We Call Her Ina Bai: How Strong Women Are Made

We Call Her Ina Bai: How Strong Women Are Made is grassroots, intertribal, intergenerational organization, Sabokahan Unity of Lumad Women’s first self-published book. It tells a compelling narrative of the extraordinary resilience and strength of indigenous Lumad women and their tribe as they go through the struggles in a world that continually try to undermine their human dignity, rights to land, and life.

The book is told through the point of view of Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay, the living woman warrior of the Pantaron Mountain Range in the southern Philippines, and her grandniece Sharimaine. It is based on interviews with Sabokahan Chair Emeritus Bai Bibyaon Ligkayan Bigkay with Sabokahan Youth leader Sharmaine Dausay, Save Our Schools Network volunteers, and Liyang Network members.

The defense of ancestral lands has been the most decisive component of the long history of the Lumad struggle. It is a continuing uprising against the ecological devastation of large scale mining and monocrop plantations, against the violence of paramilitaries, against the closure of Lumad schools, and against the tyranny of the patriarchal and imperialist state. This telling of Ina Bai’s resolute life is most timely, as land defenders and Lumad leaders are being red-tagged, abducted, incarcerated and killed by state forces in an attempt to quell their powerful struggle for land, life and self-determination.

Sabokahan is a grassroots organization led by and composed of Lumad (indigenous) women advancing their rights, dignity & empowerment.

Liyang Network is a local to global advocacy network that amplifies the calls to action of frontline environmental and human rights defenders in Mindanao, Philippines. They were founded in Mindanao, Philippines in 2019 at the request of our primary community partner, Sabokahan.

IG: @liyang.us and @liyangnetwork

**100% of proceeds from the sale of this book support Sabokahan’s ongoing projects**