 

present the community with the full set of 

educational materials before leaving for Australia, 

as we’d initially said we would. We saw this as vital 

to maintaining our relationship with the 

community and to setting the standard for future 

engagements by following through on our word. 

The other major challenges we faced were medical 

emergencies and illness. Fargwog (Daniel) Aga-id, 

the main tribal elder involved in the project, was 

seriously ill for the first half of the project and 

wasn’t even in Chananaw for this time. We worked 

around this by focusing on aspects of the project 

for which his input wasn’t essential, and drew on 

the support of other interested tribe members 

until he returned. Edwin also encountered an 

unexpected medical problem which took him off 

the project for almost a month. We dealt with this 

by adjusting our plans, cutting back on aspects of 

our work, and by Maria filling in for him while he 

was away. 


Agom (Arlene) Dawing translates a story from English 

to Chinananaw in Tabuk, the capital of Kalinga 

Province, in a spare hour after Dr. Gloria Baguingan’s 

seminar on the First Language Component Bridging 

Program we organized for the Ichananaw teachers 

concluded on April 6, 2009.

From here onwards Follow-on activities 

Grade 1 student Onjag (Jemesta) Banao concentrates 

on writing in her notebook. 

Grade 1 teacher Kasoy (Levemay) Abaggoy (right) takes 

her pupils through a lesson in Filipino. The young 

children have almost as much difficulty learning the 

national language as they do English, since it is not 

used much in Chananaw. Instead, they predominantly 

speak their own language, Chinananaw, mixed with 

some Ilocano, the lingua franca across most of 

Northern Luzon. The Ichananaw children enter school 

only knowing a handful of English or Tagalog words, if 

any at all. 

As hoped, the project has opened up several 

opportunities for further activities, both within 

Chananaw and between the Ichananaw and others. 

Towards the end of the project we were able to 

identify the following areas for further work: 

Taking the educational materials a step further 

There is potential to develop the existing 

educational materials further. For example, there is 

interest within Chananaw to continue the 

documentation of the tribe’s songs and stories – 

this will be led by Agom (Arlene) Dawing. There is 

also the possibility of documenting the melodies of 

the songs we gathered as part of our project as 

sheet music – Ichananaw Andrew Tollangao, who 

has the musical training required to put the 

melodies on paper, has expressed an interest in 

doing this. 

Creating Grade 1 language materials 

One objective, which we only delved into 

conceptually due to lack of time, was to create a 

series of Grade 1 language materials tailored for 

use in the Dananao Elementary School, inspired by 

the approach of Dr. Gloria Baguingan’s First 

Language Component Bridging Program. The 

Dananao Elementary School teachers had an 

opportunity to discuss with Gloria the possibility of 

collaboration with her to create the materials, at 

the seminar she delivered during the course of the 

project. There is scope for a future project to 

continue developing the language materials where 

our project left off. 

Developing the four-way dictionary 

Due to the lack of time, we were only able to make 

a start on the dictionary during the five months. 

We hope to continue developing the dictionary we 

have already begun over the coming years. Further 

additions and revisions will be made both in 

Australia by Maria and the Philippines by the 

Ichananaw, with communication enabled via the 

internet.

Publishing for a wider audience? 

All the materials we produced were intended 

solely for the use and enjoyment of the Ichananaw. 

But given the number of requests for copies of the 

educational materials – the storybooks especially – 

from people and organizations outside Chananaw, 

both in Australia and the Philippines, we have 

begun to investigate the possibility of reproducing 

the books for a wider audience. First, we are 

making arrangements with the Ichananaw, Ang 

Ilustrador ng Kabataan, Ateneo Center for 

Educational Development and Art Angel Printshop 

so as to be able to simply reproduce the books noncommercially, 

but we are also thinking about the 

option of publishing the books commercially so as 

to allow the books to reach a wider audience. We 

would only facilitate a commercial arrangement if 

it maintained the integrity of all involved, and only 

with the full approval of everyone concerned. 

