Mangyan Heritage Center

We like to rattle off figures – the

Philippines

is made up of 7,107 islands, we have more than 100 languages and dialects, and 110 indigenous peoples’ groups. But how many realize that in the whole country, only four ethnic groups have retained their original syllabary? (The rest of us retained our languages, but Romanized our writing systems!)

Of the four groups that still write like they did for centuries, two are Mangyans from Mindoro, while the other two are Tagbanua and Palaw’an from Palawan. The Buhid and Hanunuo scripts were recognized as National Treasures in 1997, and inscribed in the UNESCO Memory of the World Registers in 1999.

At present, Mangyan cultural practices are in danger of vanishing because of the influence of modern lowland culture. The literature and traditions of the different Mangyan groups are short of documentation; thus, mainstream society lacks awareness of the beauty of Mangyan culture and its relevance to Filipino culture as a whole.

The Mangyan Heritage Center (MHC) is a library, archive, and research and education center in Calapan City, Oriental Mindoro. Established in 2000, the MHC builds upon the collection of Dutch anthropologist and Mangyan historian Antoon Postma. The MHC preserves, documents, and conducts further research on all topics concerning the eight Mangyan groups – the Alangan, Bangon, Buhid, Hanunuo, Iraya, Tadyawan, Tau-buid and Ratagnon. It also undertakes several activities which celebrate and promote the rich Mangyan culture.

The idea of building a heritage center for the Mangyans was born in the early 1960s, when Antoon Postma, then a missionary priest, worked with Mangyan communities in Mansalay. Postma was able to see, live, and feel the beauty of the Mangyan culture, and started to document it. As his personal collection of publications on the Mangyans increased, he established the Mangyan Research Center (MRC) in Panaytayan, an upland Mangyan community in Mansalay.

The wealth of information continued to grow as Postma embarked on collaborative projects with institutions such as the Mangyan Mission, headed by Fr. Ewald Dinter, SVD. However, the center’s location far away in the highland south of Mindoro greatly limited its accessibility. Furthermore, the MRC was operating out of Mr. Postma’s personal funds. In spite of its noble intentions, its long-term viability and existence were severely threatened.

In 1999, Quint Fansler, a former Jesuit volunteer assigned to Oriental Mindoro, worked with Postma and Dinter to establish the Mangyan Heritage Center (MHC) in Calapan City, the provincial capital. The MRC collection would then be transferred to the MHC to preserve it and make it more accessible to researchers.

Fansler invited nine individuals of various expertise but with great interest in the Mangyan culture to form the MHC Board of Trustees. The first board meeting, held in April 2000, marked MHC’s transformation from a mere project into an organization with various projects related to Mangyan culture.

MHC officially opened its doors to the public on November 14, 2000. The launching of the center, timed with the 50^th founding anniversary of the province of Oriental Mindoro, was done according to traditional Mangyan rituals.

On March 16, 2001, MHC was registered in the Securities and Exchange Commission as a non-profit, non-stock corporation engaged in the preservation and promotion of the Mangyan cultural heritage. The MHC holds the distinction of being the first non-government organization in Mindoro to be accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification.

VISION
To establish itself as a leader in celebrating and promoting indigenous Filipino culture, especially Mangyan

MISSION
To encourage appreciation for and recognition of Mangyan indigenous culture in the modern world

GOAL
To sustain and expand a library, archive, research and education center of indigenous Filipino culture

Come visit the Mangyan Heritage Center – the library with the largest collection of materials on the Mangyans in the world, and the first library in Mindoro to become accessible online. Get to know the Mangyans and rediscover your roots through their culture – something truly Filipino that has existed long before colonizers set foot in the Philippines, and remains alive and flourishing at present.

Mrs. Bae lived among the Alangan Mangyans as a Jesuit volunteer in 1983-1984, then remained for a decade as a social development worker. She has a Master’s degree in Cultural Anthropology, for which she wrote a thesis on the man-land relationship of the Alangan Mangyans. She was the first recipient of the Lawrence Trust Fund for Volunteer Efforts Recognition Award in 2002.

