#ifugao

Igorot girls playing instruments 🎶

Portrait of an Ifugao Farm Girl: Kiangan Chronicles

A very long time ago there lived a very kind woman with her three little children. She loved her children so much that she worked hard to be able to feed them. One day she fell ill and in a short time she died . Her spirit went to Kadungayan, of course, as she lived a good life. But one night she thought of her poor little children whom she left on earth. She imagined that no one cared for them and that they must be hungry and cold. She pitied them so much that she decided to go back to earth. When she reached their house, she called her elder child to open the door for her. The children recognized their mother's voice and opened the door at once. She went in and spoke to them but they could not see her because it was very dark and their fire had gone out. The children were too small and they did not know how to build a fire. So the woman sent her eldest child to beg fire from the neighbors as she felt very cold. The poor child went to the first house but when she told them that she wanted fire for her mother who had come back home, the people just laughed at her. They did not give her fire. She went to the next house, but the same thing happened. Thus, she went to the next house, from house to house but no one believed that her mother had come back. They thought the poor child had gone out of her mind. So the poor child went home without the fire. The woman was very angry at all the unkind people. She said, " Am I to die a second death because men are so selfish? Come, my children, let us go to that better place where I came from— Kadungayan. There are no selfish people there." She took a jar of water and went outside in the yard. She shouted to all the people, "Ah, what selfish people you are. From this time on all people will follow my example. No man will ever come back to earth after death." With these words she smashed the jar on a big stone. This made a terrific sound. All the people became silent with fear. The next morning the people came out to see what had caused the great voice. They saw the bits of broken jar and they found the three children dead. They now knew that the woman had really come back home that night and that in her anger at their selfishness had taken her three children with her. The people were so sorry for not having given fire to the little girl. Since then no dead person has ever come back to earth. From Philippine Folk Literature Series: Vol. III, The Myths (2002), compiled and edited by Damiana L. Eugenio, published by The University of the Philippines Press (shopee, amazon)

While this framework helped create a shared sense of identity, it also flattened the historical experiences of communities that followed different timelines. Groups like the Ifugao, Kalinga, Subanen, and Aeta groups are often described as untouched by colonization or outside the mainstream, when in fact they actively shaped their own histories and contributed to broader national developments.

Ifugao, Philippines, Luzon, Ancestor Figure, 18th-19th c. x

Ifugao Elder. Banaue, Luzon, Philippines - Morgan Silk

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