FOLKTALES-Community Theater Workshops for the Environment

Community Theater Workshops for the Environment INDONESIA

ǀ

PHILIPPINES

ǀ

JAPAN

Cordillera Green Network

Community Theater Workshops for the Environment INDONESIA

ǀ

PHILIPPINES

ǀ

JAPAN

Cordillera Green Network

FOLKTALES

Community Theater Workshops for the Environment Indonesia / Philippines / Japan Copyright 2021 Cordillera Green Network Inc.

All right reserved.

Published by

Cordillera Green Network Inc. Baguio City, Philippines cordigreen@gmail.com https://www.cordilleragreen.net Supported by

The Japan Foundation Asia Center - Grant Program for Promotion of Culture Collaboration Editor: Sacha Garah Jasmin Paper cut artworks : Megumi Naoi Cover and Book Design: Liz Rañola Printed in Japan

CONTENTS 6 INTRODUCTION Mariko Sorimachi 8 LOOKING BACK AT THE THREE-YEAR PROJECT Setsu Hanasaki 20 PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES 23 WHAT I FELT: PARTICIPANTS’ REACTIONS TO THE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE 130 ACTIVITIES CALENDAR 134 PROJECT ORGANIZER CORDILLERA GREEN NETWORK (CGN) 136 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 138 REFERENCES: YOUTUBE LINKS

27

ACEH, INDONESIA

28 30 33

37

42

47 49

FOLKTALE SYNOPSIS Kite THE PARTICIPANTS THE FACILITATOR Surviving in the Theater World Through Storytelling in the Aceh Tradition Agus Nur Amal FROM THE FACILITATOR Collecting and Presenting the Story- Agus Nur Amal FROM THE AUTHOR Abdullah, The Forest Guardian - Azhari Ayub Old Forest's Guard Story THE PARTNERS AND STAFF Aceh's NGO Komunitas Tikar Pandan - Yulfan

51

CORDILLERA, PHILIPPINES

87

UEDA, JAPAN

52 FOLKTALE SYNOPSIS 52 Ambakbak 55 Sitan 56 Gumallingan 58 Dagdagimoyo 60 THE PARTICIPANTS From Buguias Team Ambakbak From Mankayan Team Sitan From Tubo Team Gumallingan 67 THE FACILITATORS 69 THE FOLKTALE STORYTELLERS 70 FROM THE FACILITATORS Challenges and Discoveries in Conducting a Community-based Theatre Workshop

Roger Federico 76 Lessons from “Sitan”: A theater workshop in the

Kalinga community of Sapid, Mankayan

Kevin Rosito 78 Our Community Theater Workshop’s Journey in the time of COVID-19 - Leemar Damuasen 80 Cordillera Folktales: The Here and Now

Sacha Garah Jasmin 82 About the Encounters through Lost Plays - Riki Takeda

89 FOLKTALE SYNOPSIS 89 Koizumi Kotaro 90 Deidarabotchi and a Widow 92 THE PARTICIPANTS 96 THE FACILITATORS 98 THE STORYTELLER For Instance - Yuichi Inagaki 101 FROM THE PARTICIPANTS 101 What I felt: Listening to Yuichi Inagaki’s retelling of the folktale 103 How Each of Us Feels - Wakana Yui 106 My Experience as an NGO Intern in the Philippines and as Participant at a Theater Workshop in Ueda

Yukino Isawa 108 FROM THE FACILITATOR The water in Kuragafuchi

Overflows - Setsu Hanasaki 115 THE PARTNERS AND STAFF Sai no Tsuno /

Theater & Arts Ueda

117 FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND

THE ENVIRONMENT 118 123

127

Who are the Monkeys of Kibungan? - Noriko Iizuka On the Diversity of Folktales at the Time of “Inflation of Justice” - Riki Takeda Engaging the Youth in Environmental Awareness through Art - Mariko Sorimachi

INTRODUCTION

This booklet is the report for the final year of the "Theater Project on Environment Issues for the Youth of the Philippines, Indonesia and Japan". The project, which began in 2017, has been funded by a grant from the Japan Foundation Asia Center.