A co-authored ethnography 

We plan to co-author an ethnographic account of 

the Ichananaw’s way of life, over the coming years, 

with certain members of the tribe – Apalis (Ombin) 

Abaggoy in particular. In addition, the 

ethnographic account will examine how practices 

and beliefs are changing over time and how they 

vary across the geographically-spread Ichananaw 

communities (specifically, comparing the upland 

community in Chananaw with the lowland 

Ichananaws living in Lacnog and Ipil, Tabuk). 

Writing will be conducted in both the Philippines 

and Australia, with communication via the 

internet. 

Ethnobotanical documentation 

Australian botanist David Cameron (Maria’s father) 

came to the Philippines in May 2009 to visit 

Chananaw, at our invitation. This allowed David, 

quite unexpectedly, to initiate an ethnobotanical 

investigation of the flora and vegetation of the 

Ichananaw’s ancestral domain. David hopes to 

develop this project further over coming years. It is 

envisaged that extended periods of plant 

identification in Australia alternate with short, 

intensive field trips to Chananaw. The ultimate 

objective is to document the Ichananaw’s 

indigenous plant lore and changing relationship 

with their environment, against the backdrop of a 

taxonomically rigorous documentation of the rich 

and vanishing flora of the Ichananaw’s ancestral 

domain. This should also furnish educational 


One of our many adventures during the visit by 

Maria’s father David Cameron to Chananaw in May 

2009 was a hike to the primary rainforest on the 

Ichananaw’s ancestral domain. From left to right: 

Tollangao Onalan, Gaspar Dawing, David Cameron and 

Apalis (Ombin) Abaggoy. After a delicious lunch, we 

drank coffee from cups Tollangao fashioned deftly 

from bamboo with his machete (David holds a cup in 

his hand), before continuing on to check if any animals 

had been caught in the fitu traps (large, stone-lined 

pits dug into the ground and camouflaged with leaves 

and twigs, for catching wild pigs or deer).

Agom (Arlene) Dawing thanks the Australian 

Government for its support to the Ichananaw through 

the Direct Aid Program’s grant for the printing of the 

educational materials we developed, on behalf of the 

Dananao Elementary School and the Ichananaw, at the 

Australian Embassy’s NAIDOC Week event on July 10, 

2009 in Makati, where we presented our project. 


resources intended for use in the school as well as 

being of value to the wider community. 

Completing the barangay census 

In Chananaw, barangay midwife Manay 

(Marcelina) Sagmayaw hopes to complete the 

barangay census initiated by Maria, with assistance 

also from Agom (Arlene) Dawing. From Australia, 

Maria hopes to provide a statistical analysis of the 

census findings from the households already 

surveyed, and provide the Ichananaw with an 

interim report over the coming months. 

Continuing the partnerships already established 

It is now up to the Ichananaw and all the 

organizations which we have helped establish 

mutual linkages to build on these relationships. We 

are already aware of the intentions of the Ateneo 

Center for Educational Development, Cartwheel 

Foundation and Volunteering for International 

Development from Australia to continue their 

involvement with the Ichananaw. We hope that 

others will also take opportunities as they arise to 

engage with the Ichananaw in the future. For 

example, AusAID’s increased engagement with the 

Department of Education for the improvement of 

public education for indigenous peoples, provides 

an ideal opportunity to continue the positive 

relationship between the Australian Embassy and 

the Dananao Elementary School.

Appendices 

Project schedule and project-related media 

This section contains the following appendices: 

1. Project schedule 

2. Philippine Daily Inquirer article ‘Aussie preserves Kalinga tribe’s stories, songs in 26 

books’ – by Edson C. Tandoc Jr. 

