[3][4] Bigkay campaigned to preserve the Pantaron Mountain Range, which is home to one of the largest remaining virgin forests in the Philippines and has been a target for logging and mining operations.
[6] In 1994, sought by tribal leader Datu Guibang Apoga of the Talaingod Davao del Norte, she led the Manobo against intrusion by logging company Alcantara and Sons.
[1] Bigkay led her people as they faced ethnocide,[1] during their 2014 flight to UCCP Haran in Davao City[2] after the Philippine military and paramilitary group Alamara attacked Manobo communities in Talaingod and Bukidnon.
[4] Bigkay received the University of the Philippines Gawad Tandang Sora award in 2017 for leadership in indigenous peoples' struggle for human rights and dignity.
[9] Posthumous tributes were given to Bigkay and botanist Leonard Co during the Gulay Pa More festival of heritage food and indigenous agriculture held on May 25, 2024, at the University of the Philippines campus in Quezon City.