Anita Sanchez and Joannah Tindongan have a soulful conversation on Ifugao wisdom, ancestral lineage, and keeping traditional culture alive in the modern world.
This time on The Four Sacred Gifts, Anita and Joannah Tindongan talk about:
- Joannah’s experience growing up between two cultures
- The Ifugao people of the Philippines and Joannah’s indigenous paternal lineage
- Getting young people interested in traditional ways of living
- Ifugao creation stories and keeping the lineage alive through storytelling
- Respecting women, elders, the land, and all beings
- The importance of connection both with community and the natural world around us
- Communicating with our ancestors in sleeping and waking life
- The gift of being a student of life and approaching all things with curiosity
- Remembering that time is not linear and that we have the power to heal
“To cook on a fire, to plant the rice, to do the rituals, to pick food from the garden, to fetch drinking water, All those things are part of the way that we used to live. That’s one of the biggest impacts we can have, to relearn how to do the simple living in this crazy, busy world that we’re in now.” –Joannah Tindongan
About Joannah Tindongan:
Joannah was born in the Philippines and raised in Appalachian Ohio, in the United States. She is an Indigenous Filipina-US community organizer and culture bearer with passion for Indigenous advocacy, social justice, and defense of IP land and water sovereignty. A former community organizer for many years in the US, she now lives in the Cordillera mountains of the Philippines, in neighboring tribal lands. She works with her father and community to revitalize and teach Indigenous culture & traditional living through the Ifugao Center for Living Culture, which they founded together, and she loves traveling to teach and learn with Indigenous siblings around the world.
“One of my biggest dreams is that folks realize that there are less barriers to connecting with our surroundings and with our ancestors than we think.” –Joannah Tindongan
