Joey Ayala, noted song writer, musician and proponent of ethnic music and culture, is among concerned individuals advocating the revitalization of the Ifugao rice terraces. The group, which calls itself Ubbun di Ipugaw (meaning bayanihan or team spirit of Ifugao), seeks to bring the Ifugao rice terraces, and the entire cultural and environmental system that sustains them, back to life.
Joey has always been fascinated by the mountains and the natural environment that has nurtured man’s existence and growth through the ages. This fascination is evident in his songs and the way he lives and views life.
"The fact that the terraces had been sculpted from the mountains for both spiritual and practical reasons," he says, "is a manifestation that the spirit and the flesh indeed are one. There is no dichotomy between the natural and the supernatural." Joey believes there is unity even in seemingly contrasting aspects of life, a unity he persistently seeks in his music.
As a strong writer, he is always aiming for unity in the content, the tune, the mood and the message of his songs. Even in business and everything he does, he sees no contradiction between the need to earn and to do something good. " Do well and do good; it is always one with me."
In the drive to rejuvenate the rice terraces, Joey believes efforts must be made in the context of the entire system that brought about the terraces’ present condition. The early Ifugaos who built the rice terraces were a people with a unique culture, their own religious beliefs, a social system that governed relationships and the economics of daily existence, a set of values that respected the wisdom of the old and shared affinity with the indigenous and the natural. It is said that the early Ifugaos built the rice terraces as a stairway for them to reach the gods, or for the gods to come down to them.
Thus, the needs that led to for the construction of the rice terraces and their maintenance through the ages were embedded within this entire cultural system, in the same way that the terraces are an integral part of the mountain environment that provides them ecological support.
"If the rice terraces are dying, maybe it is because the whole system is dying," says Joey. "It is therefore important to find out what is attached to the rice terraces, and what are the truths about them." He elaborates by citing an issue that is very close to his heart – the Philippine eagle that is in danger of extinction. "When we act to save the eagle, we must also do something to save the forest that makes the eagle survive." In the same way, he explains, we cannot simply preserve the rice terraces but allow the system that supports them to decay. We can repair the physical structure, but if the Ifugao people are unable to pertuate the underlying values and carry on the tradition for the care of the terraces, then our efforts will not hold.
Joey believes that the rice terraces are "truly sustainable" because they have survived the onslaught of nature and the times. But the mountain, and the terraces, must be revived into something that is of benefit as a mountain, something that is of ecological value. The real value of the rice terraces is not just that they exist, but that they work and they do something good for the people. Tourism is good, but Joey stresses that it must be an alternative kind of tourism that is naturally sustainable and will benefit the people of Ifugao themselves, not only outsiders.
"The Ifugao people will decide." Outsiders like himself, Joey says, can only share what they have seen in other communities, but the people themselves will have to say what they want to do. "It is more meaningful if it comes from within, from the wisdom of the people. I would like to see the Ifugao nation assert itself. That is the biggest value they can share with the rest of the country, politically, economically, culturally."
Last June 13 and 16, Joey sang at a fund-raising concert for the Ubbun de Ipugaw at the 70s Bistro in Quezon City, with the Ifugao Cultural Group performing native dances and Governor Teddy Baguilat Jr. himself rendering a few songs. The concert featured rituals using the baya or rice wine made from rice from the terraces.
Joey will also sing at the Huni ng Gubat (Hymns of the Forest) concert on June 23 at Lake Lumot, Cavinti, Laguna, along with Grace Nono and the Makiling Ensemble. The concert is part of the Save the Watershed Campaign, a project of the Caliraya-Lumot Lake Conservation Society. The denudation and deterioration of the Caliraya-Lumot watershed is threatening the fresh water supply of communities around Laguna de Bay as well as the entire ecosystem of the area.