Indigenous Peoples

Mindanao group slams recruitment of lumads to fight the NPAs

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Lumads belonging to the Mindanao-wide indigenous peoples? group Kalumaran claim they?re being recruited to fight the NPAs against their will. (davaotoday.com photo by Barry Ohaylan)

Lumads are made to fight against each other so that big mining companies and plantations can come in and take control of the ancestral domain, said Norma Capuyan, Kalumaran vice chairperson. Dulphing Ogan, secretary-general of the indigenous peoples? group Kalumaran, said that militarization remains to be the greatest problem facing the lumads, who are also fast losing their ancestral lands to big mining and plantation companies without their consent. ?In other places, a mining firm operates but there are no plantations,? he said, ?But in all places, the military presence brings about widespread fear.?Read on.

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Dreaming of the dagmay


Various designs of the dagmay(davaotoday.com photo)

By Germelina A. Lacorte
Davao Today Among the Mandayas, the dagmay has been worn as women?s skirts but it is also used as blankets and to wrap the dead. Each design, however, carries with it a certain story. Most of the traditional designs, which can easily date back to over a hundred years, have come to them in dreams.

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Ginum and Amorsolo painting


NOSTALGIA. A reproduction of Armorsolo's Fruit Harvesting (1950) on display at the Davao Museum until January 13 next year. (davaotoday.com photo by Jonald Mahinay)

By GRACE S. UDDIN | Davao Today

?Celebrating Ginum: A Festival for a Bountiful Harvest,? runs at the Davao Museum until January 13 next year, the 13th of the 20 Amorsolo retrospective satellite exhibits slated around the country. Related story Amorsolo?s ?Fruit Harvesting? and the life of the people
By Lorie Ann A. Cascaro Ten years after a fieldtrip in my kindergarten, I visited Davao Museum again on a Saturday morning. I would not have bothered if not for the Amorsolo?s satellite exhibit. The entrance fee piqued me a bit. It made me think that museums are not really for the common folks but for tourists who would like to see in capsule the city?s history.

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Part of Diwalwal?s 8,100 hectare mining reserve up for bidding

By GERMELINA A. LACORTE | Davao Today

Government has declared the 8,100 hectares, which included the gold rush site of Diwalwal, as a mineral reserve, taking over full control of its operation. Government has divided the area into three zones, the 729 hectare gold rush site operated by the small miners, another zone open for large scale investors and the tribal section, where indigenous peoples who formerly owned the land are allowed to operate.

Continue ReadingPart of Diwalwal?s 8,100 hectare mining reserve up for bidding