Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Since the passage of the Indigenous Peoples Rights Act (IPRA) in 1997, the term indigenous peoples or IPs has become codified in Philippine Law. However, legal usage of the term indigenous cultural communities/indigenous peoples (ICCs/IPs) contrasts starkly with the ways that members of these communities refer to themselves. In Southern Mindanao, members of government (GO) and non-government organizations (NGO) employ lumad to refer to the people that they are committed to assist; so do artists and cultural workers who draw on highland Mindanao cultural traditions. But Bagobo, T’boli, Mandaya or B’laan peoples in Southern Mindanao rarely refer to themselves as …