The Black People of the Philippines
we’re gonna go in this mini tricycle again with three people oh it’s actually quite comfortable hello nice to meet you hello there’s no such thing as a Filipino household without a massive speaker and karaoke this is the most authentic way to wash your clothes is this your first time doing something like this we just got a lot of groceries that we’re gonna gift to the tribe when we arrive there the Aeta often called the black people of the Philippines because of their dark skin and curly hair they are among the first people of this land and they’ve lived in harmony with nature for thousands of years in a world that’s changing fast their way of life is fragile but powerful this is Nanay Winnie the leader and the spokesperson of the tribe in this village she will lead us to a widowed mother of four children part of the Makbukun subtribe so this one was the old house from them and it’s very small look at this it’s not used anymore now it’s basically just one sleeping place with a net for the mosquitoes now they moved to a house downhill there hello five months ago Elizabeth lost her husband due to the lack of potassium result of lack of nutrition and proper health care her source of income is cutting grass for the neighbouring houses that gets her four euro and fifty cents per day which allows her to only send two of her children to school this house is already a bit bigger of course that’s totally fine so normally five people then sleep on here I don’t have to wear it I don’t want to take their culture it’s their culture it’s not my culture in which occasions do they wear that they have their own language called Aeta Magbukun that is rather distant from Filipino with around only 1,000 people speaking it today making it endangered Jonathan and do you understand their dialect too it’s very difficult so do you mostly speak your local dialect then or Tagalog many languages do you feel like a lot of young people from here they they leave the tribe or they they go to the city that’s good beautiful location for a uh ceremony did you notice a lot of change in the area like compared to when you were a child The Indigenous People’s Rights Act of 1997 recognizes and protects the rights of indigenous communities in the Philippines it guarantees their right to ancestral lands self governance cultural integrity and social justice while requiring consent before any project affecting their territories dramatically reducing forced evictions and enabling communities to manage their resources under customary law though slow processes overlapping claims and pressure from mining and logging interests continue to hinder full implementation despite these protections the Aeta Macbukon have endured forced eviction threats like the 2019 New Clark City project that sought to displace some 20,000 Aetas before a Senate probe halted it during the pandemic they were often left out of government relief unable to access cash or food aid due to lack of IDS and stigmas over primitive practices and harmful stereotypes about their bat eating traditions in schools and universities students face racial slurs echoing in classrooms and forcing some to quit studies yet through legal action community organizing and cultural education programs they continue to assert their rights demanding equal treatment and a future where their voices shape policies affecting their lives I read online that the Aeta used to be originally nomadic that’s correct right why why are they not uh nomadic anymore now genetically the Aeta descend from some of the earliest modern human groups to settle in Southeast Asia populations that split from other Homo sapiens roughly 50,000 to 60,000 years ago carrying the highest Denisovan ancestry of any modern human group and in turn preserving one of humanity’s deepest genetic legacies did they plant all these trees here the Aeta still forage various elements from the forest a practice that keeps tradition alive but often leads to nutritional deficiencies due to an unbalanced and unpredictable diet of which Elizabeth Husband was the most recent victim of ah this is her house ah you have a shower here too a beautiful view from the kitchen and you have you have income from selling the fruits and with that money you want you want to build the rest of your house look what a beautiful view of the jungle you also have all this variety of trees so this is alligator and it’s here in the mountains they’re at the river down here wow well I’m not swimming in the river that’s for sure what is IP? you can just eat it like this? it’s like something that I would say that you’re not allowed to eat I don’t know when I was a child I would always try everything and then end up in the hospital he’s climbing the tree to get some plums for us this way we’ll get more plums they fall on my head together with all these plums also a lot of fire ants fall from the tree we’re heading to the river to make a traditional Aeta lunch the Aeta they live from what they grow on the land but also from the fish they catch here and there’s a river here but this one has almost entirely dried out because they’ve built a dam here so right now it’s a lot more difficult to find something here’s a small piece of the river left that is not that deep but still deep enough to fish what’s the name of this very good it’s a bit like lychee as well they’re looking for a bamboo that is big enough so that