Weaving Indigenous Traditions into Fiction and Awareness

Photo source: https://www.nuptials.ph/igorot-wedding/

I spent the better part of this early morning researching the tribes of the Ati that will make up much of my book. I was truly fascinated to read about the wedding traditions of various indigenous tribes. How colorful and full of stories they are compared with Christian weddings. And how sad that all throughout my formative education growing up in the Philippines, I was never taught this, likely because it wasn't very Christian (and I went to Catholic school) with its rituals involving worshipping pagans and belief systems in gods and deities. Reading about these tribes made me swell with pride in their resilience despite being marginalized, discriminated against, and displaced. I hope to bring about awareness of their existence and their plight in my book, even if I am taking huge liberties in fictionalizing their culture. I hope historians and the tribes themselves forgive me. But truly, what I want to see is that they all find their HEA (happily ever after) in real life. For now, if they can join me in my make-believe journey of creating a narrative of joy inspired by their culture, then I believe we will have reached a small amount of awareness of their existence. That would be a huge accomplishment for me as a Filipina.