The Ati are a Negrito ethnic group in Panay, which is located in the Visayas. In the Philippines the Aetas or Aeta ancestors were the ‘aboriginals’ or the ‘first’ inhabitants of this Archipelago. They most probably arrived from Borneo 20-30,000 years ago.
On 15th March 2014, we made our way to visit an Ati Tribe in Mount Tag-ao, Capiz, with the help of the local tourism office and a local Ati guide, Hema. We jump on a bus, motorbikes and hiked up a mountain to reach the location.
The Ati tribe were generous enough to give us a place to stay and sleep. Showers and bathrooms were not an options. They have 49 families living here with no electric power or any clean water. The parents used old torchlights, lamps and kerosene make shift bottles as their light source. They didn’t have clean water supply, healthy food, no medical care, kids didn’t go to school as its to far away and no electricity.
I later found out from Nema our local Ati guide that they have been living this way since the 1970’s, with no electricity, no clean water and no resource to sustain any kind on income. They live on a daily basis with crops that they have grown, money used for this is for a single or two meals a day.
So I asked her, why do you still live here on the mountain? Why not live at the city?
This is her exact answer, “If I was be given a chance to live in the town, I would not choose to live in the town, I would still live in the mountain. Why? Because in the mountain, you can have good source of food that you cannot buy in the market, we have vegetable gardens.
Its seems a bit easy to live in the corn field even though there is no electricity and source of water. But its like you already got used to it that’s why I say its easy compared to the city that its noisy, polluted unlike here at the mountain that the air is fresh and even though its hard but if that’s what God has given you, there’s nothing impossible”
“Do you want to have that kind of a modern facility in here?”
Nema: “Maybe no, we are now contended, we very happy for like for our life now. That we have a house and you see your kids they are healthy and good. That you can eat 3 times a day so we are now contended. Of course, we have dreams but its not that really high because once you dream really high, if you fall down someday, you would fall down really strong.
So that’s why if you dream, you dream just enough so you can tolerate it. Cause if you dream high, if you can’t achieve it maybe it could destroy something in you.”
(mind the grammar, as this is how she spoke)
Our rides into the mountain top village once we reached the town of Dumarao, Capiz after a 1 hour bus ride. We rode for about 3 km and then hiked up another 3 km. Nema and her son, getting some coffee prepared in their kitchen area. Coffee seem to be a popular beverage here.
The Ati tribe elder, Narciso Valencia, he is 68 years old. He is currently the oldest person living in this mountain village. He is the boss man here. This is the tribe elders wife, I didn’t get her name as she didn’t say a word. The Ati Lady, as I call her. There is something magical about her. She looks at you and you know exactly what she is trying to say.
They have a beautiful way of life, easy and peaceful. Narciso sits while having his tobacco roll and parang (knife) by his side. At the background is his home. A shelter they build after the recent typhoon destroyed everything.
This is Narciso, 68 years old, he is the elder here and the oldest person now. He told me the oldest before was a grandmother who was 110 years old, but she died during the typhoon in her home.
When I ask him as the elder now, what would he like to change about his village.
“We would like to welcome our friends and visitors with new roads, I hope we get help to build better roads to come here, electricity and better lives.” – Ati Tribe Elder, Mount Tag-ao.
