Understanding, learning, embracing

THE Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) kicked off the Indigenous Peoples (IP) Games at the Davao del Norte Sports and Tourism Complex yesterday and tribes will see action until today, April 28, 2018.

Some 300 Ata-Manobo, Sama, Dibabawon, Mandaya, Mangguangan, and Mansaka delegates from New Corella, Talaingod, Carmen, Panabo City, Sto. Tomas, Asuncion, Kapalong, Tagum City, Dujali, Island Garden City of Samal and San Isidro are participating, the tribes indigenous to the area long before settlers arrived. PSC said this will be just the start and that many others will be held across the island.

While indeed this will be an opportunity to gawk as the IP in their original attires play, let it be a chance to look deeper and understand their games and then their ways.

Let events like this bring deeper understanding and appreciation, and not let this pass as just a showcase like going to a theme park. They are our people, they hold the stories of our ancestors in their ways and games.

Let us grab every opportunity to appreciate and connect, not as spectators nor as big brothers and big sisters but as equals of the same roots and ancestry. As starters, every Filipino should know that Indigenous and Indigent are two different words that have nothing to do with each other. From what we have been told, even PSC staff from the national capital do not know this, and that is very sad.

Indigent as an adjective means destitute, and as a noun means a beggar. Indigenous means of the land, someone or something originally from a particular place.

Many may groan in dismay and even read this with disbelief, but this is a fact that we should correct, it’s a cultural bias we have to remove.

Understanding and connection from the heart, after all, can only happen when we in all humility admit what we do not know and the prejudices we have long held. Events like this should become venues for these interactions and bridges to foster unity. -o0oWe

were met by sad news just yesterday afternoon about the passing of our former news editor, Nelson C. Bagaforo, from a lingering illness that he has been suffering from since before we had to let him go on a medical retirement. He passed at 12:30 p.m. yesterday, April 27, 2018. He lived a good life and made friends with all. Sun. Star Davao extends its condolences to the family and friends. His boisterousness added life in the newsroom. He will be remembered and missed.