04/05/2024
PANLAUY TA KALASANG (Forest Visit) 2024
Synodality with Lumads
(Fr. Reynaldo D. Raluto)
What is the role of the Lumad (IP) communities in preserving environmental and ecological integrity?
What are the environmental and ecological issues/threats that Lumad (IP) communities are facing today?
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To answer the above questions, let me promote the Panlauy ta Kalasang!
I am deeply convinced that if we really want to understand the Lumads, we need to stand-under them, which means, we don’t just read books or articles about them but make them our friends and engage with them personally. Allow them to reveal who they really are and listen to them attentively when they speak, including their unspoken words and nonverbal manifestations.
This is the main reason why (for two times already) I joined the yearly “Panlauy ta Kalasang” (visiting the forest) of the Agtulawon Mintapod Higaonon Cumadon (AGMIHICU). This community of Lumads formally declared a total of 10,863.12 hectares of forested landscape within their 14,000 plus Ancestral Domain (AD) as their Indigenous Communities Conserved Territories and lAreas (ICCA) in Bukidnon last March 14, 2019.
Their yearly “Panlauy ta Kalasang” is done to different forested areas and they intend to complete the cycle of visiting the whole area of AGMIHICU within a period of five years. Last May 27-30, 2022, my Strava recorded that we have walked around the forest for 53km with a moving time of 13 hours and 35 minutes.
Panlauy ta Kalasang can be an effective way of transmitting to the young generation of Lumads the tradition and cultures of their ancestors that enable them to survive in time and space for the past millennia. Re-rooting the young generation of Lumads to their rich heritage in the forest would strategically preserve and sustain their indigenous culture and religion.
My other interest in joining the Panlauy is to learn the Lumad culture of preserving and sustaining nature. More lessons to learn from their indigenous wisdom.