NCIP chief objects to blanket use of ‘Lumad’ for Mindanao IPs

COTABATO CITY — The head of the National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP) has objected to the indiscriminate use of the term “Lumad” to refer to the Indigenous Peoples (IP) of Mindanao, saying that no outside party has the authority to define their identity.

In a statement posted on her Facebook page on Thursday, NCIP Secretary Nancy Catamco, a member of the Bagobo-Manobo IP group, said the IPs of Mindanao “are not one homogeneous people.”

“We are Talaandig, Manobo, Higaonon, Blaan, Tboli, Bagobo, Subanen, Mandaya, and many other distinct Indigenous Cultural Communities, each with our own identity, history, language, traditions, customary laws, governance institutions, and systems of justice,” Catamco said.

READ: Who are the ‘lumad ‘?

She said these distinct identities “disappear under one generalized label,” and that she was more troubled when this was done “in the name of defending our rights.”

“How can you claim to fight for Indigenous Peoples while failing to recognize the very identities you claim to protect? How can you advocate for self-determination while deciding for us how we should be collectively identified?” she asked.

“Our right to self-determination begins with our right to define who we are,” Catamco said.

The NCIP chief acknowledged that some Indigenous communities and organizations have embraced “Lumad” as their collective identity, and said she respects their choice. 

“But their choice cannot automatically become the identity of every Indigenous People in Mindanao,” she said, adding that no journalist, advocate, organization or government institution should presume that authority.

Catamco said her position was “not about rejecting solidarity or diminishing the struggles of Indigenous communities,” but about ensuring that advocacy “does not become another form of appropriation,” where Indigenous identities, struggles and ancestral domains are reduced to narratives serving others’ interests.

“We are not merely beneficiaries of protection or subjects of advocacy. We are peoples with our own political institutions, customary laws, systems of justice, and the inherent right to determine our future,” she said.

She said the NCIP itself “must continuously examine its own practices” to ensure it does not impose identities, decisions or development priorities on the peoples it is mandated to protect, and that the same responsibility applies to government, media and civil society.

“Call us by the names we claim for ourselves. Recognize our distinct identities. Respect our voices, our institutions, and our right to self-determination,” Catamco said.

READ: Cotabato’s first ‘Lumad’ governor sworn in as NCIP chair

“Our identity is not yours to define. Our future is not yours to decide,” she said./coa