A tertian in Bendum

John Shea SJ

“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” This quote from John Muir (1869-1914), the well-known American naturalist and conservationist credited for establishing the national park system and greatly inspiring wilderness advocates, echoed within me as I spent 18 days in February 2026 at the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC) in Bendum, Bukidnon in northern Mindanao, Philippines, as part of the tertianship program of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.

In the past several decades, the Indigenous community in Bendum, the Pulangiyēn, faced many challenges including forest degradation due to logging, pollution, poverty, and illiteracy. I’m not surprised that these complex problems are addressed by an equally complex solution. However, the scale of the solution, in the form of the APC, impressed me. Yes, APC is an indigenous school, but it’s more than that.

One cannot speak of the school without including the community’s spring boxes for clean drinking water, farms for food security, bamboo and citronella oil production, a hydroelectric plant, and countless more.

Like the natural world, everything about APC is inter-connected and integrated. The students at APC learn the standard curriculum that government requires, but they also learn about their own culture and how to care for the land.

The students live on the campus, so their learning continues beyond the classroom. I recall the emotion and gratitude the students and their parents felt as they celebrated the completion of a semester, and I felt privileged to be a part of the APC community during that time.

My modest role during my short stay was to assist APC staff Eneriza and Jason in their herbarium. These included helping organize their collection, provide scientific names for the plant specimens, and brainstorm ideas to incorporate the collection into their science curriculum. Again, I was amazed by how the collection will serve the APC community.

We also consulted tribal elders to obtain the cultural names and, when possible, uses of the plant specimens. I utilized iNaturalist, a social network, and other online resources to determine the scientific names.

After collecting and identifying the specimens, we pressed and dried them. We also entered the specimens into a database that can be shared across the world. Once dry, Eneriza will mount and store them. Students will learn how to identify local plants (becoming familiar with both their cultural and scientific names) and classify them as pioneer, pillar, filler, or false climax species.

A possible teaching idea discussed is to hold a scavenger hunt where students collect an example of a pioneer species, or an edible plant, or a plant with even pinnate leaves. Such activities teach the students about their land and culture.

I am grateful that in my brief visit in Bendum, my role, though small, contributed to culture-based solutions to Bendum’s many challenges.

John Shea SJ is an Associate Professor at the Biology Department, Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska, USA. He joined the Jesuits in 2003 after graduating from Ohio State University with a PhD in Evolutionary Biology. As a Jesuit, he taught parasitology, zoology, ecology, and science and religion. “In addition to my passion for parasites, I enjoy Doctor Who, hiking in the great outdoors, and praying with God’s word. I look forward to finding and sharing the graces from the daily readings with Creighton’s extensive on-line community.” (from Creighton Online Ministries)