Philippine E-Journals

Voices from the Margins: Local History and Indigenous People

Maria Nela B. Florendo

 

Abstract:

The writing of ethnohistories and ethnographies of the Cordillera peoples used to be a colonial pre-occupation. These historical narrations resulted in externally defined ethnicities of the indigenous peoples. In the more recent years, the writing of local histories has emerged to assert the Cordillera people's identity and control of their past. This paper traces the history of local histories on the Cordillera. It discusses the relevant uses of local history to the upland peoples, e.g., claims for ancestral domain, initiatives to generate and integrate indigenous knowledge into the learning system, and assertion of identity, to name a few.