The document summarizes a study conducted on the indigenous healing practices of Aeta communities in Bataan, Philippines. It explored the traditional knowledge of Aeta healers through discussions and observations of medicinal plants and healing methods. Key findings included that Aeta healers see healing as interconnected with spiritual, emotional and physical well-being. Their knowledge is passed down over generations and remains important to their communities despite modern healthcare options. The study concluded the Aeta women healers can be considered indigenous philosophers as their practices are rooted in their worldviews and provide cultural identity and agency.

1. From Maritime Educators and Bioethicists Empiricism and Phenomenalism Perspective
In the Re-Thinking Age
Prof. Angelica M Baylon, Ph.D
Director for External Relations
Maritime Academy ofAsia and the Pacific (MAAP)
Bataan, Philippines
FDr. ProfVadm Eduardo Ma RSantos
President
Maritime Academy ofAsia and the Pacific (MAAP)
Bataan, Philippines
Prof Darryl Macer, PhD
President
AmericanUniversity ofSovereign Nations, Arizona
Eubios Ethics Institute, BangkokThailand
http://info.maap.edu.ph
http://www.ausn.info
http://www.eubios.info

2.  This paper describes in part, the results of the MAAP-AUSN research-based community
extension partnership with the Aeta Community in the Province of Bataan (Sitio
Matalangao Barangay Banawang Bagac; Morong and Mariveles), examining their
traditional knowledge and indigenous healing practices.
Bataan
 The implications of the healing traditions of Indigenous People as indigenous
philosophy and the use of Talking Circles provide a picture of the current
practice of philosophy and its ongoing fight against colonization.
 Among the themes explored include identity and agency.
 In this paper, it is concluded that based on the narrative statements, the Aeta
women healers are indigenous philosophers.
The message is the philosophy for all is the
continuing motivation to ask questions about
everything and to apply wisdom to the life we live.

3. Introduction
 As part of MAAP Extension Services Program, MAAP located in the Province of Bataan Philippines has
adopted Indigenous groups in Bagac, Morong and Mariveles Municipalities called Aeta, who are beneficiaries
of the MAAP community outreach programs like livelihood training and projects.
 The community outreach with the adopted Aeta community
provided opportunities for MAAP students to teach and play
with the children.
 They enjoyed eating together, sharing stories and, most of
all, exchanging different kinds of food. This experience had
shown respect to the Aeta community.
 Aeta possesses vast wisdom and knowledge as shown by their medicinal
and herbal plants grown within their community and their healing
practices and traditions possess vast wisdom and knowledge.
 In sickness, the Aeta community asks for advice from the Aeta Elders, who
provided them instructions on what to do to treat the ill person.

4. Introduction
 When MAAP became an academic partner of the American University of Sovereign
Nations (AUSN), we learned and took part in some of the discussions about Indigenous
Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Healers, their traditional practices and its
implications to public health to enrich the MAAP Extension Services Program.
 In August 2014, invited by the AUSN, in Arizona USA,
we had met and linked with the Pima, Maricopa,
Navajo, and Apache tribes and had visited various
museums and tribal communities.
 Seemingly, the same experiences had occurred across
the globe, from Africa to Asia, South America and
beyond, and even to date, many are seeking and
working for peace and sustainability.

5. Introduction
 In May 2015, invited by AUSN academic partner - UNSOED in Purwokerto, Indonesia, the site of the Asia Africa
Summit in Bandung Indonesia was visited, that made us reflect on what had happened in the past.
 MAAP then partnered with the National Research
Council of The Philippines (NRCP- Div 1 Chair Dr.
Epifania Tabadda) ) and St Francis Xavier Parish
Church (Rev Fr. Julius Descartin) for a funded
project in the adopted community.
 This paper is also about the 196-page study conducted by Baylon [1] that describes in full
detail, the results of the MAAP-AUSN research-based community extension partnership with
the Aeta Community in the Province of Bataan.

