Abstract
The growing demand for participatory community development approaches has greatly influenced the need to involve community people as active partners, rather than passive recipients of programs, projects and services. Participatory approaches operate on the premise that the local people are the ultimate change agents of their own communities and that their culture is an asset to their own development. For Indigenous communities, their Indigenous cultural and knowledge systems serve as tools for sustainable collaboration. This article discusses how the ili-based community organising concept was developed by non-government organisations while working with the Igorot Indigenous Peoples in Northern Philippines. Ili is an Igorot word for ‘home’ or ‘the land of one’s birth’, considered to be the Igorots’ source of identity, belonging and life direction. The ili-based concept uses traditional knowledge, values and practices to facilitate the formation of People Organisations (POs). The concept is part of a wider research project on community development amongst the Igorot Indigenous Peoples of Benguet Province, Philippines.
Highlights
This article discusses how the ili-based community organising concept was developed by non-government organisations while working with the Igorot Indigenous Peoples in Northern Philippines
The repressive situation resulted in the formation of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) that aimed to organise the masses for two key different purposes: to wage armed and underground struggles against the regime, and to implement projects to help communities and lobby for sectoral reforms (Batistiana & Murphy, 1996)
For most Igorots, the ili provides them with a sense of perpetual belonging to a community that plays a critical role in shaping their beliefs, values and views about the world as an individual and as member of an Indigenous group
Summary
Benguet Province of the Philippines is located at the Northern Luzon of the Cordillera Mountain Range with an estimated population of 372,533 in 2007 (Cabato, 2011). La Trinidad is the capital town, and Baguio City, which used to be part of Benguet, is the ‘capital city’ of the Cordillera Region. Baguio used to be designated as an American military rest camp and the centre for the American government agri-business, transportation and mining industry development in the 1900s. The majority of business and trade takes place in Baguio City and La Trinidad, making the villages integrated into the local market economy. It is becoming increasingly diverse in population, the original settlers are the Kankanaeys, Ibaloys and Kalanguyas
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