Indigenous Rural Women: Food, Forests, and the Future We Share

In celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Month and the International Day of Rural Women (October 15), we honor the women whose everyday leadership feeds families, protects land and water, and powers climate resilience in Palawan.

Why we celebrate

Across Palawan, Indigenous women carry knowledge that keeps communities and ecosystems alive—when to plant, where to fish, how to rest rivers, which leaves heal, when to move early for safety. Their work is often unpaid or unseen, yet it is the foundation of food security, cultural continuity, and climate resilience.

Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Month and the International Day of Rural Women means making that work visible—and defending the rights that allow it to continue: ancestral domains, self-governance, cultural integrity, and FPIC (Free, Prior, and Informed Consent) under IPRA (R.A. 8371).

“To keep mothers safe, we must keep the forest standing—heat, water, herbs, and paths depend on it.” — Community Voices, Palawan

Keepers of Birth, Keepers of the Forest

Pala’wan Mangongolin (read the story) 

Mangongolin are elder birth keepers who guide pregnancy, delivery, and the fragile days after. Their craft is practical and place-based: warm water from the spring, clean cloths boiled on firewood, herbs gathered with care, and a practiced plan if referral is needed. Because safe birth depends on living waters, passable paths, and shade trees, the mangongolin’s work naturally extends to forest care—and to consent. The ethic in the birthing room (“nothing without consent”) is the same ethic that protects ancestral land through FPIC.

The Batak Women Fishers

Northern Palawan
Batak women are river-wise providers and culture keepers. With bamboo poles and simple lines, they fish along streams, gather forest foods and medicines, trade in nearby sitios, and pass songs and plant knowledge to their children. Walking the trails, reading the rivers, and sharing the catch—these daily rhythms sustain families and keep Batak lifeways alive.

Jocelyn: Organizer, Advocate, Neighbor

Pala’wan Women’s Association (Tagpas)
Jocelyn leads Samahang Kalebonan et Tagpas, organizing with rural women to secure dignified livelihoods while safeguarding land, rivers, and forests. Her advocacy links the everyday (prices, permits, safe water) to the structural (land tenure, FPIC, and just participation in decisions). It is slow, relational work, the kind that changes outcomes because it changes who is heard.