Upland one of the Philippines key biodiversity areas, the Mount Mantalingahan Protected Landscape, sits the village of Kamantian, home to 65 traditional basketry cultural bearers. This article highlights the Pala’wan people who create traditional Indigenous baskets, or tingkep, using non-timber forest products. One basket weaver, Labin Tiblak, began basket weaving at eight years old and once taught young girls the practice on a weekly basis, before the pandemic. Not only does Tingkep serve functional, artistic, and cultural purposes, but this practice supports the conservation of the Pala’wan peoples ancestral Mantalingham forests. The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change, however, disproportionately affect the Pala’wan people by degrading Pala’wan land and resources, and disrupting traditional Pala’wan practices, like the ability to gather for basket weaving, putting the culture and the craft of Tingkep at risk. The article provides perspectives for the future, including insight from Minnie Degawan, an Indigenous Kankanaey-Igorot and the director of the Indigenous and Traditional Peoples Program, who advocates for the government to fully recognize the right of the Pal’awan people to their territories and self-determination. Photo credit: Keith Anthony Fabro