6.  The Aeta displaced from their ancestral land are the marginal
indigenous people in the Philippines that visitors to the Philippines
may observe.
 Aeta is one of the Indigenous Peoples in the Philippines who
resisted colonialism and ensured the preservation of their customs
and character as a people. Depending on its geographical
locations, the Aeta are named differently.
 in Zambales,Aeta is Ata
 in Palawan-Batak
 in the Sierra Madre-Dumatad
 in Mindanao- Mamanua
 in Panay-Negrito
 and in northeastern Luzon-Agta.
“Negritos”
 European records of Philippine history identify the "Negritos" named by Spanish friars as the original
inhabitants of the islands who crossed land bridges from Asia before the Ice Ages. Subsequent waves
of migrants of Malay origin came to the islands by boat and, mainly by force, drove the Negritos
towards the mountains. The Negritos spread throughout the islands and presently belong to various
tribes (Agta, Aeta or Ita, Batak, Sambal, Mamanua and other names) and developed their language
and ethnic identity.
The colonizer declared that for them to be saved from sins, they must
comply with Spain's philosophy and theology. Spain establishes
churches and schools being managed by Spanish priests teaching
Christianity as a strategy to continue indoctrination of the native people.

7.  We are especially grateful to the lessons
shared by the Aeta community in Mariveles,
Morong, and Bagac, gathered through eating
together, tears of joy and tears of sorrow, and
through healing.
 We have the privilege of seeing most of their
medicinal and herbal plants grown within their
community as well as their healing practices
and traditions.
 This field study was carried out in the Sitio
Matanglao (a subunit of a barangay or village)
of the Barangay Banawang in the municipality
of Bagac, in the province of Bataan, about 150
km from Manila.
The first principle of healing
philosophy is sharing knowledge
following the ethical principle of
beneficence.

8.  In times of sickness, the community consults the Aeta Elders on
what to do to heal a particular illness.
 It is still amazing how a certain bark of a tree, dried leaves, and
bones of wild animals, upon boiling them will make a sick person
well after drinking the concoction.
 The lady chief leader, Chief Leader Mrs. Siony Sy, is aware of
the various plants and uses, and in a separate part of this
study twenty of the main species were documented.
The Aeta healers practiced their spirituality y
giving thanks to their Divine Creator for the life,
wisdom, and gift of healing that they possess.
For the Aeta healers, their purpose in life is to
help those sick people who would be needing
their help to sustain them and not to acquire
wealth out of it.

9.  This paper focuses on the philosophy of the Aeta healers
that made them continue their knowledge of healing which
is also associated with various factors namely :
 Cultural
 Economic
 Political
 Social
 spiritual
 The study noted the multiple forms of resistance and
resiliency by the Aeta healers and how they value wisdom
and knowledge.
There are some limitations of the paper. Sitio
represents a small sample of Aeta community in
Brgy Banawang in Bagac Bataan, supplemented
through interactions with indigenous healers in
Bataan (Mariveles, Bagac, and Morong)
Bataan
 This research brings a new space of decolonization to consider
indigenous philosophy. This study emphasized the
contributions of the Aeta healers in both the political and
academic arena.
 Thru this study, we may better understand the Aeta healers
based on their narratives and can also see how anti-colonial,
post-colonial, and Indigenous feminism theories can be
applied.

10.  The research used roundtable discussion or talking circles
(August– September 2015) as one of the methodologies in
data collection, in addition to :
 Questionnaire
 Observations
 Literature
 Online analysis
 Reframing research methodology means acknowledging the
existence of Indigenous people. It says that in studying the
life of the Aeta healers, it must be based on what they think,
believe, want, wish and view the world..
 The Aeta presence in
the world must be
respected and
recognized. It is
through this way that it
is the Aeta women
healers themselves
who determine the
research methodology.
 The study is about five (5) Aeta women
healers, their healing practices and their
worldviews. They are therefore the
appropriate people for determining the right
methodology, one that can honor their
existence.
 This study used Indigenous research, a
research that respects the way of life of
indigenous peoples, their worldview, their
culture, their traditions and the knowledge
that they possess.

11. Results and Discussion
 For the Native people, the Talking Circles have both a spiritual and
cultural relevance.
 The religious importance of the Talking Circle is that… it offers a place
wherein every participant are free to openly share their individual stories,
their life experiences in a respectful, impartial, and non-confrontational
manner that are accepted among the group members.
TALKING CIRCLE
 The importance of space -> native people can share their emotions to
laugh or cry and also share their healing practices. The Aeta healers
disclosed that in the talking circle they also need healing as much as they
heal others.

12. Results and Discussion
One of the Aeta women healers, stated :
“I feel good because in here I can talk and share both good
and bad experiences outside my community. Like when
they see me outside, I heard them saying insulting words
on how I look different from them. In sharing this story
with others, pouring out all the emotions then I feel good”.

