Aetas of Roxas City
We often see them roaming the streets of Roxas City, Capiz trying to stop every person to ask for alms. They wore old, tattered and out of style clothes. Others wore slippers but most of them especially the children are barefoot. They are not beggars or orphans. They are our Aeta brothers.
Aeta or Ati in our dialect are indigenous people found in the Philippines. They have black and curly hair, snub nose, short in stature and dark skinned. They are uncivilized, had no permanent home and they never remained long in one place. They are always wandering around. When they happen to stay in a particular place, they are often seen camping in the streets or under the bridge.
Atis are illiterate for they never had education. They had many children which are mostly malnourished for of their environment and lifestyle.
Aetas hunts wild animals for their consumption and sometimes they would sell it to people in town. Others sell herbs and wild plants which they get from the mountain but others depend on the alms of people.
We give them alms not because we pitied them but because we want them to go away and to stop bugging us. We look at them with curiosity but we never take time to talk to them. We avoided them not because they have contagious disease but because of their physical appearance. We treat them not as our brothers and sisters but like they are some kind of wild and untamed animals.
Now, who do you think has better understanding? The Aetas who continue to preserve their culture and and their way of life because they lack knowledge and proper training to change their lifestyle or us who are educated and has all the knowledge but continue to avoid our social responsibility.
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Ris, I am touched of what you have written..ayudi..true gid na ya ris..hehe..aja
Your article about the “Ati” is nice and probably one of the few who took special notice and compassion about their plight. I remember seeing some of them in Barrio Buntog near Dumalag way back in the early 1950’s. I spent some of my elementary grades there as a young boy. I used to tag along with my father during market day (only on Sundays) mainly because he always bought me a rare treat – a popsicle. In one of those shopping days, we noticed an Ati selling herbs, which were laid out on an old and tattered sack on the ground.
Being curious, my Dad asked about some of the uses or purpose of some of the herbs, roots and those mixed with dried leaves stuffed in small bottles filled with coconut oil. Finally, Dad got down to asking about a cluster of avocado-shaped berries the size of a pinkie finger. The Ati said in an emphatic way that it was good for intestinal worms. Although skeptical about its efficacy, Dad took a sideways glance at me and decided to buy five of those berries; then handed them over for me to eat. Contrary to my expectation of a yucky taste, the berries were delicious, even crunchy and peanutty in flavor and I felt fine. The next day, I broke the news to Dad. The berries worked! My intestinal residents have left me! And every one of them, I believe.
My Dad wanted to buy some more of those berries for my two younger brothers. But since then, although we’ve been searching for the Ati so many times, we just couldn’t find him anymore.
If I happen to see some of Aetas someday, I should stop and take a moment to greet and talk to them, just like what Dad used to do, and maybe I might learn something more from where we left off.