The main objective of this project is to improve international mutual understanding through the cultural activity of theater. In order to achieve this, we, as the host organization, prepared programs and employed various strategies for high school students and facilitators from Japan, the Philippines, and Indonesia to travel across countries, meet, talk, laugh together, discover differences, and find common ground. We were excited to see what kind of impressions and revelations would emerge from these programs.

Who would have thought that an epidemic of an unheard-of infectious disease would occur without warning, that travel between borders would become impossible, and that we would not even be able to "meet"? As with all events planned around the world, even this small project had to be postponed several times. Eventually we were forced to undergo drastic changes to focus on online activities.

Ten years from now, will the days we spent in this more than yearlong pandemic be a nostalgic memory that we will talk and reminisce about as our lives return to the way they were before? Or will it be the new normal to live with the COVID-19 infection and say, "That year started it all”? However, I am sure that many of us will remember for a long time what we experienced when the things we regarded as normal suddenly came to a halt.

Amid a sudden global epidemic of infectious diseases, everyone in the world was at the mercy of the information that was flying around, confused about how to judge what was happening. Both adults and children lost sight of their destination. In a situation where there are restrictions such as wearing masks, observing social distance, and refraining from shouting, we ought to ask, is theater even possible? Did the young participants discover something in the folktales left behind by their predecessors? What did the facilitators realize through this project as they struggled with the choice of words to say to the young people?

We hope that the voices of all three countries involved reach and resonate with you.

Cordillera Green Network Project Director Mariko Sorimachi

LOOKING BACK AT THE THREE-YEAR PROJECT

SETSU HANASAKI TRANSLATED BY FUMIKO KOBAYASHI

INTRODUCTION As this project draws to a close, the world is still under uncertainty. Ironically, the coronavirus pandemic has made significant changes in this project aimed at addressing environmental issues through theatre workshops. The goal is made even clearer and more urgent than it was four years ago when it started. The project originated with a three-year plan; but after a year's postponement on its third year, it was forced to change its content and developed differently as planned. I would like to take a look back at the project which started with five key themes: youth development, education using applied theater techniques, Asian youth exchange, environmental awareness, and recognition and transmission of traditional culture.

PROJECT BACKGROUND Before reflecting on this project, I would like to mention how I met Komunitas Tikar Pandan (KTP) way back in 2007.

At that time, Aceh had just ended its 30-year civil war with the central government after the devastating earthquake in Sumatra in 2004. In addition to the damage caused by the tsunami, the scars of the civil war were deep and the 8 / FOLKTALES

country faced a number of challenges. At that point, the Japan Foundation, which was committed to "Fostering Peace through Cultural Initiatives", launched a project called "The Youth Drama Workshop in Aceh, Indonesia" for children affected by the conflict. I became involved during the preparatory stage.

The tsunami left behind painful memories in Banda Aceh. The host staff and I visited these sites and many cultural organizations, among them KTP. KTP, a Non-Government Organization (NGO) based in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh Province, Indonesia, is engaged in various activities aimed at realizing multicultural coexistence, peace, equality, and democratization through cultural activities. The members of the KTP come from diverse backgrounds including a novelist, a filmmaker, a religious researcher and a lawyer. They have a wide range of knowledge and intrinsic interests in culture and the arts. They are willing and eager to tackle social issues.

Facilitator, actor, and storyteller, Agus Nur Amal was also profoundly involved in the project of KTP. We decided to work with them on a peace-building project for post-conflict reconciliation centered on theater workshops. Because the traumas of the children were severe, the project, which lasted three years (five years including the preparation period), had various difficulties. By facing challenges together, we were able to establish a deep relationship of trust with KTP. In addition, I had the good fortune of having met Mariko Sorimachi of the Cordillera Green Network (CGN). Since 2012, I have been in charge of theater workshops for environmental education in Cordillera, Philippines, where CGN operates. There, I met theater-loving young people from Aanak di Kabilingan

9 / INTRODUCTION

Theater Workshop for Aanak di Kabiligan in Sagada (2012)

Theater workshop in Aceh organized

by Japan Foundation in 2007.©Japan Foundation

(Children of the Mountains), an indigenous youth group CGN fostered for a long time. They are attractive young people who are nurtured by their rich culture and who are interested in the wisdom of indigenous cultures. However, domestically, they are subject to discrimination and do not necessarily have high self-affirmation.