13. Results and Discussion
The respondents said that their worldview is a source of identity. They made
it clear that their thinking or belief is just one of the ways they perceive
events.
They had interpretations of events and shared their worldview for others to
know so they may be heard. One healer mentioned:
“When I heal, it is both treating the physical body and spirit
/emotional aspect of the person because it is interconnected.
Our body is connected both to land and spirit. If the spirit
world, was disrespected, it will bring sickness. For me, a
person is healed if he was also aware and respect things that
he does not see. “

14. Results and Discussion
Another healer explained :
That she heals because she wanted people to get well and for them
to also learn how to treat other people to continue her work when
she is already gone for the benefit of other people who may need
help. She also advises her children to be observant as what is
happening at present affects the future. She knows that what is
happening can change the future and therefore there is a need for
her to transfer her healing practices to ensure that others will
benefit from it shortly.

15. Results and Discussion
There was an outbreak of cholera in the Philippines from1899-1903. It was the beginning of
one of the most terrible epidemics of modern times, lasting until February 1904 and, taking
by official estimate 109,461 lives, 4, 386 in Manila.
Nevertheless, despite assurances from the colonial government that Western trained
doctors had the solution to this epidemic, the Filipinos continued to seek the help of
Indigenous healers.
Among the Indigenous groups
whose knowledge and healing
practices were sought were Aeta
women healers. The Aeta healers
use herbal medicine and offer
prayers to the God or Apo Dios in
healing the sick.

16. Results and Discussion
As cited in Shimizu study, the Aeta does not consider themselves Filipinos because of the anguish and distress
that they have endured from the Filipinos. Shimizu also described the experiences of the Aeta People in the
hands of Filipinos demonstrate that the maltreatment persists today, one of the local Aeta woman healers
narrated in a roundtable discussion, her personal experience with the Filipinos:
“I have negative experiences with Filipinos. Most of the
time, whenever I sell fruits and vegetables in the market,
Filipinos will ask the price, then they will take a sample of
my fruit, for example, Saba (banana), then after eating and
having tasted, they will leave, without paying nor saying
thank you. At first, I was happy, thinking that they enjoyed
my products, but I get sad and angry as I felt disrespected as
a person. Just one example, but I can cite more and even
worse, than this experience.”

17. Results and Discussion
 The Aeta healers are well-respected by their people and by other communities
in the province of Bataan.
 Their population has been recognized for the work that they have been doing.
They are consulted in times of tribulation.
 They have been called upon to make significant decisions for their
community.
 Their healing practices remain in existence, despite the presence of Western-
style health centers and public health practitioners in their community.
 They choose to use their healing traditions to cure their people.
 They share their knowledge of healing with others.
 They think that they can heal, not because of their power, but because of the
help of God.
Bataan may have continued to adopt the
modern way of life, but Aeta people
continue to practice their way of life and
resist the experience of the colonized.
Bataan

18. Conclusions and Recommendations
Indigenous knowledge
 A body of knowledge associated with an extended
stay in a particular place
 The indigenous knowledge pertains to traditional
norms and social values as well as the mental
structure that regulates or guides the people way of
living. Through the process of learning the old, new
knowledge is discovered; this is what makes
Indigenous knowledge's dynamic rather than static.
 Indigenous knowledge has its history and knowledge
roots, holistically integrated in a way that Western
paradigms are not. For that reason, this specific and
ecologically and community-based epistemic
knowledge is ‘organic”.
-defined by Dei and Kempf
 The product by the members of the communities.
 the healing practices of Isneg, Aeta and Igorot women are a
body of knowledge that needs to be recognized and
respected since this knowledge carries with it the libraries,
procedures, and other insights communally gathered over
time and by experience.
- Murial, Castellano, Shiva, and Wane
Indigenous knowledge
“You want to take our knowledge, and at the end
claim that this knowledge is from you.“ -AETA

19. Conclusions and Recommendations
“It is no wonder, therefore, that the Aetas have
tremendous knowledge about medicinal plants
and their prescriptions." -Shimizu
 Healing the sick for them is a combination of using
medicinal plants and asking for help from the good
spirits.
 This is the endogenous source of the Aeta imperative
to respect and care for nature and everything on
earth, both living and non-living.
 History tells us that the Aeta women performed
healing in their community. The Aeta women's
healing was diverse, ranging from exorcised illnesses
such as dire spirits, and stomach ailments, among
many others.

