Indigenous Aeta Magbukún Self-Identity, Sociopolitical Structures, and Self-Determination at the Local Level in the Philippines

The Indigenous Aeta Magbukún maintain a primarily nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle in their forested ancestral lands. Through the continued encroachment of non-Indigenous populations, the Aeta Magbukún persist at a critical level. Finding it increasingly difficult to sustain their traditional livelihoods, they must engage in informal commerce to procure sufficient food throughout the year. This work explores the basis of self-identity, traditional kinship ties, evolution of sociopolitical organisation, and the developing political options that sustain the small and vulnerable Indigenous population. Despite recent tentative sociopolitical developments, securing cultural protection requires greater effort in developing political communication and representation at a local and national level. In doing so, the Aeta Magbukún can meet their basic needs, secure traditional cultural knowledge, and are able to influence their own development during a time of relatively rapid acculturation within the mainstream Philippine societal complex.

1. Introduction

Indigenous people are commonly defined as the descendants of the inhabitants of a country or region who are present when people of different ethnic or cultural origins arrive and later become dominate through settlement or occupation of some means [1]. Bodley [2] proposes that Indigenous peoples had control of much of their own lands around the globe up until the beginning of the industrial revolution. However, this oversimplifies a very complex and controversial topic of the displacement of Indigenous peoples unrelated to European colonisations [3–5]. Indigenous identity, when defined by the original inhabitants, can be contested using a range of methods, and it is possible to discern several waves of migration and occupation, even in regions with complex migratory histories such as south and eastern Asia [3–5]. While the UN system body has not adopted an official definition of “Indigenous,” as a result of the diversity of Indigenous peoples, a Working Group on Indigenous Populations established in 1982 developed a working definition in 1994. The modern interpretation of the term Indigenous includes self-identification, both at an individual and a community level, historical continuity with “preinvasion” and “precolonial” societies and is linked to traditional territories and surrounding natural resources [2, 6]. Rather than attempting to define Indigenous peoples, the UN prefers to identify who Indigenous peoples are, and, therefore, self-identification is a fundamental criterion for concerns centred on human rights considerations [7]. Indigenous minority ideologies, cultures, and priorities often contrast that of modern mainstream society, adding further complexity to already challenging human rights and equity concerns [2]. When Indigenous peoples become a minority population in a modern society, they often strongly desire to maintain and impart their distinct social and economic structures, politics, language, culture, traditional lands, and beliefs to future generations [2, 6]. At its most extreme, Indigenous people seek political autonomy and self-sufficiency but ultimately strive for effective self-determination as a basic human right to influence decisions impacting on their quality of life [3]. At its most basic, the focus is directed towards equitable access to adequate provisions, education, health care, and basic infrastructure [2].

Indigenous identities are contested in the Philippines as a result of successive ways of migration of many different peoples throughout the Asian region, long before the arrival and colonisation by Europeans [8]. The Philippines contains a great diversity of peoples with over 169 living ethnolinguistic groups, about 140 of which are acknowledged as Indigenous [9]. Of the 78 provinces that make up the Philippines, Indigenous peoples are present in more than 50 and, depending on the definition of Indigenous populations used, represent from 10 to 20 percent of the total Philippine population [9, 10]. Such a high density of cultural, language, and ethnicity differentiation among Indigenous peoples in the Philippines arose as a result of geographical segregation, and many of these populations retreated into isolated regions during successive events related to immigrations, displacement, discrimination, and more recently economic development [2].

One of the most well-known Indigenous groups in the Philippines is the Aeta, found in central (Aeta, Ita), eastern (Dumagat), and southeastern Luzon (Agta), as well as several islands in the Visayas (Ati). In the Bataan Peninsula of central Luzon, a single Indigenous group, known as the Aeta Magbukún can be found living near the fringe of the Manila Bay/South China Sea and the forest cover of Mount Mariveles in the Philippines. The Aeta Magbukún are one of the least studied Indigenous groups in the Philippines, and despite the encroaching population of non-Indigenous peoples, they have maintained a primarily traditional hunter-gatherer existence [11]. Mariveles is a municipality with a population of 102, 844 (in 2007), located at the southern tip of the Bataan Peninsula, about 173 km from the capital Manila with a cove bounded on its eastern, western, and southern sides by the Manila Bay and South China Sea (Figure 1). Mariveles is composed of eighteen barangays (settlements) lying along the coastal and flat lands, with larger and predominantly undeveloped mountainous areas where the Aeta Magbukún live. The Aeta Magbukún’s bayan-bayanan (village/hamlet), recently constructed by an NGO, is a separate site within barangay Biaan, the smallest barangay in terms of population, yet one of the largest in terms of land area. Only two years ago, an overgrown and unmaintained earthen road led to the Aeta Magbukún’s bayan-bayanan from the local town centre. Recently the road has been upgraded and renamed to become the Mariveles-Bagac Highway. This and other related developments have resulted in a cultural upheaval for Aeta Magbukún and a growing fear of losing their unique language and culture.

Figure 1

The Bataan Peninsula, Philippines.

Consideration over Indigenous peoples, rights entered the international arena in the 1970s in a self-determination movement, supported by regional, national, and international organisations representing Indigenous interests and either driven directly or largely supported by the Indigenous peoples themselves [2]. Modern ethnographical, anthropological, and more recent molecular genetic approaches have since enabled an unprecedentedly detailed understanding of Indigenous peoples. In the Philippines, lack of basic social services and high poverty have forced many Indigenous people to move off their traditional lands, and the human rights violations from encroaching economic activity and continued development of regional areas are of ongoing concern [9]. Thus, documenting the remarkably unique and ancient traditional livelihood of the Aeta Magbukún is a fundamental driver for this research. This work uses an ethnographic approach to facilitate broader intercultural awareness, human rights advancement, and an understanding of the basic right of Indigenous peoples to live in their traditional lands, even when their unique Indigenous status goes unnoticed or is highly