3. Manila Bulletin article ‘They left their hearts in Kalinga’ – by Rachel C. Barawid 

4. Connect Magazine article ‘What more could we ask for?’ – by Maria Cameron and 

Edwin Wise 

5. Ateneo de Manila University website article ‘ACED volunteers help indigenize 

education in Kalinga public school’ – by Misael Francia 

Appendix 1. Project schedule 

When Who What Where 

Mid February to mid 

March 

Maria and Edwin Gather primary data Chananaw 

(1 month) 

Mid March to mid 

April 

(1 month) 

Mid to late April 

(1 week) 

Late April to early 

May 

(2 weeks) 

Edwin Gather secondary 

data, create initial 

drafts, networking 

and coordination 

with project partners 

Maria Gather primary data, 

create initial drafts 

Maria and Edwin Gather primary data, 

review initial drafts 

Maria and Edwin Submit drafts to 

Ateneo for Tagalog 

translations and 

editing, finalizing 

illustrations 

Bontoc, Baguio, 

Manila 

Chananaw, Bontoc, 

Tabuk 

Chananaw 

Manila

When Who What Where 

Early to mid May Maria 

Review drafts, Chananaw 

(2 weeks) 

[Edwin visited 

Australia for 

emergency medical 

examinations] 

gather primary data 

Mid May to early 

June 

(2 weeks) 

Early to mid June 

(2 weeks) 

Mid to late June 

(1 week) 

Late June to early 

July 

(1 week) 

Early to mid July 

(1 week) 


Maria and Edwin Storybook layout 

and editing 

Edwin Print educational 

materials, photo 

book, knowledge 

bank 

Maria Gather primary data, 

create and review 

drafts 

Manila 

Manila 

Chananaw 

Edwin Finalize all materials Manila 

Maria 

for printing, print 

sample materials 

Bontoc 

Maria and Edwin Wrap-up, 

presentation, 

handover to the 

school and 

community 

Maria and Edwin Wrap-up, 

presentations, 

handover to project 

partners 

Chananaw 

Manila

Appendix 2. Philippine Daily Inquirer article 

Aussie preserves Kalinga tribe’s stories, songs in 26 books 

By Edson C. Tandoc Jr. 


First posted on the front page of the Sunday, July 12, 2009 edition of the Philippine Daily 

Inquirer (sourced online from: 

http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/nation/view/20090712-215050/Kalingatribes-stories-songs-in-26-books) 

MANILA, Philippines—The mighty 

carabao challenged a snail to a race on the 

rice terraces in Kalinga. 

He was confident of victory, but was 

surprised to see the snail alongside him 

no matter how fast he ran. 

Tired and frustrated, the carabao finally 

accepted defeat, not knowing there was a 

snail crawling on every step of the rice 

terraces. 

This fable, told and retold by generations 

of the Ichananaw in Kalinga, illustrates 

what excessive pride can do. It is only one 

of the tribe’s many legends that, the 

elders fear, the younger generations 

exposed to the modern world may no 

longer get to hear. 

Thankfully, Ichananaw lore has found an 

ally in Australian Maria Cameron, whose 

leisurely visit to the community last year 

turned into a mission to help the tribe 

preserve its oral customs and traditions 

in storybooks. 

Cameron, 26, lived in the remote 

Ichananaw community of 104 families for 

five months. She stayed with one family, 

visited every house, talked with the elders 

and listened to their stories. 

Her husband Edwin Wise, also 26, stayed 

in Metro Manila to coordinate with other 

groups and collect more materials. 

On Friday at the Australian Embassy in 

Makati City, Cameron presented the fruits 

of their work—26 books documenting the 

stories and songs of the tribe. 

“These books will help the younger 

generation … appreciate their own 

history,” Cameron said. 

But the project means more to Cameron 

than just helping an isolated community. 

“We were able to meet a lot of very good 

friends in one of the most beautiful places 

I have ever seen,” she said. 

3 hours on foot 

The Ichananaw are among the tribes 

living in the mountains of Tinglayan, 

Kalinga. Electricity has yet to reach the 

small community that lies at the end of a 

three-hour trek from the municipal road. 

It was Wise who first learned about the 

Ichananaw from his friends, exchange 

students at the Ateneo de Manila 

University who found the community 

during a trip up north almost two years 

ago. 

Wise, who was in the Philippines to do 

research on Metro Manila for his doctoral 

studies in urban sociology, made his own 

visit to the community in January 2008 

and quickly made many friends. 

