The Bukidnon and Higaonon tribe’s mat weaving tradition called Ikam is one of the precious indigenous traditions in the country that almost vanished. Amihan–Lorie Rago Marte, a member of the tribe by marriage, helped revived this tradition through social entreneurship. Amihan used to work as a finance officer for Legal Rights and Natural Resources Center, an NGO working on the area of indigenous p
eople's rights to land and natural resources as well as environmental issues. Wanting to know more about the advocacy of her organisation and to understand the plights of their stakeholders, she embarked on an immersion program or “pakikipamuhay”with the Manovu tribe of Bukidnon. Little did she know that that decision will make a huge impact in her life. Amihan was enchanted by the ways of life of the tribe and she fell in love with one of their sons. In the following years, Amihan was married to a young leader of the Bukidnon-Tagoloanen tribe Anilaw Inlantong – Erwin Marte in a tribal rite. On that day the women of the tribes were all garbed in their red, white and black dresses and headdresses and the whole community participated in the wedding through rituals and dances and chants. On their wedding day she was given a beautiful mat or ikam, a gift by the tribal elders as a welcome to a new member of the tribe. In the early days Ikam was given as a traditional gifts or used in important ceremonies such as weddings and funerals. Amihan was so delighted with the gift that she received that it made her interested to know more about it. One day, Anilaw and Amihan went to the mountain side of Malaybalay where most of the women weavers resided and interviewed them. The couple learned that in the past few decades the young generation of tribal women have become uninterested in learning weaving skills. The elderly wome in return, became less and less interested in teaching the skills to their daughters. Besides weaving being arduous and time consuming, they don’t have serious buyers of their products. Tribal women would make ikam for months, walk long hours from their house in the mountain to sell their mats to the town markets and wait for people to buy their crafts the whole day. If they are fortunate, people would exchange a kilo of rice worth for a mat, or pay them on instalment basis. Sometimes, local market vendors and middle persons would only give them a kilo of fish in exchange for their beautiful mats. To revive the vanishing tradition of the Tagoloanen and to ensure that the mat making tradition is transmitted to the next generation, the couple initiated the organizing of the women weavers of their tribe. They envisioned the promotion of indigenous arts as helping the Tagoloanen women weavers achieve economic independence and contribute to the assertion of their right to self-determination. On May 2012, they convinced two Tagolwanen women weavers to start organize themselves into an association. In the following months, the membership increased from 2 to 10 weavers, and after a year had 25 members. As of 2022, there are 137 active women weavers from 6 barangays of Malaybalay City, Bukidnon province, Philippines, namely: Barangays Can-ayan, Patpat, Kibalabag, Kulaman, Busdi and Sumpong. The Tagolwanen Women Weavers Association was officially registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 19, 2016. Their showroom is located at Km. 4 Sayre Highway, Barangay Casisang, Malaybalay City, Bukidnon, Philippines.
