Jacob Maentz

Ati children play on the coastline in front of their Boracay ancestral domain, Philippines.

Sabat or “meet-up” with Ayta and lowland traders. The Ayta trade their agricultural products in exchange for rice, coffee, sugar, tobacco and other goods they need. Everything is on a barter system for theses communities and the meet-ups happen about twice a week.

Ati girls arrive back in their village after competing in a local softball tournament. Many Ati are now integrating more into typical Filipino/adapted western culture, especially the younger generation.

An Ayta anito (healer or medicine woman) performs a ritual to heal a member of her community. Anito means healer and spirit; both are deeply rooted in Ayta culture.

Fishing on the edge of Lake Mainit. Mamanwa, Agusan Del Norte.

A pig is prepared for sacrifice on the last day of the secretive Paduyduy, an ancient religious festivity among the Ayta Abellen where the tribal elders commune with anitos or spirits.

In Zambales, carabao-drawn carts are the primary means of transporting goods between Ayta villages and lowland communities. During the rainy season, the rivers can rise to dangerous levels very rapidly, leaving people stranded for days.

Harvesting sugar palm fruit. Mamanwa, Agusan Del Norte.

An Agta fisherman in the strong rapids of the Blos River. Thanks to their access to the abundant natural resources of Eastern Luzon, the Agta can partially maintain to their way of life as foragers.

A monitor lizard being cooked over an open fire. Wild animals such as wild cats, wild pigs, fish, snails, turtles, and lizards continue to be part of the Ati’s regular diet, along with tubers, fruits, and honey harvested from the forests, which are considered communal.

An Agta man cooking river shells against a temporary camp of traditional lean-tos on the rocky banks of the Blos River. These shells will eventually be crushed into a white power and used as an ingredient for mama. Mama is a mix of beetle nut, tobacco, a type of green leaf and shell powder which acts as a stimulant.

Tapog and Odang hunting in the forest looking for birds and monkeys. Products collected from the forest and ocean are often traded for important items like rice, sugar, tobacco, and coffee.

Mamanwa children head to school using what is locally called a “skylab,” two planks on the side of a motorcycle balanced out by the riders.

Women learn basic writing strokes in a class conducted by the local government of Divilacan. Education has a vital role in empowering indigenous communites, but it also undoubtedly affects their culture and traditional way of life.

Children play makeshift basketball, a popular sport now widely adapted in Agta communities. Traditionally, Agta children could bring down birds with their bows and arrows by the time they were ten, but since the 1970s their lifestyle changed drastically, as communities shifted from a nomadic, foraging lifestyle to a more sedentary, peasant existence.

Mothers gather to care for a sick child. Despite the issues, the Agta welcome some aspects of the change brought by outsiders, in particular the life-saving benefits of modern medicine.

Men perform a traditional dance around an evening fire. Among the Agta, there is a total of 12 distinct dialects, which may soon go extinct. Today, as they continue to lose more of their ancestral lands to extractive enterprises, the Agta struggle to survive the alarming loss of rainforest in the Sierra Madre.

Ati children preparing for their first holy communion on Boracay island. Like many indigenous communities in the Philippines, these Ati have blended Christianity with their own traditional culture to create their own distinctly hybrid religious practice.

Children playing in Lake Mainit. Mamanwa, Agusan Del Norte.

Chinese tourists pose with an Ati child in Boracay. There are roughly 40 Ati families remaining on their vastly diminished ancestral domain. Land prospectors continue to harass them for ownership over these 2.1 hectares.

Traditional Agta homes on the rocky banks of the Blos River.

The Ati Chieftain Vicente Ilorde meets with his community to discuss their application for ancestral domain in Malay, Aklan. Together, they draw maps indicating the location of each family’s home and the land they hope to regain.

The rugged path to home on the western side of the Sierra Madre mountains. The Sierra Madre is the longest mountain range in the Philippines containing 1.4 million hectares of forest, or 40% of the country’s forest cover. Although protected on paper, much of the Sierra Madre is still under threat from human encroachment and associated timber poaching, mining, conversion of forests for agriculture, and migration.