Nurturing these young people will be a significant matter in the future. The project should be able to provide them opportunities to meet with indigenous youths from other communities, to reaffirm the knowledge and values of the indigenous peoples, and to reconsider taking action about the common issues faced by every community based on the wisdom of indigenous peoples.

The project also calls for these indigenous youths to be the major force in restraining and changing the direction of “developed countries” that, driven by the myths of development and growth, are causing environmental destruction in a time of “anthropocene”. In response to Sorimachi's deep thoughts, this project was launched with my recommendation of involving KTP, which I trust as a counterpart.

FIRST YEAR OF THE PROJECT (2017) In its first year, the project started with ideas from a workshop previously coordinated by CGN in 2016. At that time, I worked with college students on mining issues in the Cordillera region. The participants were able to create a performance out of a transcribed text from their interviews with various mining stakeholders. Many people 10 / FOLKTALES

are unaware that the mobile phones that they use contain parts made from mined gold. Generally, large-scale mining is linked to environmental issues and has caused problems such as poverty, labor disputes, and poor performance of children in schools. The feeling that this project should be continued in order to spread awareness of mining issues through theater led to the next project.

In the first year, Toshihisa Yoshida, who was one of the previous year’s theater technical advising staff, reconstructed a new play called "Balitok: Voices from the Mines" from the previous performance based on the transcribed text. Musicians such as Ms. Adela Bantasan from Mountain Province, the Philippines and Mr. Katsu Mizumachi (Kuri) from Japan, also came to support the work. The performance was held in Baguio, Manila, and Banda Aceh. We also held a Forum Theater through audience participation, giving them the chance to express their thoughts about mining. Everywhere, the audience took part and “intervened” in various ways. The Forum Theater was not only meant to learn about mining issues but also to engage in a dialogue with the audience through theater.

In Banda Aceh, KTP coordinated the performance of "Balitok" and helped conduct a short theater workshop with high school students. They played various theater games and also participated in art workshops facilitated by Mr. Rocky Cajigan, a visual artist from Mountain 11 / INTRODUCTION

Students performing a mini play about underground mining of resources in the suburbs of Banda Aceh

Province of the Cordillera. He was in charge of the stage design of “Balitok”. The high school students from Banda Aceh interviewed villagers in the community, who had suffered environmental devastation due to the exploration and extraction of mineral deposits. From this activity, the students created a minipresentation, which they performed in a local junior high school.

Although it was the first time for the high school students in Aceh to experience a theater workshop, they gave a powerful performance rich in emotional expression, with the Philippine team supporting their theater activities. The Aceh side became motivated to hold a longer theater workshop which involves research on environmental issues and letting the local young people experience communicating the results through theater expressions. All these were expected to be realized in the third year of the project.

The young people of the Philippines grew up remarkably.

This time, they facilitated the workshops themselves and gained experience as facilitators of the workshops they had previously experienced as participants. While in Aceh, they also learned about Islam and its different cultural expressions such as dances and music along with the realization that they had similar environmental problems as those experienced by the people in Aceh.

Youth from Philippines and Indonesia creating together in the workshop in Banda Aceh.

SECOND YEAR OF THE PROJECT (2018-19) “The Challenges in Preserving the Rice Terraces in Ifugao, Cordillera” is the theme of the second year of the project. The Ifugao Rice Terraces, which is reported to be 2,000 years old,

12 / FOLKTALES

was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site status. The rice terraces, which have become the center of the community’s industry, have shaped the Ifugao society through environmental conservation and their own set of Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices (IKSP). However, in today’s capitalist economy, the need for cash has led to increasing migrant labor and lifestyle changes, especially among the younger generation.

With too few hands to work on the rice terraces, its survival is in jeopardy.

The project involved three processes, namely: 1. High school teachers from different schools participated in a workshop that taught them how to create plays using Kikigaki texts (transcribed texts mainly from research interviews).

