“When our schools were closed in November 2018, the military threatened our lives. They said that if we don’t leave our school, they would kill a teacher or a student,” a Lumad youth said during the launch of Defend Talaingod 13, October 17.
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A Talaingod chieftain found freedom after three years of detention as the Tagum City court acquitted him of trafficking Lumad students.
Kuni made his final trek home to Barangay Kiadsam on June 11 inside a coffin, carried by villagers and relatives. Last June 8 at dawn, he was shot dead by soldiers under the Philippine Army’s 7th Infantry Battalion.
Even after her death, discussions about Talaingod chieftain Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay raise the issue of ancestral rights and red tagging that continue to hound and divide her tribe.
Lumad school teacher Rose Hayahay holds a photo of fellow teacher Gelejurain Ngujo II, as Lumad advocates observe the second death anniversary of the New Bataan 5 murders. Ngujo, with fellow teacher Chad Booc, health worker Elegyn Balonga, and two drivers were killed in New Bataan, Davao de Oro two years ago, as Lumad advocates hold soldiers accountable for their murders. (Kath Cortez/davaotoday.com)
For Lumad students, she was called ‘Ino Bai’, their term for elderly or grandmother, whom they encountered over the past seven years and helped them understand their campaign to defend their Lumad schools and ancestral land.
As the first ever woman chieftain of the tribe, Bigkay was credited for uniting, empowering, and rallying the Lumad across villages to stand up to the loggers.
Today’s young generation may be engrossed with mobile and video games, but in this year’s Dula Kadayawan (Kadayawan Games), part of Davao City’s Kadayawan festivity, young indigenous and Moro people got to participate and showcase their traditional games to the public, untouched by modernization.
A group of young people from an indigenous community is maximizing its members’ artistic talents to revive and preserve their traditional practices and promote environmental protection.
A volunteer teacher for Lumad schools received the 2023 Front Line Defenders Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk in Dublin, Ireland for her work despite harassments and red-tagging.
