SAN JOSE, Antique – The School for Living Tradition (SLT) of the Ati Indigenous Peoples (IP) in Sitio Pantad, Barangay Igcalawagan in Tobias Fornier town needs additional fund for its unfinished building.
Delia Pauden, head of the Pantad Ati Tribe Association and serves as SLT teacher, said they are asking the provincial government for an additional fund including for construction materials to finish their school.
“The National Cultural Center for the Arts (NCCA) allotted a P150,000 budget for the construction of our SLT last October2018,” she said.
The fund from the NCCA, according to Pauden, was not enough as their school has no wall or flooring yet. The budget was used to construct a one-floor concrete building where they hold classes for their traditional dance which they call “Miroy Criñosa”; “Inati” language; and weaving using local materials such as buri and nito for pouches and bags.
“For this school year, we are about to have our classes this month,” she said.
The SLT was conceptualized for their tribe members to learn and preserve their traditional culture, art, and livelihood.
“If we don’t teach our traditional culture, art, and livelihood, the new generation will tend to forget it,” Pauden said.
Last year, she said they only met in a designated place because they have no classroom. Even without the concrete structure, she said they were able to gather 70 Atis, mostly mothers as well as their children in the community, to join the classes.
“With the concrete structure for our SLT we would be able to have a better place where to learn,” she said./PN