they can cook the food inside of it I’m also just here in my underwear and all the spiders and the ants are crawling over me their way of making fire is a little bit less authentic because they use plastic to get it started everything inside bamboo do you ever cook like this at home too or only when you go in the jungle very handy no I never saw this before how is it consumed you boil it you can also eat this raw yes I’ve never saw this before he’s going with a spear gun trying to look for fish and he has to look all the way in between the cracks of the rocks because the fish know that they’re here and they’re hiding very deep it’s similar to uh the Iban tribe in Borneo when we were there we also went spear fishing nanay winnie she’s just uh looks in the river for shrimp and for crabs and she does it with her hands oh he got some fish and he has a crab as well look here in that glass oh I’m sorry I thought it was dead sorry I dropped it again this is already the second animal that we whoa she missed you did you she just throw a lobster at my head he went and got the kitchen table what is this what is it that’s a good shower yeah that’s that’s it I am smiling stop it stop it sorry it’s okay OK we have to get up here I think we are trespassing here we have some candy as well I’ll put it next to you wait here this is for you and this you want this how do you say thank you for being so welcoming how long have you lived here how do you manage to now sustain this many children does any of her children go to school how much does it cost for one of them to go to school do you receive any help from the government if you would like to help Elizabeth we set up a gofundme just for that considering how even the smallest donation can make a profound difference such as providing a day’s worth of meals any is truly significant to her if you would like to support her and her children you can donate via the link in the description or simply share this video to amplify her voice every share or donation no matter how small makes a real difference in her family’s life no no no no it’s okay it’s okay thank you thank you so we’re gonna stay at the house from the other woman Nanay and then we’re gonna go there and then in the morning we come back with her OK good night good night bad spirit go away bad spirit go away bad spirit go away what do what do you have to say apo tabi tabi Po there’s a spirit hello the power of Christ compels you oh yeah it smells very nice in between the two what the fuck exactly we stay there right? this is nice Ano Yung ahmm iwas ano sila bati kasi di mo masasabi it’s very early in the morning and it’s time to leave again now good morning thank you very much I’ll give you this too thank you so much thank you bye bye hi everyone a few days have passed and the gofundme that we set up did very well we already reached our budget of 1,000 euro which is about 60,000 pesos and that’s a lot of money that’s about the same amount of money that Elizabeth normally would get from the government in eight years time so because that’s a lot of money I personally am coming to hand it over and I’m now on my way to her village again so with the fundraiser we collected for a lot of people together a 60,000 pesos that you can use for your children to study and can you ask if it uh can send all our children to school that’s great news and she uh she can keep the money safe here thank you bye bye bye bye you can directly contribute to the bettering of her and her kids lives through the link in the description in order to not make the other villagers suspicious of what I came to do here they told them that I came here to look for uh to buy some land the Aeta magbukon on showcases extraordinary resilience and how through centuries of hardship displacement and discrimination they’ve held fast to their forest born traditions their knowledge of the land communal spirit and unwavering help continues to light the path forward for themselves and the variety of other tribes in the region yes with a program called “for peace” 2000 every two months and I will save it for getting food Even though we are suffering in our livelihood I want them to think about themselves and to focus on their studies That’s why you coming here is a great help to us I am grateful first to the Lord God and to you sorry I dropped it again this is already the second animal that we whoa she missed you did she just throw a lobster at my head in the forested foothills of Bataan lie vast rice fields and farmlands of which the jungle is home to one of the oldest indigenous communities in the Philippines in this video we learn about how their endangered heritage is being preserved get to experience how they spend most days and have the opportunity to help one of the least fortunate members of the tribe so with the fundraiser we collected for a lot of people together a 60,000 pesos that you can use for your children to study hello good evening we made it to Bataaan province in the north of Manila and we are here with our friend and we’re gonna visit this house this is the first jeepney that I take in the Philippines there’s a there’s cars that are communal and just a hop on taxi basically OK let’s go oh my God I feel like it’s gonna fall any second I’m a little bit too tall so I’m sticking out in the back arrived my father while Achraf is singing I’m going to do the laundry I never did my clothing on this before nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen! nobody knows no the work is done bitch okay we finally got everything we need and we’re now on our way to visit the oldest indigenous tribe of the Philippines nice to meet you from Belgium and he’s from Morocco your hair looks like my son here’s your brother good afternoon this is Elisabeth Please forgive me for the state of my house yes do you want to wear their tribal clothing? when there is an occasion for example tribal wedding indigenous peoples day uh for example my name is Winnie no it’s a rare dialect the aeta magbukon is 18 communities here in bataan I know how to speak Tagalog English and aeta also Ilocano and Kapampangan she needs to know that because so that she can communicate among other provincial leaders we want to preserve our culture our language uh other children uh they want to socialize with other lowland people they are still looking back to their where they came from their communities the elderly they are the one who teach the younger generation on how their tradition and culture works in every Celebration that they have birthday probably also weddings it’s totally different There are traditional weddings that are actually held where they build a treehouse where they will do the ceremony and blessings but you know the tribal communities have many privileges especially with the government because we have free healthcare and we have a educational assistance from our local government before, we were neglected by the government But now that we have IPRA law which is the Indigenous People’s Right Act it’s gotten better some of them are not used to having that experience and also because of I think um some diseases that they are not able to tolerate yes pineapple pineapple once they harvest it they will go down to sell it yes yes yeah this cemetery is for IP only indigenous people only there’s a baby you see this is the baby one because there’s a bottle yeah it’s good so where are the alligators inside this stone really? what native pomegranate this one they are using for trapping for trapping chicken wild chicken wild pigs yes meat also yes we don’t use water the bamboo itself produces water yes even at home you don’t need to bring any materials to cook yeah no no because it has this hydrocyanic acid which is very toxic I think this is your first time to taste this kind of oh she caught a little shrimp, or river lobster I think it’s okay chicharon pork skin just start smiling more maybe she likes you maybe you should cry first she’s just afraid of white people I’ll try give me a hand five yeah no crying! be careful thank you Because you are the one the Lord God used to to help us Thank you very much for welcoming us. thank you 20 years when I pray, I always pray that the lord will help us so that we can live this life well and that my children can study and to not become like me and to also work hard for them, to study hard only my oldest girl and my oldest son do it is hard to send them to school it is because she doesn’t have the source of income wherein if she work outside she has only 300 pesos per day and she needs to give her children um an allowance of everyday 20 pesos each it’s 150 for half a day she’s thinking that we will get hungry thank you good night when you are walking in a place that it’s very dark like this you have to tell that bad spirit go away bad spirit go away are people in the Philippines? very superstitious about ghosts apo apo tabi tabi Po there’s a um superstitious belief of Nanay Winnie that um when you are in New Town and then you are a visitor you just have the when you are sleeping you should have a red anything red a coin or something oh that’s why she brought red red sheets so she put something red there for us yeah you have something red too? you know my mum just make it for me you always carry this on you? can I see this? what is inside? garlic good morning Po Be careful on the trip then we got already 60,000 pesos for the school of the kids thank you very much thank you very much I hope that money, can be used properly and that it meets your needs Don’t worry, I’ll use it wisely We’re going to build our house better to have a good place to live that’s why last time they gave me 2000 pesos I bought bamboo to build a roof to enhance the state of my house yes it will and some of it will be deposited in the bank and then some of that money will buy school supplies for the kids
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We spent a day with Elizabeth of the Aeta Magbukon tribe in Bataan, Philippines—one of the oldest Indigenous groups in Southeast Asia. From cooking with bamboo to stories of resilience and discrimination, this is a raw look at Indigenous life in the Philippines today.
Travel Date: May 2025
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Travel gear:
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00:00 – Arriving in bataan;
2:01 – Aeta tribe;
2:58 – Elisabeth and Winnie;
9:52 – Picnin at the river;
15:30 – Helping out;
17:28 – Gofundme;
17:59 – Goodnight;
19:48 – DONATION;
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Hi, I’m Jonathan Le Blanc. I’m a full-time traveler who wants to show the human side of traveling and give another perspective on how the mass media portrays certain locations to us.
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💟Edited by: @Ajjouche on IG
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