BEEfore They Were Called Subanen Tracing The Ancient Roots of The River Peopl - 20250902 - 214134 - 0000
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Allan BambalanBEEfore They Were Called Subanen Tracing The Ancient Roots of The River Peopl - 20250902 - 214134 - 0000
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Allan BambalanBefore They Were Called Subanen: Tracing the
Ancient Roots of the River People
Introduction: The Unnamed Ancestors
1. Deep Ancestry – Austronesian Roots
Linguistic and genetic studies show the Subanen are part of the Austronesian migration that
spread across the Philippines around 4,000–3,000 years ago.
Their ancestors likely came by sea from the north (Visayas–Luzon) or from the east (Bohol–
Camiguin–Misamis coast), settling the Zamboanga Peninsula early because of its rich river
systems and fertile valleys.
The language of Subanen is close to old Visayan and Manobo tongues, suggesting a shared
root before the groups separated.
Long before the word Subanen entered colonial records, the people of the Zamboanga Peninsula
already lived by the rivers, mountains, and seas of Mindanao. They were not yet called by a single
name, but instead identified themselves through their relationship with the rivers:
Getaw buwid – the people of the upstream highlands.
Getaw tasan – the people of the midstream valleys.
Getaw dibabâ – the people of the downstream river mouths.
Getaw dlud – the people of the sea.
This way of naming themselves reflected geography, kinship, and environment, rather than rigid
political states. They were a people shaped by water and sky.
Chapter 1: Homeland of Rivers and Mountains
The Zamboanga Peninsula, bounded by Sindangan Bay, Pagadian Gulf, and Sibuguey Bay, was their
heartland. Rivers such as Sindangan, Dipolog, Kumalarang, and Sibuguey flowed from the mountains
of Malindang, Pinukis, and Kalatungan. Each watershed was a homeland, and each mountain was a
sacred marker of origin.
From these centers, families spread outward, carrying with them knowledge of farming, forest lore,
and navigation. Their settlement patterns reflected balance: upstream for protection, midstream for
farming, and downstream for trade.
Chapter 2: People of the Stars
Oral traditions describe their ancestors as readers of the sky — experts who could interpret the stars.
For them, astronomy was not merely spiritual but practical:
Orion (Balatik) marked the season for clearing fields.
The Pleiades (Mapolon) signaled planting time.
The North Star was used as a fixed guide for orientation.
This expertise connected them to a wider Austronesian heritage, for ancient seafarers of the Pacific
also relied on stellar navigation. It suggests that Subanen ancestors preserved a very old tradition,
linking them to voyagers who once crossed seas from Taiwan, Borneo, and the Visayas into
Mindanao thousands of years ago.
Chapter 3: Beyond Zamboanga – The Ancient Territories
Subanen ancestors were not confined to the peninsula alone. Oral and historical claims place them in
several wider areas:
Cotabato (Pulangi River Basin): Kinship and trade routes linked them with inland groups. The
Pulangi served as a highway where knowledge, goods, and culture traveled.
Lanao (Panguil Bay corridor): Their migrations reached Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur,
where they interacted with early Maranao settlements.
Bukidnon Plateaus: Upland kinships show parallels in ritual and agricultural practice with the
lumad groups of Bukidnon.
Surigao and Misamis: Ancient movements reached as far as northern Mindanao, connecting
with seafaring communities.
These connections explain why Subanen traditions share similarities with other Mindanao groups, yet
retain their distinct river-centered worldview.
Chapter 4: The Emergence of Leaders and Defenders
In this ancestral world, leaders were remembered not only by name but by role. One recurring title
was Tangkilan, meaning defender or upholder.
Some accounts remember a Datu Tangkilan in Labangan (Pagadian Bay area), others in
Sindangan. Rather than contradiction, this may reflect the spread of one leader’s influence, or the
passing of a revered title from one generation to another. What matters is that the bearer of the name
Tangkilan was remembered as a shield of the people — a leader who protected river communities
from threats, whether from rival groups or external invasions.
Chapter 5: The Subanen Identity Emerges
When Spaniards began recording Mindanao’s peoples in the 16th and 17th centuries, they applied
the name Subanin or Subanon, meaning river people. Though an outsider’s label, it captured what
was already true: that identity was tied to rivers.
By this time, the various getaw — upstream, midstream, downstream — were increasingly recognized
as part of one broader people. What had once been many localized communities began to be
remembered under a shared name: Subanen.
Chapter 6: Legacy of the Ancestors
The Subanen world was thus built upon four ancient pillars:
1. The Rivers – life-giving waters that defined territory and culture.
2. The Stars – guides for survival, timekeeping, and navigation.
3. The Defenders – leaders like Tangkilan, remembered as protectors of kin and homeland.
4. The Expansions – journeys outward into Cotabato, Lanao, Bukidnon, and beyond.
Their story is not one of isolation, but of deep connection — between land and sky, past and present,
kinship and defense.
Conclusion: Returning to the Source
The ancestors of the Subanen were never a nameless people. They were the getaw, bound to the
river currents and to the constellations overhead. When the term Subanen was later used, it simply
gave a collective name to what had always been there: a civilization of the rivers, whose roots run
deep into Mindanao’s ancient past.
To trace their history is not only to follow the waters downstream, but also to look upward at the same
stars their ancestors once read. In those constellations, the Subanen world still finds its map of
memory.
Written by Allan B. Mangangot
References
1. Garvan, John M. (1931). The Manóbos of Mindanáo. National Academy of Sciences,
Washington D.C.
Though focused on the Manobo, this work provides comparative insights into lumad groups’
astronomy and subsistence practices that parallel Subanen traditions.
2. Frake, Charles O. (1980). Languages and Societies in the Philippines. Summer Institute of
Linguistics.
Discusses linguistic links among Mindanao groups, including the Subanen language cluster.
3. Loarca, Miguel de. (1582). Relación de las Yslas Filipinas. Archivo General de Indias.
Early Spanish accounts noting the “Subanin” as people of the rivers in Zamboanga Peninsula.
4. Blumentritt, Ferdinand. (1882). Versuch einer Ethnographie der Philippinen.
Contains some of the earliest ethnographic notes on Mindanao groups, including mentions of
Subanen.
5. Rodil, B. R. (1994). The Minoritization of the Indigenous Communities of Mindanao and the Sulu
Archipelago. Davao: Alternate Forum for Research in Mindanao (AFRIM).
Discusses the historical territories of Mindanao’s lumad peoples, including Subanen domains
stretching into Cotabato and Lanao.
6. National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). (2012). The Indigenous Peoples of
the Philippines. Manila.
A modern overview of indigenous cultural communities, with sections on Subanen heritage,
rituals, and star-based practices.
7. Scott, William Henry. (1994). Barangay: Sixteenth Century Philippine Culture and Society.
Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Provides context for pre-colonial Philippine societies, navigation, and astronomy, which
parallel Subanen ancestral practices.
8. Estioko-Griffin, A. & Griffin, P. (1981). Lumad Studies in Mindanao. Ateneo de Davao
University Research Center.
Studies lumad communities’ cosmology, oral traditions, and cultural continuity.
9. National Museum of the Philippines. (various reports).
Archaeological findings in Mindanao and Zamboanga Peninsula that provide context for early
riverine and upland settlements.
