Speaking for the Voiceless:The Politics of Representation of the Indigenous People in the Philippines by Non-Government Organizations

ABSTRACT

ORTIGA, K.S. (2011). Speaking for the voiceless: the politics of representation of the indigenous peoples in the Philippines by non-government organizations. Unpublished undergraduate thesis, University of the Philippines College of Mass Communication. This research studies the discourse of the representations and the production of meaning created for the advocacy subjects of non-state actors. It focuses on the video productions that major international non-government organizations (NGOs) have produced, analyzing the politics of representations that surround the indigenous peoples (IPs) of the Philippines in the context of a rising global discourse on indigeneity and in alignment with NGOs’ need for donors and funding. The role of the indigenous peoples in the global discourse seems to have changed over time, and to date they have been highly praised as forest protectors and vanguards of the environment. This global discourse is evident in the inclusion of IPs in state declarations as well as the trending growth of NGOs that include the indigenous peoples in their campaigns today. Using the contexts of the rising global indigeneity and NGOs’ relationship with donors and funding, my analysis leans towards how the indigenous peoples have been “othered” in their representations by NGOs. This study employs a critical textual analysis and a critical narrative analysis of the videos to shed light on the issue of the politics of the representation of the indigenous peoples. Two major international NGOs, Amnesty International and Friends of the Earth, are used as case studies to explore the meaning of their IP representations.

Keywords: indigenous peoples, politics, representation, non-government organizations, global, political, identity

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