Two months later, when his wife, a 

government employee in Melbourne, 

Australia, arrived in the Philippines to 

work as a volunteer at the Ateneo Center 

for Educational Development, he took her 

to the community. 

Cameron fell in love not only with the 

breathtaking view but also with the 

people. “They took care of us superbly,”

she said. “I have never been taken care of 

that way before.” 

It was during the visit that Cameron and 

Wise learned of the fears of the 

Ichananaw elders. 

“They were concerned that with the 

younger generations frequently 

interacting with the outside world, many 

of the youth no longer know how to sing 

some of their traditional songs,” she said. 

Request and invitation 

The elders requested the couple to help 

the tribe document its customs and 

traditions, and a community leader, 

Fargwog Aga-id, invited them to stay 

there for a year. 

Cameron promised to return after 

completing her stint as a volunteer, and 

Wise decided to put his studies on hold to 

work on the project. 

Said Cameron: “Our skill and interest 

matched their request.” 

The goal was to produce books that could 

also be used at the Dananao Elementary 

School, where at least 160 Ichananaw 

children are enrolled. 

In February 2009, the couple began a fivemonth-long 

work that introduced them 

not only to the dedication and enthusiasm 

of the Ichananaw but also to the 

willingness of many other volunteers to 

help a small community preserve its 

identity. 

Some 67 people directly contributed to 

the fieldwork, Cameron said. 

The project was conducted under the 

aegis of the Ateneo Center for Educational 

Development. The couple also received 

financial support from the group 

Volunteering for International 

Development from Australia, which is 

funded by the Australian Agency for 

International Development, and from the 

Philippines-Australia Studies Center at 

the La Trobe University, where Wise is 

pursuing his doctoral studies. 


But starting the project was not a breeze. 

Cameron presented the idea to the 

Ichananaw at a big gathering, and many 

members of the tribe said they had grown 

tired of “being used” by volunteer groups. 

But Cameron detailed the goals of the 

project and ultimately earned their trust. 

Oral traditions 

Dananao Elementary School principal 

Arlene Dawing said that prior to the 

project, Ichananaw songs and stories 

were merely told and retold orally. 

“We are worried that we cannot stop the 

influence of modern lifestyles on our 

younger generations,” she said. 

Dawing graduated from St. Joseph’s 

College in Quezon City in 1990. She chose 

to return to the community to serve, and 

has been teaching at the school for 17 

years. 

She was among the elders who told 

Cameron of the stories and songs they 

learned from their parents—legends 

explaining how their mountain village 

was formed, and fables teaching good 

values like humility and trust. 

The Australian Embassy funded the 

printing of the 26 books that include 

illustrated storybooks, a collection of 

photos, a compilation of songs, a book 

authored by one of the elders, and a 

dictionary of Ichananaw, Filipino and 

English words. 

The group Ilustrador ng Kabataan 

provided the illustrations for free. 

The storybooks are written in English, 

Filipino and Ichananaw and, according to 

Dawing, can be integrated in the language 

and reading classes of the Dananao 

Elementary School. 

Said Australian Charge d’Affaires Stephen 

Scott: “The project seeks to improve the 

quality of education provided by the 

Dananao Elementary School in Kalinga 

through the provision of educational

materials suited to the needs and culture 

of its indigenous tribe, the Ichananaw.” 

The books were launched on Friday as the 

Australian Embassy celebrated Australia’s 

National Aborigines and Islander Day 

Observance Committee Week. 


The observance is aimed at 

commemorating the contributions of 

indigenous Australians in many fields, the 

embassy said in a statement.

Appendix 3. Manila Bulletin article 

They left their heart in Kalinga 

By Rachel C. Barawid 

First posted in the Thursday, July 16, 2009 edition of the Manila Bulletin (sourced online 

from: http://www.mb.com.ph/articles/211152/they-left-their-heart-kalinga) 

An indigenous community in Kalinga gets 

help from the most unlikely people -- at the 

right time. 

It all began with a grueling 22-hour 

backpacking adventure in the Cordilleras 

for Australian tourist Tim Andrews. His 

travels brought him to an indigenous 

village in Tinglayan, Kalinga province 

where he spent the night with one of the 

Ichananaw families. 

