Minera: The Women Miners of Benguet

In the province of Benguet in northern Philippines, small-scale gold mining has been an important source of livelihood for centuries for indigenous communities. Artisanal and labor intensive, most of Philippine gold is still extracted with the simplicity of picks, shovels, human hands, and water; sometimes just besides large mining corporations. Men are thought of as the usual prominent actors in these communities. This documentary corrects this misimpression. Women miners are as essential to small-scale mining as the male workers. And unlike men, they must combine numerous daily responsibilities, in the household, the field, and the mine. However, these duties are balanced neither with compensation nor representation, in the family as well as in the community. This documentary is a story of the women miners of Itogon, Benguet who have moved mountains and have kept pushing on, how they have transcended the weariness of the body and the strictures of gender to live a life in their own terms and to unselfishly care for others.