WHAT IS IT IN IGOROT CULTURE THAT SHOULD BE PASSED ON TO THE NEXT GENERATION by Marjorie Lev

3rd Igorot Cordillera BIMAAK Europe (ICBE) Consultation
5-8 May 2005

By Marjorie Lev

"Inayan" is my favorite because it is a kind of discipline from your parents that goes on from generation to generation.

Every time a child starts to talk and understand what is good and bad like if they pinch, fight or bite other children, they always say, “Ene inayan na into no innikikan da abes ken sik-a!” The same as they grow older. If they lie or steal, inayan is always there. It is also a differentiation to know right from wrong.

In short, for me, it is the "Golden Rule" of the Igorots.

Finally, I am thinking a lot about how modern life changed most generations these days, how we have in many ways lost our way morally.

Secondly, the "BagBaga" it goes hand in hand with "Inayan."BagBaga is an advice not only from our elders, parents, but also from anybody who wants to share there knowledge, experience bad or good especially how they change their lives, how they became successful.

I have an uncle that every time we are gathered to my aunties’ or my uncles’ houses if he is around, he always tells us, “You know it is not only the professionals who are successful or make good in their lives, anybody as long as you have a goad and a determination to reach that goal you want, if there is a will there is a way. Look at me I'm not a professional but ‘I made it’." This uncle I'm talking about was the late Bernan Capuyan from Ambasing.