Fascinated with the place and its people, 

Andrews went back, this time with friend 

Edwyn Cameron. The discovery of this 

paradise also enticed Edwyn’s wife Maria 

to join them on yet another trip. The 

couple who stayed in the country on a 

study and professional volunteer 

program, found themselves smitten with 

the people and the rich culture. 

“It’s the friendships that came first, and 

then the partnership. The community was 

open, warm and hospitable,” shares 26year-old 

Maria from Melbourne. 

INDIGENIZING EDUCATION 

Maria then studied the local language, in 

the process endearing herself to the 

Ichananaw children and elders who asked 

for her help to preserve their culture. 

Some 6,700 members of the Ichananaw 

tribe live in the remote community in 

Barangay Dananao in Kalinga, accessible 

only via a three-hour hike. Farming is 

their source of livelihood. 


“The elder Fargwog Aga-id, a teacher, 

asked us to stay for one year and help 

document their traditions to pass on to 

future generations. But we only had five 

months to spare so we compromised on 

getting it all done within that period,” 

recalls Maria, a research fellow at the 

Philippines Australia Studies Centre in La 

Trobe University in Australia and a 

volunteer at the Ateneo Center for 

Educational 

Development (ACED). 

She was also approached by Arlene 

Dawing, principal of the Dananao 

Elementary School (DES) to help their 

school avail of educational materials 

through ACED. “We have only four 

teachers to cater to 160 pupils. 

We have seven classes but only five 

makeshift classrooms. We only have a few 

textbooks so the teachers are the ones 

holding the book and reading aloud to 

their students,” laments Dawing. 

She says most children only finish 

elementary. Those who go to high school 

and college support themselves by 

working as house helpers in nearby 

towns. 

Apart from having a poor quality of 

education due to a mismatch between the 

indigenous students’ way of life versus 

the teaching and learning tools available, 

the IPs cultural heritage is also in danger 

of becoming extinct. There is no 

comprehensive documentation of their

culture, language, traditional political 

system and history. 

With the ACED project, it is expected that 

teaching and learning will be more 

interesting and aid in the preservation of 

their heritage. The project is also being 

supported by AusAID through its 

Volunteers for International Development 

from Australia (VIDA), La Trobe 

University through the Philippine- 

Australia Studies Centre (PASC), and UP 

Baguio via the Cordillera Studies Center 

(CSC). 

Some 21 books were published through 

the help of AusAID including short story 

books for children (with Ichananaw, 

Tagalog and English translations and 

illustrated by Ang I.N.K artists) books of 

songs and history, an Ichananaw 

dictionary, and a coffee-table book with 

photographs taken by the Cameron 

couple. 

ENSURING A FUTURE 

Before returning to Australia, Maria 

turned over the management of the 

project to ACED to make it sustainable 

and ensure the future of the young IPs in 

Kalinga. 

Carmela Oracion, assistant to the 

president for Basic Education of Ateneo 

de Manila University reveals that longterm 

plans are being set for the project 

which includes teacher training and 

performance monitoring. 

“We are also helping empower the 

principal on what steps to take to 

improve performance of the children and 

then eventually help them with access to 

high school. Most of the children are very 

gifted so we really like to provide them a 

good future by sending them to different 

high schools or maybe to Baguio for 

higher learning,” she explains. 


However, the ongoing project is now 

being threatened by a major obstacle. 

Dawing, who has been teaching at DES 

since 1993, was transferred to another 

school. The community even made a 

petition for Dawing’s retention -- but to 

no avail. 

“The school is lost now because she’s not 

actually assigned in the school of her 

tribe. The project was also largely 

undertaken with her help so it is just right 

for her to be there to manage its full 

implementation,” Maria points out. 

By this time, Maria and Edwyn Cameron 

have already returned to Melbourne, 

living their lives as government employee 

and a doctorate student respectively. But 

in a few years, they intend to come back, 

hopefully with children in tow, to Kalinga 

where they found their greatest 

fulfillment. 

