The Philippines has endured a turbulent history since the decline of Spanish presence and the rise of American imperial power in the country. Following the traumatic Japanese occupation, the granting of Philippine independence appeared as a new horizon for the nascent nation. However, the rise of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the 1970s brought with it an era of unrivaled political and social repression, leaving proliferating violent anti-state struggle, land contention, and economic ruin in its wake. As much of the scholarship on these events has analyzed their effects on dominant ethnic groups within the Philippines, much less has focused on how these political processes have shaped the material realities of Indigenous cultural communities (ICCs).

One such collection of ICCs with an extensive history of marginalization from the rest of the Filipino population is the Aeta (often spelled as Ayta, Agta, or Dumagat depending on the tribe), an umbrella group of Indigenous peoples (IPs) who share physical attributes such as curly to kinky hair texture, dark skin, and shorter stature. Like other ICCs, the Aeta have faced troubles as outside entities have attempted to weaponize the state’s bureaucratic processes governing Indigenous ancestral domains against them in order to dispossess them of their land.

In this project, I sought to investigate how these forms of dispossession, which I characterize as “pragmatic,” foster collaboration between IPs and non-IPs while promoting knowledge institutionalization. To do so, I conducted fieldwork with the Ayta Magbukun tribe of Kanawan, Morong, Bataan. In recent decades, the tribe has made significant inroads in achieving certification for ancestral domain titles while undergoing pivotal community restructuring. These developments coincide with their first successful collaborations with scholars, which have continued to this day.