2. The same teachers held workshops with their respective high school students.

3. The works created by the eight participating high schools were all presented together.

In developing the first and second process, we envisioned that this would not be a one-time experience, but that the method would be employed continuously. With the third, we hoped to provide an opportunity to think about the current state of agriculture in this region through appreciating each other's work.

In the workshop, the participants encountered basic theater techniques in the form of games and they interviewed people involved in agriculture as part of their research on the current situations in their community. We introduced the method of group creation of theater that is centered on “Kikigaki” thereby

13 / INTRODUCTION

The youth performing "Mining Stories", a theatrical piece produced during the Kikigaki Workshop in Tadian, Mt. Province in 2016.

connecting the research and the expression. The participants transcribed the interview to a monologue text. After they reconstructed multiple monologue texts into one general flow, they fleshed out the scenes. This type of work is often a mixture or a coexistence of different narrators and their points of view, which does not always result in a coherent and understandable narrative. Five days of the workshop was not enough to teach them all the methods well. For some teachers, it was even their first time to make a play. Therefore, we organized a team of local facilitators, led by veteran facilitator Lynette Bibal, Leemar Damuasen and Kevin Rosito who had taken part in the first year, to travel to each high school and support the workshop.

Japanese Artists Hiroko Takahama, Meeko Koike, Yasuhiro Takemoto and Kyoko Miwa held a backdrop workshop, too.

With the help of local artists, the said high school teachers and student representatives successfully depicted their villages on a large screen made out of cloth/canvas. In one of the outputs, there was an image surrounded by abundant nature such as rice terraces and animals, while in another, there were newly opened roads and vegetable cash crop fields transformed from rice fields. The backdrops were, in themselves, very stimulating as a piece of work. During the presentations, the backdrop is changed with every school performing, providing varying visual images of the community where the circumstances and experiences described in the play occurred. The backdrops enriched the presentations.

Because each production is based on specific interviews, none of the high school students’ theater productions were the same. Even in the Ifugao region alone, the language is diverse, and the current state of agriculture is different. The play also described the ingenuity and contradictions of the local people as they try to survive, as well as the traditional 14 / FOLKTALES

dances and rituals that form the bases of their culture. It was a worthwhile performance.

This project was made possible with the support of the Department of Education in Ifugao Province. The head of the department even attended the presentation and watched the entire performance, thereby giving the performers and staff a morale boost. However, it was a little disappointing to see that the high school students focused more on competing despite the opportunity to learn about the current situation of the agricultural communities. This might have been caused by the perception that the performances in this project are part of a contest. Another regrettable consequence was that, because of the many performances, not enough time remained for discussions and evaluations.

FURTHER TO UEDA

Later, we formed a selected team (several teachers and young people who supported the workshop as local facilitators) to perform their work in an international exchange stage.

We set off for Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture, along with the improved play “Payo” (rice field) created during the workshop for the teachers in the Philippines.

In Ueda, a pre-workshop was held with local participants to welcome the Ifugao team. The participants visited Inakura Rice Terraces in Ueda to interview the people involved in rice farming. After the arrival of the Ifugao team, we all visited the Inakura Rice Terraces again and held a joint workshop. Even though we came from different countries, the continued rice-growing in terraced rice paddies is something we have in common. We had a short but harmonious exchange for this activity. One thing that struck me at this time was that the Ifugao team showed a strong interest in small agricultural machinery that could be used on slopes. I felt once again that agriculture is essential in their lives.

With the full cooperation of a small theater, Sai no Tsuno, we proceeded with the performances as the first international The Ifugao participants performing "Payo" in Ueda City in 2018.

exchange program of Ueda Machinaka Theater Festival. We received donated vegetables and other items from the locals; thanks to the efforts of Megumi Naoi and many local staff, we were able to support everyone with our tight budget. We cooked our own meals in a training camp style. During this time, people who have supported CGN’s activities in the past years came together from all over Japan. Artists came to help make props; musicians Kuri rushed to the theater to contribute improvised sounds for the play and many other volunteers that surprised local people.