“It’s very rewarding to see that the people 

are happy with what we’ve done. I’m 

happy to have made wonderful friends 

there. I will miss the people, the hiking, 

the simple food of rice and eating with my 

hands, the coffee and conversations that 

go with the meal, and the language. We 

plan to return and raise our children 

there as well because the children in 

Kalinga have a very strong spirit. They 

know how to play and really enjoy but 

they are also very responsible and work 

hard to help their family,” says Maria. 

She hopes that through the project, the 

Ichananaws will be able to continue 

engaging themselves with the “outside 

world” for genuine self determination and 

development but at the same time, still be 

the ones to decide the development they 

want for their community. 

The formal turnover of instructional 

materials to the Ichananaw tribe was held 

last Friday at the Australian Embassy 

during its celebration of NAIDOC

(National Aborigines and Islander Day 

Observance Committee) Week. The event, 

led by Australian Embassy Charge d’ 

Affaires Steve Scott included activities 

featuring Australia’s rich and diverse 

indigenous heritage. 

The Embassy has been helping preserve 

indigenous culture in the Philippines 


through its Basic Education Assistance for 

Mindanao (BEAM) program which 

benefited more than 34,000 students and 

800 teachers. Since 2006, its Direct Aid 

Program (DAP) has also provided P3 

million funds to programs that contribute 

to the welfare and income-generating 

capacity of the IPs.

Appendix 4. Connect Magazine article 

What more could we ask for? 

By Maria Cameron and Edwin Wise 


Published in the April-June 2009 edition of Connect Magazine, the quarterly publication of 

the Volunteering for International Development from Australia. Also available online at the 

AYAD-VIDA Portal Philippines (http://ayad-vida.devconceptsph.com/news-andfeatures/290-preserving-ip-culture-in-kalinga) 

Edwin Wise and Maria Cameron, the 

authors, are VIDA volunteers working at 

Dananao, Kalinga as Educational 

Materials Developer, Cultural Documenter 

and Networking Advisor. 

After two hours of hiking – first climbing 

up the steep road from Tinglayan, then 

horizontally along the walking track, we 

reach the footbridge across a tributary of 

the Chico River. The last stretch before we 

reach our destination in the hardest: 

almost-vertical much of the way. We stop 

to rest, breathless, at the terraced rice 

fields along the track. Clouds fill the valley 

below, the afternoon sun streams from 

the west. Thankfully, this last stretch we 

hike in full shade. 

At last, we arrive. First, we see a cluster of 

rice granaries and a stand of coffee trees. 

We enter the village from the east: a 

collection of 102 houses form a loose 

crescent moon around a series of 

terraced, irrigated rice fields, bathed in 

gold by late afternoon light. Only just 

planted out with pachug (rice seedlings), 

the fields are a vibrant green. 

We hear the dull thud of rice being 

pounded, by hand, with aru and rusung – 

implements best described as giant, 

wooden mortar and pestle. Groups of 

children can be heard – singing, laughing, 

crying, shouting. A few scrub the black 

from the bottom of big cooking pots in the 

irrigation channels, using the grit of sand 

and their feet as scrubbers. Pigs and 

chooks scratch in the village paths. 

Farmers with heavy loads make their way 

home from a hard day’s work in their 

fields. 

We sit on the porch of the house where 

we are hosted by our dear friends Agom 

and Gaspar. We sip sweet, hot coffee, and 

watch the village life unfold before us 

until dusk, in a theatre-like arrangement 

of houses. 

This is Chananaw (formally Dananao), 

original home of the Ichananaw tribe of 

Kalinga, located in the north of the 

Cordillera mountain range of Luzon (the 

largest island in the Philippines). It is also 

our ‘office’ for the next five months. 

The Cordilleras, along with the Muslim 

south, was the only area of the Philippines 

never under direct Spanish control, 

although this was not without 300 years 

of attempts. The Spaniards’ desire to reap 

souls as well as gold left a bloody mark on 

the Cordilleras’ history, as well as 

demarcating ‘lowlanders’ from 

‘uplanders’, ‘civilised’ from ‘barbarians’, 

or ‘Christians’ from ‘pagans’. Today’s 

Cordilleras still reflect this history of 

autonomy, although the cross was 

brought, along with Western education, 

by the Americans – after they purchased 

the Philippines from Spain for $20 

million, along with Cuba, in 1898. 

