Blog 3 Tory J.

Blog #3 Tory Johnston

            This week was our second and last week of travel. After our usual lectures with Dr. Shaw and Kawaiian Tahimik, and visit with Oscar Campomanes at Ataneo we visited the Aguinaldo Shrine in Cavite, Boracay; a tourist destination near the beach, and Mactan/Cebu and Bohol; the home of the chocolate hills and Lapu-Lapu shrine. Relating to the readings for this week, I feel like the overlaying theme for our trip and lectures was that of colonial mentality; the perpetuation and reinforcing of colonial ideals through the historical education system and the effects that it has on not only the land and the people here, but our place as visitors of our destinations.

            For our first lecture with Dr. Shaw, she showed us her experimental documentary, “Nailed.” The very provocative, atypically filmed piece gave critical analyses on the effects of imperialism and colonial dominance, specifically critiquing the introduction of colonial religion on Filipinos. After we viewed the film we had a discussion including the President of the Philippine Women’s University and Dr. Shaw herself. Our conversation led us to questioning what it means to identify with colonial religions and some of the students in our group even brought forth their perspectives on these religious beliefs. The topics we discussed and the content of the film were reminiscent of one of the readings we did for this week, Anne Paulet’s “To Change the World: The Use of American Indian Education in the Philippines.” Paulet’s article drew parallels between the boarding school education policies in the United States and here in the Philippines. The very basis of the educational policies in relation to the indigenous people here and in America was to replace indigenous knowledge with that of the colonizers. These education policies were integral to the reinforcing of the colonial mentality. Through organized religion policymakers looked to educate the “savages” and force them to conform to their notions of civilization, religion, and epistemologies. Shaw’s film was related to this because it brought forth questions on the current state of Filipinos in relation to these colonial ideals/religions. Similar to this, Kawaiian Tahimik’s work also questions colonial mentalities and critiques colonial dominance in a creative way. He had pieces where he used his own blood to depict American colonialism; showing an American flag and the KKK, and other symbolisms that are related to colonialism. I felt that this piece was trying to convey that his identity; used as an example of Filipino identity (his blood) was connected to historical actions taken by the United States government, this must include American educational policies.

            Our trip to Boracay was most exciting; the beach, the people, the things to do, the excitement, however I could not help but feel like we were participating in exactly what we were meant to be critical about. The tourism and allure of Boracay displaces indigenous people and exploits Native lands. These kinds of actions are directly related to colonial mentality. After Boracay we visited the Lapu Lapu shrine in Cebu. This was an important site for me because Lapu-Lapu’s defeat of Magellan was one of the earliest examples of indigenous resistance to colonization.

            I feel that our readings gave us a comprehensive look at the effects of colonialism, but there are some things that I need to question about it. David & Okazaki’s study on the Colonial Mentality Scale was interesting, but left me feeling like it was a bit contradictory. The researchers used western-scientific methods to prove that colonial mentality has an effect on Filipinos today. Who was their audience? What was the actual point of creating this colonial mentality scale? In my opinion it should be more important for indigenous people to be critical about colonialism and create a decolonial perspective rather than recognize its existence and its effects on the collective psyche. If this is all that is researched about colonialism, then it seems that complacency is the only result. This brings me to the Constantino’s article about the mis-education of Filipinos. Constantino seemed to be more in favor of creating a collective nationalism to be competitive with Americans rather than change the system. He talked about making the national language Tagalog, but is that not what Americans did with English? Reading his article, I could not help but wonder if his perspective is assimilationist. I do understand that Filipino’s need to rise above and gain their independence, but again in my opinion indigenous resistance needs to be about decolonization of the mind, not adapting to the forced assimilation and colonial history.

            This week coming to a close represents our last week of travel, the last week of hustle and bustle, and the last time we will be visiting anywhere other than Manila. After reading about what we did this week, I can only wonder if there is actually a push for indigenous resistance in the Philippines. During our stay in Boracay I met someone who was my age at a karaoke bar near the hotel. His name was Aaron and he told me of his ambitions to come to America and treated me well because of my nationality. This was reminiscent of Kawaiian Tahimik’s notion that if you give someone alcohol, they’ll release their passions. But besides the fact that it was a very social and very informal situation, I couldn’t help but wonder about why Aaron had such romanticized notions of America and even what it meant for me to be an American. He told me of his background and his work, and how he was less fortunate than most individuals that got to go to school, and this really did make me recognize my privilege as an American with access to education, but it is interesting to me the ways in which the colonial mentality manifests itself through the consciousness of the individuals that are the survivors of colonization. I’m just as guilty as Aaron is when it comes to colonial psychological captivity; it took me a college education to learn about the complex and dark history of the United States, but I guess what I’m trying to get at is that there should be ways where people start thinking about this critically. Indigenous people should not look to their colonizers to find solutions in their lives, but rather look to change the system in order to find what was stolen from us. I know that we were all born into this but I still believe that there is hope for the future. Are there organizations that look to bring forth indigenous ways of knowing and decolonizing the collective mindset? Is it even of interest to anyone to make such drastic changes after a long and tired history of colonial relationships with the United States and Spain? Can we get passed the rhetoric of finding an American Dream, or is the collective mindset more focused on survival within the colonial regime?

Works Cited

Constantino, R. (1982). Miseducation of Filipinos. In I In A.V. Shaw & L.H Francia, Vestiges of war.

(pp. 177-­‐192). New York: New York Press.

David, E.J.R., & Okazaki, S. (2006). The Colonial Mentality Scale (CMS) for Filipino Americans:

Scale construction and psychological implications: A review and recommendation.

Journal of Counseling Psychology 53 (1), pp. 1–16.

Paulet, A. (2007). To change the world: The use of American Indian education in the

Philippines. History of Educational Quarterly, 47 (2), 173-202.