I felt the significance of staging the play in Ueda, not in Tokyo or other urban areas. The audiences shared a common ground that only people involved in agriculture could understand. This exchange event was described by Sai no Tsuno Theater as "like a typhoon coming to Ueda" in a manner of various meanings.

THIRD YEAR UNDER A PANDEMIC (2021) As mentioned earlier, due to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the third year of the project was postponed for one year. The pandemic situation is different from country to country and often changes on a daily basis, so the protocols for gathering people and travel restrictions were a big challenge for the project.

In its fourth year, the project was conducted in a hybrid form through online and face-to-face interaction. Specifically, while observing measures to avoid COVID-19 in their respective localities, the participants in each of the three countries conducted face-to-face workshops and made video recordings of the theatrical works they produced. The videos were posted and viewed online. During the online sharing, viewers and presenters had interactions and exchange of opinions.

Theater Artist Agus Nur Amal from Aceh, Indonesia facilitating an Object Workshop at the Garden Theater in Baguio City in 2019.

16 / FOLKTALES

This also led us to not only change the method but also the theme of the project. The pandemic made it difficult for us to conduct research through interviewing as we did from the previous years. So, after discussions among the staff, we decided to focus on folktales. Both CGN and KTP had been collecting and publishing folk tales coming from their community. Folktales are stories that are direct from the wisdom of the ancestors.

We faced a challenge of finding and expressing ideas, hidden in the folk tales, about the relationships between humans and their environments while experiencing a pandemic.

In the Philippines, there were strict travel restrictions and poor internet connections caused problems with communication. We conducted online workshops mainly with young facilitators who were struggling to make things work in their respective communities. An online workshop called “What Folktales Tell Us” was conducted by Noriko Iizuka, a cultural anthropologist who was a project advisor. Iizuka discussed the symbolic representation of the relationship between the environment and human beings in folktales.

Agus Nur Amal, Indonesian actor and artist, who co-facilitated the theater workshop in Indonesia during the first year of the project, held an online workshop for the young facilitators and participants.

For the exchange program among the participants, the two countries were first connected online, and the participants and staff introduced themselves and their hometowns to each other. I asked the participants to present the "five most important things in my hometown" along with their photos. One of the members of the Philippine team introduced the eels and deer. These animals, which are part of nature, are important in their lives as food in times of need. It was an impressive presentation that showed the abundance and power of living within the area of hunting and agriculture. Truly, a community that is self-sufficient.

Online interaction has been a persistent challenge for the project. Internet access in the mountainous Cordillera is difficult. In order to successfully present and exchange theatrical works online, it was necessary to do unprecedented work such as pre-recording and subtitling in a short period of time. A request was made to live stream the play on Facebook and YouTube on the day of the presentation to allow for more people to participate in the exchange program.

17 / INTRODUCTION

Students from Tinoc National High School present their output for the theater workshop on agriculture in Ifugao in 2018.

On the day of the presentation, some of the subtitles were not available on time. Text copies of the subtitles were distributed to the audiences as a substitute. Despite early preparations, problems occurred with the live streaming because of the absence of dedicated online staff. Nevertheless, with the help of English and Indonesian interpreters, we could appreciate each other’s videos and discuss them online. It was a very precious occasion in the midst of the pandemic.

This project first highlighted the differences between the folktales of the three countries. Folktales are still passed down in families and communities in the Philippines and in Indonesia while folktales in Japan can only be accessed through specific storytellers and books.

The narrations of the folktales in each country were recorded on videos. One of them is a true story about elephants as told by a forest guard in Aceh, Indonesia. Although not a folktale, it was interesting as it showed the difference in the relationship between wild animals and humans in the past as compared to our contemporary time.

For more details on the workshops and the theatrical works created in each country, please refer to the other articles in this booklet. The folktale-themed workshops and theatrical productions that were held under the pandemic provided a valuable opportunity to think about the environment. Despite conducting this project through virtual means with a seemingly lethargic mood due to the pandemic, the workshop brought out the energy and creativity of the young participants. I am hopeful that the day will come when we can once again talk, move, create, sing, and dance face to face with the young participants without any hesitation.

