Memory of Dances. Photographs by Sonny Yabao. Text by Sheila Coronel.

Memory of Dances. Photographs by Sonny Yabao. Text by Sheila Coronel. This is the story of the Tagbanua of Coron, Palawan, the Bugkalot and Igorot of Nueva Vizcaya, and the Manobo of Mount Apo. All of them are impoverished peoples ranged against forces much more powerful than they – mining in Nueva Vizcaya, mass tourism in Palawan, a geothermal plant on Mount Apo. In all these places, the viability of indigenous communities is being challenged by business entities and government agencies, by the ever-increasing intrusion of the market and the state. The story of the indigenous peoples of the Philippines is a chronicle of loss. Many of them have been dispossessed of their land, their culture de¬stroyed, their forests and seas exploited by outsiders. Some tribes face ex¬tinction: their numbers are rapidly dwindling because the land and forests that sustained them have been taken by outsiders...

Leaves on the Water: The struggle for survival of Pinatubo Aetas. by Rufino G. Tima

Leaves on the Water: The struggle for survival of Pinatubo Aetas. by Rufino G. Tima.  This book gives an in-depth look into the life of the Pinatubo Aetas of Zambales province. It clearly describes and defines them as a tribal people who have been forced to undertake extensive changes in their lifestyle in order to survive against the more aggressive and dominant lowlanders. The eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991 forced a more rapid change. Because they live in the vicinity of the volcano, they lost their means of survival -- the plants and animals endemic to the area. The author, Dr. Rufino G. Tima, is an anthropologist who had studied both in the Philippines and in the U.S. More importantly is the fact that he came from the Kalinga tribe of Northern Luzon and can identify with the plight of tribal people.