Research has shown that the Tagbanwa are possible descendants of the Tabon Man [citation needed], thus making them one of the original inhabitants of the Philippines.

In spite of the challenges they face, such as land grabbing and the encroachment of modernization, the Tagbanwa continue to preserve their culture and traditions.

[2][5] According to folk history, the Tagbanwa had an early relationship with Brunei, with the first sultan of Brunyu, from the place called Burnay.

Antonio Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler, recorded that the Tagbanwa practiced the ritual of blood compact, cultivated their fields, hunted with blowpipes and thick wooden arrows, valued brass rings and chains, bells, knives, and copper wire for binding fish hooks, raised large and very tame cocks for fighting, and distilled rice wine.

During this time, and for almost three hundred years, the Spaniards and the Muslims of Sulu, Mindanao, Palawan, and north Borneo were at war.

In 1998, the Tagbanwa of Coron Island were awarded a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Title (CADT) over more than 22,000 hectares of land and sea.

The ancestral domain is currently ruled by HM Tribal Chieftain Rodolfo Aguilar I, assisted by his Council of Elders.

[8] In March 2010, Tabganwas previously driven away from Calauit island were issued a CADT covering over 55,000 hectares in recognition of the communities' ancestral land and waters.

[15] In the past, when both men and women wore their hair long, they filed and blackened their teeth, and carved earplugs from the hardwood bantilinaw.

[3] They dress just like the non-tribe lowlanders but some elder men prefer to use G-strings for comfort while tilling the field or going fishing.

Using black and natural color designs outside, the center of the cone has the bamboo strip skived slightly smaller, creating even holes for the screen.

[15] Some of the objects carved are mammanuk (rooster), a ritual bowl, kiruman (turtle), kararaga (a native bird), dugyan (a small ground animal), lizards, and wild pigs.

Carved animals are used with rice, betel nut, and other offerings to attract the deities and spirit relatives in the pagdiwata rituals.

These included the aruding or jaw harp; the babarak or nose flute; the tipanu or mouth flute; the pagang and tibuldu, two variations of the bamboo tube zithers; the kudlung or boat lute; the gimbal or drum, whose top was made from the skin of the bayawak or monitor lizard; and the tiring, composed of lengths of bamboo with openings of various sizes producing different notes when struck with a stick.

Modern acoustic type guitar and the ukulele, which is fashioned from a half coconut shell, supplant the other instruments.

When dancing during a festival, the performers are dressed in their costumes, and hold in each hand a dried palm leaf called palaspas.

[15] Drama in Tagbanwa society is expressed in the mimetic dances imitating animals, such as busak-busak, and those showing occupations, such as batak ribid and bugsay-bugsay.

The highest potential source of income for the Tagbanwa are handicrafts particularly woodworking, mat making and basketry, the raw materials for which are readily available to them.