Today’s Chananaw reflects a shared yet 

singular history: public education only 

arrived in the 1950s and the church 

followed in the 1960s. Even now, no road

eaches the village. It is the only village 

without electricity in the municipality, 

and a subsistence economy prevails. 

Mobile phone reception is temperamental 

and only from a few locations. 

We were introduced to Chananaw by a 

mutual friend one year ago. Both of us 

having learnt of many of the negative 

aspects of globalisation and the 

international development industry as 

part of our Social Science training, we 

quickly struck up a friendship with 

several members of the tribe who were 

keen to share with us their ideas and 

concerns regarding the Ichananaw’s 

increasing interaction with the outside 

world, as national and multinational 

corporations sit poised to extract natural 

resources from their lands, if only the 

tribe would consent. Our friends’ key 

concern is for development on the 

community’s own terms; life here could 

be improved in many respects but there is 

much they want to retain from the old 

ways. 

On our second visit, a tribal elder and 

friend, Daniel, invited us to live in 

Chananaw for one year to help them to 

document their ‘life system’ in order to 

pass it on to their future generations – a 

dream of his for many years. We said we’d 

love to in 2009 when Maria would finish 

her 11-month AYAD volunteer 

assignment (working at the Ateneo 

Center for Educational Development 

[ACED] in Manila to improve the quality 

of public education in the Philippines). 

Edwin decided to put his PhD in Sociology 

on hold to work on the project, having 

completed a year’s fieldwork in Manila. 

From the seed of Daniel’s initial 

invitation, we designed a five-month 

project to document the Ichananaw’s way 

of life and to develop ‘indigenised’ 

educational materials for use in their local 

public school as the means for passing 

cultural heritage to the next generation. 


Our twin goal is to improve the quality of 

education at the school through making 

education more culturally appropriate. 

This ties in nicely with current national 

education policy trends in the Philippines 

regarding education for indigenous 

peoples. For instance, the value of 

learning in one’s native language first, 

before having to learn the country’s two 

official languages (Filipino and English) is 

being promoted from several quarters 

and a bill for mother-tongue languages as 

the medium of instruction for the first 

three years of schooling is being 

considered by congress, to combat poor 

public educational outcomes across the 

Philippines. 

With the Dananao Elementary School 

(our host organisation), we managed to 

arrange support from VIDA for the 

project. We are also Honorary Research 

Fellows at La Trobe University’s 

Philippines Australia Studies Centre, and 

Edwin is a Research Affiliate of University 

of the Philippines-Baguio’s Cordillera 

Studies Center, to support the research 

aspects of the project. Dananao 

Elementary School is also partnering with 

ACED for the development and 

publication of indigenised educational 

materials and ACED is applying to the 

Australian Government for a Direct Aid 

Program grant to cover publishing costs. 

So the project really cuts across 

education, development and academia, 

with the overall aim of meeting the 

community’s initial request. 

Another goal is to link the Ichananaw to 

local development organisations. Already, 

the school has become a partner school of 

ACED. Also, Cartwheel Foundation – a 

local NGO supporting education for 

remote indigenous communities – will be 

running its Music and Arts Program in 

Chananaw this May-June. Some of the 

stories and songs we gather are also likely 

to be included in a UNICEF Philippines 

publication to be used in childcare

centers and pre-schools across the 

country. 

So, what exactly do we hope to produce in 

five months? Our wish list is ambitious: 

an ethnographic account of Ichananaw 

life; a photo essay or coffee table book; a 

Chananaw-English dictionary; a history 

reader and other educational materials; a 

series of illustrated story books in three 

languages simultaneously (Chananaw, 

English and Filipino), telling the 

Ichananaw’s legends, fables and history; 

and a ‘knowledge bank’ of materials 

relevant to the Ichananaw, collected from 

museums and libraries. We will be 

pleased even if we only accomplish a few 

of these, but we like to dream big. 

