Mary Jane Atilano Daughenbaugh

Culandanum Handicrafts Store

Tagbanua Tribe

I am Mary Jane Atilano Daughenbaugh, a proud member of the Tagbanwa Tribe, hailing from the secluded mountains of Culandanum, Aborlan, Palawan, Philippines. It was in this humble beginning that the seed of a dream to rise above poverty was first planted.

My father passed when I was just four, leaving my sister and me to be raised by our resilient mother. Our life was tough, but filled with an undeniable happiness. Watching her struggle ignited a promise within me: one day, we would know a better life.

As I grew, I poured my energy into dreams and hard work, yet poverty and limited opportunities meant my education ended after the fourth grade. I left school to work as a maid, helping my mother. This marked the beginning of an extraordinary journey. From the mountains of Aborlan, I ventured to Palawan, eventually finding my way to Manila, where I secured work and later married.

My dreams never dimmed. I longed to explore the world beyond my Philippine home, and these aspirations eventually carried me to various countries, each journey fueled by the hope of escaping poverty. After 16 years abroad, I returned home in 2017. It was then that a profound question emerged: How could I uplift my family and community, and how could we rekindle and share our precious native traditions?

In 2018, I began sharing my life story, and those of my friends, detailing our struggles, our ambitions, and how we persevered to build better lives and support others, even without abundant wealth. By 2019, we started selling our creations. This led to the formation of the Culandanum Tribal Skills Association, and from it, the Culandanum Handicrafts Store was born.

Here, we meticulously craft and bring to life the dreams of every tribal community in Palawan. We work tirelessly, from the pure artistry of hand-crafting our products to marketing and selling them, expanding from our small town to fulfill orders from other cities and towns.

This is our story: a dream combined with significant effort and purpose, driven by earnest grit, confidence, and a deep love for what we craft, all with the grace of God Almighty.