All Filipinos (x/o) should read this recent FB post by @RHIANAYAZZIE regarding someone named Rulan Tangen, who claims to be Indigenous. We should all be disgusted by a fellow Pinoy perpetuating this kind of fraud, appropriation, and erasure. Nakakahiya!
facebook.com/rhiana.yazzie/…
facebook.com/rhiana.yazzie/…
FTR, so there's no ambiguity: While almost all Filipinos' ancestors are native (as in, not immigrants) to the Philippines, the category of "Indigenous Peoples" there is reserved for particular marginalized minority communities. Kapampangan is NOT one of them, & never has been.
For a half-Kapampangan who (from her bio) has not lived in the Philippines to NOT ONLY claim Indigenous status there, BUT ALSO who has for 30 yeas passed herself off as Native American by attachment, association, or not correcting mistaken impressions...all I can say is WTAF??
Kapampangans are - very much like my own people, the Visayans - the social/political equivalent of the *White People*. And in our colonial history under Spain, the "Pampangos" were also loyal colonial troops who helped Spain put down native insurrections all over the archipelago.
There will be more on this as the day/week goes on. But let me be clear: Just because you're brown doesn't make it okay. You're taking up too much space that belongs rightfully to actual, very real, living Indigenous people, both in the US and in the Philippines.
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