LAMLIFEW Village Museum, the country’s first community tribal museum and showcase of organic farming, recently won in the Outstanding Corporate Social Responsibility Project in Arts and Culture of the League of Corporate Foundations Guild Awards.
One of the top ecotourism and cultural spots of Sarangani province, it bagged the prestigious award under the auspices of ABS-CBN Foundation’s Bantay Kalikasan.
Situated in the interior barangay of Datal Tampal in Malungon town, the quarter-hectare complex is noted for the Eco-Cultural Experience, where guests are immersed to the way of life of the Blaan tribe through music, dance, weaving, craft, cuisine and their affinity with nature.
Its core structure is the gumusek or museum, designed after the typical tribal house, which serves as repository of the handwoven regalia, musical instruments, accessories and traditional house implements.
It also has a gumabal or weaving center and the Blaan School of Living Traditions where the exquisite mabal tabih fabric, considered as the crown jewel of Sarangani’s cultural resources, is woven. It is one of the indigenous center schools supported by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.
A community undertaking of the Lamlifew Tribal Women’s Association, it also named among the 10 social enterprise awardees of the BPI Foundation’s BPI Sinag Accelerate in 2017. For the award, it was given by the foundation business-incubation training and seed-funding grants.
Launched in 2007 at The National Museum in Manila, Lamlifew was also hailed by the Department of Tourism Region 12 as the Best in Tourism Product: Heritage Conservation at the first SOX Awards in 2016.
The museum, which is known for organically grown upland black rice, is also supported by the provincial government under the Sulong Sarangani—Sulong Katutubo program of Gov. Steve Solon.