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.