The Kankanaey people believed that a person’s soul continues to dwell in rocks and caves once they die. Maura only had one wish when she passed–to be buried under the trees and mountains of Suyoc in northern Benguet, where she came from. Yet a part of her remains is still in St. Louis, locked somewhere in one of the hundred cabinets of a Smithsonian museum storage room. One hundred and twenty years later, her story, along with other indigenous peoples’ (IPs), is recounted in “Searching for Maura.”

“Searching for Maura” is an illustrated investigation about Maura, a real victim and one of the IPs from the Suyoc community who was forcefully brought to the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904. At the budding age of 18, Maura died of pneumonia even before the exposition started due to the abrupt change in weather conditions from the Philippines to St. Louis in Missouri, United States.

The comic, a finalist for the 2024 Pulitzer Prize under the Illustrated Reporting and Commentary category,  narrates the harrowing history of Filipino IPs’ experiences at the World Fair. Illustrated by Ren Galeno, scenes from the exposition are told from the IPs’ eyes who felt anger from their portrayal as “savages.”

A hundred years have passed since the gruesome fair, but it was only last 2021 that Filipino-American activist Janna Langholz discovered that Maura’s brain was taken without consent as part of a Smithsonian anthropologist’s mission to justify racism. The institution apologized for what happened but has yet to return her brain to the Philippines. Nicole Dungca, an investigative journalist from The Washington Post who also took part in the creation of the comics, said members of the Suyoc community expressed their desire to build a memorial in honor of Maura.

Throughout the process of seeking accountability and repatriation for what happened to the IPs, it is necessary to talk with their descendants from the communities. Langholz retold what happened to the Suyoc community in Benguet where Maura was a part of. As shown in the comics, Langholz talked to one of the Suyoc descendants using a mix of local languages—Filipino, Tagalog, and Kankanaey.

The comic is a powerful alternative form of media that lets her story be widely known. It strived to accurately represent the IPs through extensive research and historical documentation. However, less is known about whether the Suyoc communities took part in its craft and if the work was given back to them.

IP persecution brought about by prejudiced interests persists today, as manifested by the continued displacements and killings of IPs. Yet more than their shared struggles is their shared resistance against these forms of oppression and violence which must be made known to the public as well. Media outlets should have a fair representation of indigenous journalists to ensure that reports are not only filled with deaths and destruction, says Dev Kumar Sunuwar, a community media program coordinator from Nepal.

In indigenizing media, he added, spaces must be created to ensure sufficient coverage of issues from IPs’ perspective that mainstream media fail to encompass, such as their “cultures, needs, and aspirations.”

In the Philippines, IPs utilize different forms of media platforms to report and publicize their experiences. Radyo Sagada 104.7 FM, for instance, is the first community station in Cordillera. Operated and owned by the Cordillerans, it gives “peasants, women, IPs, workers, youth, environmentalists, and other marginalized sectors free airtime.” They report on environmental issues, religion, agriculture, and cultural knowledge. The station also serves as an alternative learning avenue for the out-of-school youth. 

Radyo Lumad in Mindanao, a community radio run by Kalumbay Northern Mindanao and Rural Missionaries of the Philippines-Northern Mindanao Region (RMP-NMR), envisions doing the same. Fueled by the lack of reportage from local journalists, the community radio wanted to stand on their own feet and report on issues rarely covered by mainstream media.

It might seem that the mainstream media has frequent reportage on the IPs, such as the Lumads’ fight against their ancestral lands. However, Lumad leader Datu Jomorito Guaynon reported in 2018 that before Radyo Lumad was launched, local journalists were bribed by the military to discourage them from covering other news about the Lumads.

They also have a segment for cultural and traditional knowledge called Huno sa Kabanikanhan. Hosted by the Lumad communities themselves, the segment encourages their people to showcase that their rich knowledge systems sustained and preserved for many years can solve looming generational issues, for example, environmental practices. Unfortunately, the radio station was forced to shut down last 2019 after threats and harassment.

Alternative media plays a vital role in mobilizing movements by bringing the issues that IPs face to social media, and eventually out to the streets, according to Belinda Espiritu, UP Cebu communications professor. Learning about their situation as recounted from their perspective allows us to stand in solidarity with them.The preservation of the IPs’ spirituality, culture, and memory is a matter that they can take into their own hands. The best we can do is to support their community media efforts and advance calls for Maura to be returned to her homeland, so she can be one with the trees and mountains again. ●