18 / FOLKTALES

AT THE END The main theme of this project is the environment, which is one of the most important issues of our time. There is a need for a fundamental shift for the human-centered understanding of the environment as an object of domination and as a resource for economic development. I am sure that Mariko Sorimachi and the other CGN staff members have been aware of this for a long time, but I felt it again when the issue was suddenly brought to the foreground by the outbreak of the pandemic on a global scale. In the first year of the project, we tackled the issue of mining in Cordillera, and in the second year, we addressed the state of traditional agriculture in Ifugao Province. By listening to the voices of the people living in the communities during the creation process, I realized that our lives are connected on a global scale. In the third year, we tried to rediscover the wisdom contained in folktales and reconsidered the relationship between the environment (nature) and human beings.

What is the meaning of that? Human beings can’t change easily unless they feel it firsthand. We can remember facial expressions and the tone of the voices of the people we met in my research, besides the stories themselves. We had experienced the ways of traditional rituals, the movements, and the rhythms of songs and dances. We received each folktale with the emotions of each storyteller. We visited the places where folktales were born, listened to the rustling of leaves and the sounds of birds, breathed in and felt the wind, smelled the space, and found fear in the flowing waters. This project has brought multifaceted and multi-sensory experiences, as well as the acquisition of knowledge. There is also intergenerational exchange. More than that, there is an act of expression to open up the discoveries made in this project and communicate them to others. I believe that this could be a model of environmental education that provides participants and audiences with opportunities and clues that are not transient but rather lead to behavioral changes. In the future, I would like to confirm how effective the program was by exchanging opinions with outside experts, which was not possible because of the change of plans in the project. Another plan is to conduct a theater workshop including research in Indonesia and invite people to Japan, which we also could not achieve due to the pandemic. I am hoping to continue the program in one way or another.

19 / INTRODUCTION

PARTICIPATING COUNTRIES TEXT BY MEGUMI NAOI AND HECTOR KAWIG

UEDA CITY, NAGANO PREFECTURE, JAPAN

CORDILLERA REGION, PHILIPPINES

ACEH PROVINCE, INDONESIA

CORDILLERA is a mountainous region in the northern part of Luzon Island in the Philippines. In the province of Benguet, forests are converted into farms for growing cash crops, and the mountains are degraded by the operations of largescale mining operations. Landslides, soil erosion, and forest fires are the region’s worst environmental problems.

Cordillera, though largely Christianized, still keeps its indigenous beliefs. It is a

culturally diverse region, and is home to more than 10 distinct ethno-linguistic groups. Each group has their own traditional practices in maintaining their ecosystem like the famous Ifugao rice terraces, one of the World Heritage Sites. However, due to globalization and economic demand, young people in Cordillera tend to leave their homes to seek other career opportunities elsewhere. (Hector Kawig)

20 / FOLKTALES

ACEH is a special autonomous Islamic territory in Indonesia located at the north-west tip of Sumatra Island.

Aceh is the only territory in Indonesia that imposes Sharia Law to its criminal law. It is famous for its combination of beautiful beaches and mountains. It has the widest range of biodiversity in the Asia Pacific Region. Aceh is also culturally diverse with ten indigenous ethnic groups occupying its territory. Extractive industries such as

cement and palm oil are prevalent in the area posing grave threat to the habitat of its unique animals such as the Sumatran rhino, the tiger and the orangutan. In 2004, an earthquake and tsunami hit the coasts of Aceh leaving around 170,000 people dead and missing. This event paved the way for a peace agreement between the Indonesian government and Free Aceh Movement (GAM) that gave the territory its autonomous status. (Hector Kawig)

UEDA CITY is located in the eastern part of Nagano Prefecture, almost at the center of Japan. It is a medium-sized city with a population of about 160,000.

The Chikuma River, the longest river in Japan, flows in the middle of the city. The area is rich in nature with two plateaus, Utsukushi-ga-hara (2034m) in the south and Sugadaira (1200m~1600m) in the north. Rice cultivation is thriving in the area, and beautiful rice fields can be seen spreading out like an original Japanese landscape. The weather is mostly sunny with little rainfall. Still, thanks to the rivers running through the city and our ancestors' many agricultural irrigation and reservoirs, we have never suffered from severe water shortages.

