Bukidnon people
Definition
The Bukidnon people are an indigenous ethnolinguistic group of the Bukidnon plateau in north-central Mindanao, Philippines, closely associated with the upper Pulangi River watershed and traditionally organized around autonomous settlements headed by datus [1]. Their Binukid language belongs to the Manobo family, and their culture centers on corn and upland rice agriculture, epic chanting, and the annual Kaamulan Festival that gathers Mindanao’s ethnic communities in Malaybalay.
Identities (Wikipedia/Wikidata/DBpedia)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bukidnon_people
- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1585756
- DBpedia: https://dbpedia.org/page/Bukidnon_people
Also Known As
Bukidnon; Binukid people; Higaonon-Bukidnon; mountain people of Bukidnon (Spanish-era “Monteses”).
Examples and Analogies
Where lowland Filipinos measure wealth in pesos and titles, traditional Bukidnon communities have measured it in harvested corn, water buffalo, and feast-giving: hosting a kaamulan (gathering) with chanting and dancing functions much like a highland constitution, renewing ties between datus and kin groups.
Usage Scenarios
Cultural presentation during the Kaamulan Festival in Malaybalay; indigenous peoples’ mandatory representation in local legislative councils; and ancestral-domain management under Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title areas covering Bukidnon’s headwaters and remaining old-growth forests.
Strategies
Strategies include schools of living tradition teaching Binukid chants and instruments, agroforestry that blends corn livelihoods with forest conservation on ancestral land, and legal empowerment through the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act for free, prior, and informed consent in plantation and dam projects.
Security and Safety Measures
Protection of Bukidnon communities involves guarding ancestral domains against illegal logging and land-grabbing, ensuring consultation before development projects, and defending indigenous activists, whose frontline communities have historically faced intimidation and violence.
Historical Context
Spanish expeditions reached the Bukidnon plateau only intermittently, leaving its polities largely autonomous until American rule established provincial administration centered on Malaybalay; 20th-century migration by Visayan settlers made Bukidnon a multiethnic province while its indigenous peoples secured formal recognition through IPRA in 1997 and the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples.
Challenges and Controversies
Persistent issues include enclosure of ancestral land by pineapple and banana plantations, flooding and displacement linked to watershed degradation and the Pulangi dams, out-migration of Binukid speakers, and recurring tensions over hydropower expansion on the Pulangi River.
Related Topic
Bukidnon Province