SALTer charts tribal traditions

Tristan Isaak

In a tribal village in the central Cordillera mountains of the northern Philippines, MCC Serving and Learning Together (SALT) participant Tristan Isaak spent a year documenting Chananaw culture, including farming practices, wedding and funeral traditions as well as challenges facing the area. He helped created a brochure recording the information.

“Since the world the Chananaw face is changing so quickly it is important to preserve and remember who the Chananaw people are,” says Isaak, who worked under the direction of the Ichananaw Tribal Assembly.

Until the 1960s, travel outside the village was not common, but more and more people are starting to link into a larger economy and are beginning to adopt outside ways.

The people of the Cordilleras have long suffered government neglect in education, health care and other services. MCC supports local indigenous people’s organizations such as the tribal assembly.

Isaak is a member of Jubilee Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, and will return to international development studies at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipeg.

“The most moving thing I have learned is the value the Chananaw put on all people,” he says. “It doesn’t matter who you are or why you have come to the village, you will be accepted and given both food and a safe, dry place to sleep.”

—from MCC News