WING | Cultural Tradition
Ayta Mag-Indi Language
It's primarily oral, lacks a standardized writing system, and serves as crucial for communication within the community and faces endangerment due to language shift and assimilation, emphasizing the importance of preservation efforts.
© Dondi Tawatao
4/10/2024
Traditional Dance
Aetas have ritual dances such as lapinding, patetet, tumigan and talipi (which refer to certain rhythms of music) to ask blessing from anitos in various situations – getting ready for a hunt, preparing for battle, a dance for curing the sick, or to show the fight for their ancestral lands.
© JacobVlog
4/10/2024
Traditional Clothing
Aeta's wear traditional clothing made from natural materials like abaca fibers or bark cloth, adorned with colorful embroidery or beadwork, reflecting their cultural heritage and connection to nature.
© Kara Santos
4/9/2024
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4/10/2024
Traditional Healing
Lily De Guzman, an Aeta healer from Sitio Gayangan, prays over medicinal plants that she has gathered to be used for her sick grandchild. As one of the eldest Aeta healers from her community, Nanay Lily is revered for her spirituality and vast herbal knowledge.
© Pau Villanueva
4/9/2024
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© Josaine
2/7/2011
Way of Living - 3
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4/10/2024
Justice System
Disputes are resolved through mediation led by elders or tribal leaders, emphasizing consensus and community involvement. Punishments often focus on restitution and restoring harmony rather than punitive measures.
© Josaine
3/28/2010
Hunting
Tribesmen showcase remarkable marksmanship with handmade bows and arrows crafted from sharpened nails. They also utilize improvised traps to catch food like frogs, monitor lizards, snakes, and cloud rats, which remain staples in remote mountainous villages.
© Kara Santos
4/10/2024
Traditional Forest Foods
Aetas plant mountain rice, wild bananas, corn, and root crops like ube (a form of taro), kamoteng kahoy (cassava) and kamoteng baging (mountain yams). Wild bananas called amukaw.
© Kara Santos
4/10/2024
Spiritual Healing
Aeta healer Oscar Capiz performs pag-aanito ritual on his daughter Mary Grace(kneeling face down) due to severe stomach ache. When medicinal plants fail, healers conduct manganito séance seeking guidance from spirits to cure illnesses.
© Pau Villanueva
3/30/2021
Way of Living - 2
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4/10/2024
Religion
Most Aetas practice monotheism and are animists. They worship a Supreme Being and at the same time, also believe in environmental spirits.
© Kara Santos
4/9/2024
Governance
Aeta communities near Mount Pinatubo in Capas, Tarlac, and Zambales follow traditional governance led by elders or tribal leaders. Decision-making relies on community consensus rather than formal elections, with leadership earned through experience and respect.
© Kara Santos
4/28/2011
Land Dispute
Apung Pet’s relatives arrive at Sapang Kawayan. All of her family and relative have rights to the land they inherited from their ancestors. Some 18,000 indigenous people who belong to the Aeta tribe may be displaced to make way for the construction of the New Clark City.
© Benice Beltran
4/10/2024
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4/10/2024
Land Dispute
Aetas hang signs below another sign that shows the approval of the cutting of 177 planted trees to construct New Clark City’s access road to the airport. The sign put up by Aeta reads “Ancestral Land, No Entry” while the other sign says “Foreign investors, hands off!!”.
© Benice Beltran
4/10/2024
Traditional Hunting
The Aetas employ a traditional hunting style characterized by their adeptness in utilizing bows and arrows, snares, and other primitive techniques to track and capture prey within the dense forests of the Philippines.
© Jose O. Mediavilla
4/9/2024