Buddhist culture has developed since the Kamakura period (1185-1333) and there are still many shrines, temples,

and cultural heritage sites in the city.

Bessho Onsen and Kakeyu Onsen are historical hot springs in the city and are popular tourist destinations.

Historically, sericulture had been the primary industry in the city. But it has since been replaced by the more technologically-advanced and resourceintensive machine and metal industries.

Now, the local economy is dependent on the manufacture of precision electrical machinery and other products.

In the Taisho period (1912-1926), the painter Kanae Yamamoto was assigned to the local school as an art teacher. The people's art movements, such as the Free Art Movement and the Peasant Art Movement, gained momentum. The spirit of the movement has been passed down to the present.

(Megumi Naoi)

21 / INTRODUCTION

WHAT I FELT:

22 / FOLKTALES

From the participants’ responses to the questionnaire August 8,2021 ZOOM Session

PARTICIPANTS’ REACTIONS TO THE ONLINE INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE JAPAN: UEDA TEAM The story of the Indonesian forest guardian who said, "Nowadays, the elephants don't talk to us anymore because the construction paving the roads has hurt their feet," really touched my heart. I wondered if we had done something irreversible. When did humans become so arrogant and ruthless that they regard nature as their enemy? How can we live with that? It left me wondering and with a lot of questions. (Rina Saito) I was particularly interested in the traditional arts and music. I would like to know more about the background, meaning, and how they are passed on. After watching the Indonesian team's presentation, I felt that it would be interesting to think more about how to present the play in a video format when presenting it online. (Wakana Yui) I was envious of the presentations from other countries as I felt that their folk arts stood out. We, too, have our traditions, such as taiko drumming and Bon festival dances, and I wanted to incorporate them into the theater, whether or not they were related to the story of the folktale. In the stories about elephants in Indonesia, it was new to me that they have a sense that elephants are their best friends and brothers in the forest. I wonder if this is similar to the Tsukumo-Gami (artifact spirit) and mountain gods I believed in as a child.

(Ryunosuke Eguchi)

23 / INTRODUCTION

What we take for granted is new to them, and of course, vice versa. It was challenging to share our local culture with strangers. Still, it was also exciting to make discoveries along the way. I wanted to see if we could act out folktales from other countries. The question that came to my mind was, "Do people living in this age treat non-humans as equals?

I can't say with confidence that I do. I am ashamed of that.

(Oto Kobayashi) Seeing the presentations from other countries made me think again about what folk performing arts are. I realized that as Japan has modernized, the indigenous performing arts and festivals have decreased. I have become even more motivated to be involved in local festivals and performing arts. I was happy to connect with people from other countries, even if not in real life. It made me want to know more about those countries and to feel closer to them and their people.

(Yuko Antoku/ Rinko Hime) The Philippines' "Ambakbak" was a direct social satire, but also connected to an appreciation of tradition, which showed courage. Indonesia's "Kite" had a fantastic atmosphere. The use of cell phones and projectors was new and had a clear message.

I was glad that the images projected made us aware of our interaction with each other, which is in line with the main purpose of this activity, "international exchange”. The Ueda team's work seemed to be more of an "escape from the current situation" or "self-satisfaction" than the other two countries', which made me feel a little young and embarrassed. It might have been better to face the theme a little more. However, I also felt that this is the national character of Japan. I am proud of the fact that there were adults on the acting side, so the opinions of the actors were directly reflected in the work. It may be a difficult balance. (Toshie Imai)

24 / FOLKTALES

I enjoyed expressing and communicating myself through theater. It was also a valuable experience to know that the people who saw it, including people from other countries, felt something and shared their thoughts with me. I have often suppressed my emotions; but now I feel that it is okay to express myself a little more naturally, just as I am. I think there are many things you can feel when you meet someone in person; but even online, I thought we could feel something, share our thoughts, and learn from each other.

(Yukino Isawa)

PHILIPPINES: BUGUIAS TEAM Introducing our folktales through theatre presentations to Indonesia and Japanese people was a great opportunity.

