INDEGENOUS PEOPLE

INDEGENOUS PEOPLE IN MINDANAO

In Mindanao Philipines there are about 40 types of ethnics.Each group have different type of language and culture.Some of them can bequalified as a ‘tribal groups’.They still stay in tradisional way and it is different than the ancestors before.Each group of them stay on one of specific island.The most popular island that you can meet them are on Luzons,some of the Visayas Island and Mindanao


The T'boli and B'laan, two indigenous groups

There are all 18 diferent tribal group lived on Mindanao. The most well known are the T'boli and the B'laan (or "Bla-an"). The other groups are the Ata, Bagobo, Banwaon, Bukidnon, Dibabawon, Higaunon, Kalagan, Mamanwa, Mandaya, Mangguwangan, Manobo, Mansaka, Subanen, Tagakaolo, Teduray and the Ubo.

Lumad, the collective name

All the 18 ethnic group will be calling as Lumad,that is the collective noun for all of them.It is also another name ‘indegenous’. These ethnic groups distinguish themselves by their language and culture.


Old and new elements in their life

The most valuable culture of this group is in their clothes and ornaments they wear. Housing.economic activities,cultural habits and often religion are all still in tradisional.Some of the ethnic here have learned how to get extra money by the tourism activities.However,yet they still like to live in the tradisional way.

The T'boli and their subsistence activities

The T’boli (Tiboli)people live in the southern part of the province Cotabata,in the environment around lake Sibu,west of the city in the General Santos.It is about 100000 and 150000 T’boli there.A long time ago,T’boli practiced the primitive agriculture “slash and burn”.”Slash and burn” means that all the forest will be clear by cutting the big trees and burning the lower and smaller trees and bushes,after which they use the cleared plots as arable land for some years without any fertilization. Rice, cassava, and yams, were the most important agriculture products. Beside that, the people went hunting or fishing for additional food.There are so many years that this primitive agriculture is no longer possible.The forest is no longer exist because the intensive economic activities like foresting.As a result,the T’boli live in the mountains.Some foreigners,in coorperation with the aid organization Cord Aid, manage to developing some hectares of arable land in the few years .Nevertheless,the T’boli live in poor situation; a struggle for live.

Religion and culture

Some of the T’boli are Christian and Islamite.But most of the T’boli still has their animistic religion. They were were hardly influenced by the spread of the Islam on the island. The Christianize also not succeed to spread during the colonization of The Spaniards.Main reason was that the T’boli withdrew to the hinterlands in the uplands.The T’boli and some of the tribal indigenous like Higaunon,still believe the spirits live in the natural environment

Threats to their way of living

Last decades there are threats of land problems. The steady population growth of their own people and especially the pressure on the lands by lowland farmers and foreign and local companies. The lowland farmers (often landless) are seeking for arable land. The companies are most of the time interested in the natural resources in these areas. Mining, new plantations and logging, are the threats to the T'boli and their homeland.