And how are we doing it? Maria is staying 

in Chananaw, gathering stories, elder’s 

oral histories, and general observations 

from sharing daily life, as well as working 

with the teachers to indigenise the 

educational materials. Our assignment 

supervisor and close friend, Agom, is 

working very closely with us on all 

aspects of the project, as is Daniel, and 

several others in the community are also 

involved. Edwin joined Maria for the first 

month, and is now based in Manila to 

gather all materials from external sources 

and to liaise with project partners. Of 

course, we are both travelling back and 

forth to see each other from time to time. 

In this first month, we have been soaking 

up all aspects of daily life (planting rice 

seedlings into knee-deep, soupy mud; 

documenting bedtime stories; drinking 

copious amounts of coffee), and mixing 

structured activities (running art classes 

for the children) with just taking the 

experiences and opportunities as they 

arise (taking up all invitations to share a 

meal with a new family; staying up late 

into the night with more than 50 

members of the community to attend a 

songa – the butchering of a pig by a young 

man in honor of his sick grandmother). 


But five months is a very short time, so 

we see this project more as laying the 

groundwork for future engagements – by 

us, by local NGOs, or by any other 

interested Australians – with the 

Ichananaw for development on their own 

terms. 

We are also simply enjoying living in what 

is one of the most beautiful places we’ve 

ever found, in the company of good 

friends. What more could we ask for?

Appendix 5. Ateneo de Manila University website article 

ACED volunteers help indigenize education in Kalinga public school 

By Misael Francia 

Posted on the Ateneo de Manila University on August 4, 2009 

(http://www.ateneo.edu/index.php?p=120&type=2&sec=29&aid=7092) 

ACED volunteer Maria Cameron initiated 

a partnership with Dananao Elementary 

School in Kalinga by applying the 

strategies of ACED in developing public 

schools, beginning with school profiling 

last December 2008. Soon after the 

profiling, Maria and her husband 

Edwin Wise pursued the partnership by 

starting a project that involved the 

development and publication of 

indigenized educational materials. ACED 

has helped Dananao Elementary 

School in the production of indigenous 

instructional materials for the students 

with the help of a Php 275,000.00 grant 

from the Australian Government's Direct 

Aid Program. 

Twenty one colourfully illustrated 

Ichananaw story books were produced 

which re-tell some of the Ichananaw 

people's legends, fables and history. The 

books were written in Chinananaw (the 

Ichananaw’s indigenous language), 

English and Filipino. Each story was told 

orally by Ichananaw old folks, translated 

to English by Maria Cameron and 

translated to Filipino by ACED volunteers 

from the Ateneo de Manila. The books 

were illustrated by Ang Ilustrador ng 

Kabataan (Ang INK) artists pro bono, 

members of the tribe and Maria and 

Edwin. 

Other materials that were produced 

include the following: 

Ichananaw Knowledge Bank that 

consists of nine hardbound 


volumes of secondary materials 

gathered during the visit 

Annaja Ukali Ta-u (Here is our 

Culture) that contains some 

accounts of Ichananaw beliefs, 

practices and customs along with a 

collection of 34 songs composed 

by an Ichananaw 

Ichananaw Songs and Stories 

which is a compilation of over 60 

Ichananaw songs and stories. 

A coffee table book entitled 

“Namamfaru gway imis ru-atana 

na achu gway bendisyon” (A warm 

smile opens the door to many 

blessings) comprising different 

photographs of the tribe’s current 

way of life 

Chinananaw-English-Ilocano- 

Tagalog Dictionary comprising 

almost 2,000 words and phrases 

documented during the five 

months visit of Maria and Edwin. 

These materials were launched and 

presented to the public last July 10, 2009 

at the Australian Embassy during the 

National Aborigines and Islanders Day 

Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Week 

2009. Maria and Edwin were supported 

on this project by the Philippines 

Australia Studies Centre of La Trobe 

University, Australia and the AusAIDfunded 

VIDA volunteer program.

Project Report - La Trobe University

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