The community of the Manobo tribe, which is a part of the Lumad Filipino indigenous group, has trauma that roots from the government forcing them off their own ancestral land. This causes the Manobo to fight back and defend themselves. They had to speak out so they could defend their ancestral land, therefore give room for their community to heal from all the stress they had to deal with from getting kicked off their land. The speaking out brings them together and that’s what heals them. 

I decided I wanted to represent the Manobo tribe, a part of the Lumad Filipino indigenous group using graphic design. My project shows what I wanted my audience to learn because The Manobo tribes trauma started from them getting kicked off their ancestral land and when their people started to get killed. Their community shows resilience by protesting using signs saying “STOP KILLING” which allows them to heal. I also used a lot of red and black shapes to symbolize death and blood within the community to show the trauma they faced. I wanted to show how their community protested using signs in my graphic design. 

The first part of my graphic design is the background which is a recreation of the clothing the Manobo tribe wore. I used the same colors and patterns on their clothing and used that for my design. Then I added some clipart of their homes to show how they were kicked out of their ancestral land. And lastly I added wooden signs to show how their community protested. On the signs it says sayings such as “Stop Killing, Stop Killings, Stop Killing Manobo People.” My goal of this graphic design was to show that their community is showing resilience by protesting and that allows them to heal. The signs on the graphic design demonstrate resilience among the Manobo community because they are being oppressed by the government, therefore creating trauma, and they are still protesting for their rights.

Emma Marquez is a senior at Fremont High School.

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