20. Conclusions and Recommendations
 Aeta, Isneg, and Igorot have the same way of healing
the sick. They believe that the spiritual and physical
beings need treatments before a person who is sick
gets cured.
 They also think that a person gets sick because of not
respecting other creations and that before the
healers can perform healing, they need to consult the
spirit.
 The only time they can diagnose the cause of the
illness and the reason that they have great respect for
both living and non-living things.

21. Conclusions and Recommendations
Aeta healers know how to strategically fight
and apply precise strategic instruments in
specific combat situations as feminist activists.
The Aeta women healers are also excluded by
default and disinformation from knowledge
production: they face misrepresentation and
exclusion in school textbooks and other
academic resources.
"I am the light of my family and my community."
“I love serving my family and my community. When I do things for my family
and my community, I feel good because I know that those little things that I do
can help them. For example, when I cook, I am not only cooking for my children
and my husband, but I always make sure that I include the rest of my people.”
The concept of agency is also a
motivation for the healers. Some of
the themes that emerged from the
Talking Circles include the idea that :

22. Conclusions and Recommendations
"I heal because I want to improve the health of my people."
”There may be a health center in our community, but there are still so many people who come
to me because they believe in my healing power. I have been healing very many people who
have been beaten by snakes, among other things. Some of them were about to die when they
came to me. But, through my knowledge of healing, and with the help of my creator, I was able
to help them.
There are times when I feel so weak, but I still perform healing because if I refuse to heal the
people who are in need of help, I feel worse. My work as a healer is the one that gives me
strength and happiness. I believe that I possess the knowledge that can help the people who
are in need. It is a power not only to change the life of my people but also the life of other
people. I do not ask for money or any material things. I only ask the people who come to me to
believe what I do and to respect my people.”

23. Conclusions and Recommendations
Ancestral knowledge is essential,
""My ancestors taught me how to honor other human beings." As another healer stated, Others think of
us as stupid and primitive. We do not belong to any religion. Old people like me did not go to a school that
was established by colonized people. Our children go to school but have bad effects on them. For instance,
our children do not want to be called Aeta because of the negative connotation. But we are Aeta, and we
have a wonderful culture, we have been here for a long time. We have our history. However, I guess, they
call us barbaric because we do not conform to the rules or to the ways of knowing of the colonized”.
Indigenous cultures, in many cases, are
highly developed and were virtually ignored
by the colonial educational administration.
This critique includes an implicit critic of the
underpinning philosophy and explicit philosophy of
knowledge taught in the system.

24. Conclusions and Recommendations
 This paper presents in part, only the surface of a study that
chronicles the cultural richness of the Aeta women healers.
 The Aeta women talk about different ways of looking at
identity: it is not about just looking at the physical body,
but also looking at all aspects of a human being.
 They discuss the methods of bringing about proactive
change in their community.
 Even though they are not Western-trained healers, the Aeta
community has been continuously engaged in a range of
medical, political, and educational practices to sustain and
grow their community.
 The actual narratives of Aeta women healers
were categorized into three themes :
1. Identity
2. Agency
3. representation

25. Conclusions and Recommendations
 For identity, Aeta women healers shared their names, age,
and how they had acquired healing knowledge. The
discussed racial identity and their race as a form of
empowerment.
 They showed different ways of looking at oppression from
race, class, gender, culture, and spirituality.
 They shared information about their methods of
understanding healing, and they explained how it became
their identity.
 They also talked about gender as an identity and how this
became a form of agency.
 They described their worldview and how their worldview
can be considered as their identity.
TheWay Forward
 Agency for Aeta women healers is about making a change
in their community which has been impacted through
colonization.
 For them, colonization is the greatest challenge that they
have faced in their lives because it continues to bring
fragmentation into their lives and community.
 However, they believe that, through the knowledge,
wisdom, strength, and spirituality that they possess, they
have been able to resist colonization.

26. Conclusions and Recommendations
 In this paper, we, therefore, argue that in their life and
statements, the Aeta women healers are indigenous
philosophers.
 They may not have a Doctorate or even higher education,
but this is not the qualification to be a philosopher.
 The message is the philosophy for all is the continuing
motivation to ask questions about everything and to apply
wisdom to the life we live.

27. Indigenous Philosophy of AetaWomen Healers :
From Maritime Educators and Bioethicists Empiricism and Phenomenalism Perspective In the Re-Thinking Age
Prof. Angelica M Baylon, Ph.D
Director for External Relations
Maritime Academy ofAsia and the Pacific (MAAP)
Bataan, Philippines