An Igorot Scholarship and Research Program, with the initial objective of funding five scholars in each
of the six Cordillera state colleges, for a total of 30 scholars, has been launched. A Scholarship Fund
Raising Council, with co-chairs, have been named, and has raised in about a year's time more than $10,000.
Similarly, a Scholarship Board of Trustees, with co-chairs and members, have been named. The Scholarship
Board has finished writing the initial draft of a Scholarship Charter which is now under review.
To learn more about the IGO Scholarship Program, please click here.
The original concept of an IIC was a periodic gathering of interested Igorot representatives all over
the world
"to consult on issues, interests, and concerns that are generally common to Igorots." It was deliberately titled,
"Igorot" to bring into focus inhabitants of the Gran Cordillera Central, or the inhabitants of the BIBAK provinces
of North Central Luzon, Philippines.To learn more about the IIC, click here.
The Igorot Quarterly is a "not for profit" Publication of The IGO, published in March, June, September, and December.
The general
purpose of The Igorot Quarterly is to share with the human community the story of the Igorots - their culture, arts,
and letters; their history and their struggles to rise above themselves, and to be a medium of communications among
Igorots. To learn more about The Igorot Quarterly, click here.
Spearheaded by members of the IIC-3 Executive Committee, AYIP and the Philippine based IGO Elders,
an agreement
was reached for a Philippine IGO Chapter. For the full story, as published in The Igorot Quarterly, of "The Birth
of the Philippine IGO Chapter", click here.
Indigenous People's Rights Act (IPRA)
There is an IGO Committee on the Philippines Ancestral Land Laws, chaired by Vice Governor
Edna Tabanda
of Benguet that is in the process of organization. Its main function will be to monitor the latest
interpretation and implementation of the controversial ancestral land laws, by the Philippine congress
and the Philippine courts, to the Igorot people in the Cordillera. For more information, you may contact
Vice Governor Tabanda directly at her email address: ectabanda@skyinet.net
The 5th Igorot International Consultation, as approved at the Baguio Consultation in April 2000,
will be in St. Louis, Missouri in 2004. During a cultural exchange between some Igorots in the USA and the
Wydown Middle School in St. Louis, some representatives of the school met with the Igorot contingent which
nominated Edwin Abeya and Karl Kindt, a university professor in St. Louis, to co-chair the selection of
a planning committee to plan IIC-5. For more information, please refer to the IIC-5 page.
For questions on IIC-5, or for membership to the IIC-5 Planning Committee, you may contact Edwin Abeya,
IIC-5 Planning Committee chairperson, at iic5@igorotglobal.org.
The 6th Igorot International Consultation, as approved at the London Consultation in 2002,
will be in Melbourne, Australia in 2006. For more information, please refer to the IIC-6 page.
For questions on IIC-6, or for membership to the IIC-6 Planning Committee, you may contact Paz Awingan-Aptimes,
IIC-6 Planning Committee chairperson, at iic6@igorotglobal.org.
Youth Cultural Exchange
The Igorot youth, through its Youth Committee, is exploring a youth cultural exchange
program between the Igorot youth and the youth of other cultures. This cultural exchange program was successfully
inaugurated in St. Louis, Missouri in 2000 when a team of Igorot youth and adults were invited as guests of the
Wydown Middle School for two days. In those two days, with funding of transportation and board by the Wydown School
PTA, the Igorots performed Igorot dances and rituals, as well as provided answers to students’ questions about the
Philippines and its people.during a symposium. For these Wydown students, the meeting of actual Igorots of today
was a complete reversal of their impression about Igorots as presented during the 1904 St. Louis Exposition.
In fact, the students had wanted to apologize for the misrepresentation of Igorots during the 1904 Fair.
When funds for cultural exchange become available, the youth will conduct a similar cultural exchange with
the youth of other cultures. For more information on the IGO youth activities,
contact Tim Botengan at tbotengan@earthlink.net.
Sometime in the 1960s, the City of Baguio donated a piece of land in the City where a
BIBAK student dormitory was built from funds provided by the national government through the congressional
representatives of the Mountain provinces. For one reason or another, the Cordillera Administrative
Region (CAR) took over the dormitory to be used as an office of one of the CAR administrative agencies.
IGO thinks this is not right and has created a committee to look into returning the use of the dormitory
to BIBAK students in Baguio. Vice Governor Edna Tabanda and Gary Pekas have volunteered to head a committee
to look into this Bibak dormitory question.
Igorot Cultural Values and IPRA
A resolution during the Baguio consultation and at the 2nd annual meeting of the
IGO Council of Elders proposes that IGO explores the inclusion of Igorot cultural values, as well as the Indigenous
Peoples’ Rights Act (IPRA), in the Social Studies curriculum in Philippine Schools. This proposal was endorsed to
the IGO Committee on Education and Culture, headed by Dr. Albert Bacdayan.
Bacdayan’s email address is education@igorotglobal.org.
An IGO Website
An IGO Website. Finally, we have one. It is just the first draft at an IGO web site, but with
a lot of people asking information about IGO and IGO programs, we decided to go ahead and post the website. This will also give
everyone a chance to make some suggestions to improve the web site. Your comments and suggestions are very important,
so please contact the IGO webmaster for questions, suggestions, or comments. You can e-mail the webmaster directly at:
webmaster@igorotglobal.org
E-mail Group Service
The Igorot Global Organization E-mail Group (Igorot-IGO) shares the mission of the
IGO which was founded to preserve the heritage of the Igorot Peoples of the Philippines, to assist
them in addressing their many issues and challenges, to assist other disadvantaged peoples and to be a
unifying force among indigenous peoples.
This is a mailing list for the exclusive use of the IGO members. It allows members to remain current
on IGO issues and proceedings, it allows members to ensure their views are heard and incorporated
in the IGO policies and programs. If you are an IGO member we encourage you to join our list so that
you can stay up to date on all happenings and participate in shaping our future. If you are not an
IGO member, please consider becoming one by contacting our membership coordinator. To join this E-mail
Group, please contact Claus Nabert, the IGO Communications Officer and the moderator for this E-mail
Group. You can e-mail him directly at
communications@igorotglobal.org. You can also join the E-mail Group directly by entering your
e-mail address below.