Mr. Cañaveral has been working with social development organizations for the past eighteen years. His involvement in NGOs ranges from being a cultural researcher and writer to trainor and project manager. He served as the coordinator of Katutubo, a CD-ROM project featuring four Philippine indigenous groups. Mr. Cañaveral was the president of the Mangyan Heritage Center from 2001 to 2002.

Dinter has lived in the

Philippines

for more than forty years, and has been working full-time with the Mangyans since 1986. He has been the Executive Director of the Mangyan Mission(MM), a church-based NGO, for the past twenty years. Mangyan Mission had a partnership with the Asian Development Bank for the Low-Income Upland Communities in the early 1990s. Work for land security as requested by the Mangyans is a priority program together with community organizing. MM is in formal, non-formal and indigenous education and other programs.

Atty. Evangelista, the first Mangyan lawyer, is a managing partner of Crisologo, Evangelista and Associates. He finished his Master of Laws, Major in International Law and Human Rights, in the United Kingdom, and graduated with distinction for his paper, “Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights.” A gifted pianist, Atty. Evangelista has inherited his mother’s talent for music.

Mrs. Fansler has been an NGO volunteer for four decades and a freelance writer for seventeen years. She coordinated the first Bishop's-Businessmen's Conference in 1971 and organized the Association of Foundations in 1972. She is the executive director of the Ala-Ala Foundation and a trustee of several foundations in Manila. Her articles have been published in the Reader's Digest, and in books, magazines and newspapers in Manila, Seoul, California, and West Virginia. She has also co-authored a college textbook, Sustainable Development: A Philippine perspective.

Ms. Faylona has more than twelve years of volunteer experience, dealing with domestic participatory development in various marginalized sectors. She holds a Juris Doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, where she wrote a thesis on “The Law of Biodiversity Conservation and Intellectual Property Rights of Indigenous Peoples.” A former Jesuit volunteer, she is currently finishing her Master’s degree in Women and Development Studies at the University of the

Philippines

Mrs. Ng has been an active member of the Museum Volunteers of the Philippines (MVP) for the past fourteen years. Her involvement with the Mangyans began in 1993 when, as a Program Officer for MVP, she invited Antoon Postma to give a lecture on the Hanunuo Mangyans. After ten years as MVP Tour Coordinator, she is currently the MVP Archivist. She was also an Auxiliary Missionary of the Assumption for one year, and was assigned to teach kindergarten students in Nazareno Parish, Cagayan de Oro.

An anthropologist and linguist, Mr. Postma has lived with the Hanunuo Mangyans for almost fifty years, publishing books and articles on their culture, poetry and writing system. Among his most important works are the translation of the 900 A.D. Laguna Copperplate Inscription, which is the oldest written document found in the Philippines, and the editing of the oldest Spanish-Tagalog dictionary. The founder of the Mangyan Research Center in Panaytayan, Mansalay, Mr. Postma is in charge of MHC’s research operations. His collection forms the bulk of the materials in the MHC library.

Mr. Silva is Senior Consultant to the National Museum of the

Philippines

. He has been in the non-profit sector for over twenty years, working as development director for Oxfam

America

, the American Cancer Society, Greenpeace, and other community organizations. John’s articles on heritage preservation and the arts have been published in various local and international publications.

Quint was a Jesuit volunteer in Mindoro from 1998-1999, and lived in Mindoro from 1999-2000 to establish the Mangyan Heritage Center and build its library. He served as the MHC president between 2003-2005. He has worked in the

Philippines

, the

USA

, Kazakhstan and Brazil; and in various roles in the nonprofit, public, and private sectors. He currently is working in risk management with Citibank in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Quint holds a Bachelor of Science from Georgetown University´s School of Foreign Service and an MBA from Thunderbird Graduate School.

An Ibanag from Tuguegarao, Ms. Catapang has been working with the Mangyans for the past fourteen years. In 2005, she received a fellowship for visiting archivist at the Rockefeller Archive Center in New York, which gave her the chance to give lectures on the Mangyans at several organizations and universities, and search for Mangyan documents and artifacts in libraries and museums in the United States. She also gives lectures about the Mangyans to educational institutions and organizations in the country and abroad.

The MHC has been accredited by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Sangguniang Panlalawigan of the Province of Mindoro, and currently enjoys a three-year accreditation from the Philippine Council for NGO Certification.