NORMAN KING

It’s been seven years since Norman King went up the stage at the graduation ceremony of the University of the Philippines-Manila in 2017. In a hall filled with graduates wearing barong tagalog and Filipiniana dresses, he proudly wore a lubay or bahag when he received his diploma in Behavioral Science.

A year later, in 2018, Safeguard produced a video showing his journey from a young boy to becoming the first Aeta to graduate from the state university. The YouTube video has been viewed 7.1 million times, and to this day inspires and moves people around the world.

Growing up in Angeles and Manila

Norman was born in 1988 in one of the mountains surrounding Mt. Pinatubo. He learned to speak the Aeta language Mag-antsi but at home, his parents spoke Tagalog to prepare the children for school.

“My father was a pastor and there was a Korean missionary that wanted to send kids to school in Angeles City, and I was one of them.  At a young age, I had experiences with people outside my own community. I think that made an impact on my character.”

In high school he experienced discrimination and bullying over his dark skin and curly hair. He remembers all this with a smile now, but he says it hurt deeply and marred what should have been an enjoyable time in a teenager’s life.

By the grace of God 

Like most indigenous people (IP) in the Philippines, the Aetas are animists. They believe in anitos or spirits residing in nature, deities, and deceased ancestors.

Norman was different because his father was a pastor. But his personal relationship with God became whole only when he was in Manila. “I reached that kind of understanding with God, it was a personal choice for me to want to know God.”

His faith played heavily in how he got into UP. Norman says if he had taken the University of the Philippines College Admission Test (UPCAT) then, he wouldn’t have passed.  “I knew my academic proficiency. The next option was to transfer, so I began taking a one-year agriculture course at Pampanga State Agricultural University in 2010.”

After a year, he went to UP Diliman’s National College of Public Administration and Governance (NCPAG) but found out that the requirement to transfer was a grade of at least 2.0; he had 2.01. “That’s when God told me, I thought you trusted me? Why are you now thinking of going back to Pampanga?” 

He was told to look for Dr. Jun Estacio at the Department of Behavioral Sciences in UP Manila to take his chance. During the interview, they asked Norman why he should be accepted to the program and he said, “So many people including foreigners have visited our community to study our culture. When they finished their work, they would tell us that they would come back to help us. After they got their PhDs, they never came back. If I have to study our own culture so that our voices could be heard, I would do it. We have the right to decide our own destiny and manage our ancestral lands.” 

A life committed to his people

Norman has made many bold decisions that became turning points in his life. One was leaving home and going to Manila and studying at UP.

Second, was to invest in farming during the pandemic because it bothers and frustrates him that the Aetas have so much arable land but agricultural production remains a struggle. “Why do we still see Aeta beggars in the streets?” Unfortunately, his venture failed but it taught him that Aeta farmers need education and technology to make the most of their farms.

Third, was to follow in his father’s footsteps. “All my life I witnessed how my father fought for justice, for our people’s right to their ancestral domain.”

When his father Roman King was young, he began working for a prosecutor who would later become a Court of Appeals justice. “My father was a teenager when my lolo was wrongly accused of murder and jailed. He vowed that if lolo was freed, pagsisilbihan niya itong taong ito hanggang sa huling hininga niya. And he did.”