The Summer Institute of Linguistics recording of the Menuvu Epic, the Ulehingan

An old arumanen ne menuvu woman of Central Mindanao named Lingka had, in her youth, assisted Hazel Wrigglesworth of the Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) in translating the Bible to Menuvu. More than ten years ago, her family asked me to help them get a copy of a recording that the SIL made in the 60s of the chanting of their epic, the Ulehingen, performed by now deceased raconteurs.  The epic is reputed to be the longest asian epic taking days on end to chant and needless to state, learning the art is a lifetime’s dedication.

It tells of the first of their ancestors who engaged in epic battles to elevate themselves through endurance and virtue and without cursing their creator, to the sixth and highest level of heaven after which they were rewarded with their own land here on earth.  Even today, the Menuvu claim they co-exist with the spirit world — their ancestors in their ancestral land; which land is to them — heaven on earth.

In a old house built with not a single nail and using for beams, the lauan, a tree which towers on a single trunk like an extremely tall light-post and once flourished in Bukidnon before the loggers of the Martial Law years clear cut their forests, I was lulled to sleep along with about twenty families huddled together in the dim gaslight, to the hypnotic chanting of the Matigsalug ne Menuvu version of the Ulehingen.

Their version adds new verses to include the heroic exploits of their Supreme Datu who declared a rebellion and won from Marcos, the Dictator, limited governance rights over the place where their tribal government sits — Sinuda.  From Sinuda in the 60s, the Matigsalug has now expanded their ancestral domain to cover 500,000 hectares for which one consolidated Title has been issued to them under Republic Act No. 8371.

Now at her ripe old age of 80, Lingka sits in the council of elders which unites the leadership of eleven Menuvu clans of Central Mindanao, an assertion of their right to self-governance recognized under Philippine Laws (Republic Act No. 8371) (1997) and more recently the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) (2007).  Like the Matigsalug, they also want ancestral domain title in a race to assert their birthrights before the ore miners come to ravish the land and pollute its rivers and streams.

She yearns to hear those raconteurs sing the epic again as no one else can.  Decades of political and economic marginalization has left her people with two generations either embarrassed by culture or whose enthusiasm for such things as this epic has waned. It would be good to teach the very young children how to chant again; but the old raconteurs/raconteuses have all passed away and she needs that tape recording Ms. Wrigglesworth made in the 50s.  Peace, land, self-governance and proud progeny — their life as a tribe depends on these.

The SIL started its work with indigenous peoples of the Philippines in 1953.  Interestingly, the Philippines was its first overseas attempt at its linguistic program.  This program involved learning the local languages, assisting with language development through translation dictionaries and translating the bible and other texts to the local language and then making these available to the host government and eventually the academic world.

An airstrip was usually established in SIL target communities in the hinterlands and young menuvu children would dream of one day piloting such aircraft as it made routine flights bearing SIL workers such as Hazel Wrigglesworth and Lingka to and from far off places in search of old raconteurs.

In short, the SIL was recording oral traditions which have been handed down from generation to generation through the ages since time immemorial.

A google of SIL would yield this information from its website:

SIL developed similar language-based programs in other parts of the world, beginning in the Philippines in 1953, spreading from there to other parts of the Pacific and Asia, to Africa in 1962 and to parts of Europe in 1974. SIL is now involved in language development in over 50 countries.

SIL works alongside ethnolinguistic peoples whose voices are often not heard, by facilitating language development through research, training and advocacy. SIL is committed to ongoing training to further develop competency within those communities. SIL provides consultant help to develop the capacity of community educators and national program designers to create effective multilingual education programs.

In 1934 when SIL was formed, linguists estimated that there were about 1,000 unwritten languages in the world. As language researchers continued their investigation, many more languages were documented. Now it is known that there are nearly 7,000 languages spoken today. The conclusions of this ongoing research have been published in an SIL reference work called the Ethnologue: Languages of the World. A new edition of this catalog of languages is published every four years. The sixteenth edition, published in 2009, lists 6,909 languages.

In its 75-year history, SIL has worked with over 2,550 languages. Currently there are about 2,000 SIL language development programs in progress. The SIL Bibliography contains over 35,000 references to books, journal articles, book chapters, dissertations and other academic papers about languages and cultures authored or edited by SIL International staff or published by SIL. In addition to a body of literature in many lesser-known languages, numerous portions of Scripture have been translated.

So I wrote the SIL a letter and they agreed to meet with us.  I assumed that the meeting would begin a process for turnover of the recordings, if these have been digitized since or preserved in some way by the SIL.  But the SIL has not moved since that last meeting … more than 10 years ago.

More recently the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) was voted into law by 143 nations at the UN on September 13, 2007 with 4 voting against it (USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia) and 11 abstaining.  Those in favor included the Philippines, so there is another legal basis to assert this right to have access to documentation of this valuable Epic.

The SIL having operated worldwide with indigenous peoples for 60 years can be likened to the last scene of Indiana Jones where the ark of the covenant is lost in a huge hangar full of crates that were the loot and bounty from the world war.  So here is to say to SIL.. the time for taking is done, the Peoples want to work on their cultures for themselves and their progeny.

We have a pilot, pre-school, home-school project for Menuvu children of the Pulangi River scheduled for launching within the year and an introduction to Ulehingan would be good cornerstone for the curriculum. (So fork it over already, SIL. The UN is on their side.)