I did not only gain some experiences, but I realised I could also be an instrument to share the knowledge and beauty of my ethnicity. Folktales have been part of historical literature. I would like to use theater to make folktales known to more people. Folktales may be fictional, but we can learn something from them and reminisce about the past.

(Athena Manalog) When I watched the video of the theater presentations from the other countries, I was interested in how they presented it naturally with all the theatrical expressions. I’m curious about how they were trained to express those emotions. I look forward to another international exchange. (Iry Chaugnel Caweng)

25 / INTRODUCTION

INDONESIA: ACEH TEAM I thought that everyone from the Philippines and Japan would not like our performance and I was afraid that they would not feel satisfied after watching the performance. I really wanted to meet people from other countries in person, not online. I don't really like doing any online activities. (Alya Khairunisa) There were lessons to be learned from the folktales of the other two countries. From the Philippine folktale, we learned that we must appreciate and respect each other. And from the Japanese folktale, the lesson we can take is that "for anything we do in life, we must not give up on any challenges and we must keep the faith to follow a righteous path ". (Sulpi Wantika) I felt they were so fascinated about the story of “KITE” that I wanted to present the “KITE” live. For the story from the Philippines, Ambakbak, I have one question to ask, “why is this one family willing to accept immigrants while other families are not?” I do hope we all stay healthy so we can do more activities in the future. I hope we can meet in person in different places. (Laili Maulida) The presentation was amazing, and I was very happy to interact with friends from Japan and the Philippines, sharing our stories and introducing our folktales. I have some questions related to the presentations. I believe that they were fascinated to watch the story of “KITE” because we also felt the same way. Truthfully, I do hope that our event will be held in a live session instead of an online event, but we understand that with the situation, it is still not possible to do that. My friends and I are eager to visit Japan or to go to the Philippines so we can experience the culture, traditions, and places from which the legends and folklore were originally born. (Desi Anggriani)

26 / FOLKTALES

Aceh, Indonesia

Folktale Synopsis

Kite AGUS NUR AMAL TRANSLATED BY ASIH PURWANTI ILLUSTRATION: ISWADI BIN BASRI

This story shows an overlap between the past and the present.

In ancient times, a group of people went to the mountain to set up a new village. For that purpose, they flew a kite. They will wait until the kite falls. They will build their village at the place where the kite fell.

But after the village was established, playing kites became taboo. If it is violated, the entire village will be exposed to infectious diseases. This is the oath of the people of Kampung Delung.

The story jumps to the present time. One day, there was a child who was flying a kite. After that, many people in the village suffered some kind of a skin disease. Their bodies became so itchy.

The child who played the kite was then driven away from the village.

Back to the past. There is a story about the discovery of a skin disease medication. A mother went to the forest in search of medicine. She spent days in the forest, but she could not find any cure for the disease. One day she saw a white elephant whose legs were caught in a big tree. She then helped the elephant. The elephant showed gratitude by telling her the treatment for the disease.

Today, the world is worrying about the COVID-19 pandemic as many people are dying.

Finally, the mother from the past came to the present with the medicine.

She then shared a message that it is important to preserve the traditions and stories of our ancestors.

28 / FOLKTALES

The Participants

THE PARTICIPANTS FROM ACEH KAMELIYANI 17 years old, Gayo 3rd Grade, Public Vocational High School 5 Bener Meriah

We learned more about our legends from ancient times from this activity - legends that we have never known before.

My parents once told me about the story of Batu Belah (Cracked Stone), from Takengon. This story tells about a mother who was swallowed into a stone. When I first heard the story of “KITE”, I was amazed because the society can protect and respect these taboos until today, even the children also comply with this taboo. I feel very happy for the three-day activities and very proud to be part of the interaction with some new friends from the Philippines and Japan.

DESI ANGGRIANI 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade, Public Vocational High School 5 Bener Meriah

Frankly, I felt a little bit nervous, but I am very happy that I participated and was able to express myself during this theater workshop. I have heard the story "KITE", from Delung village. I often hear it from the elderly and before going to bed, my grandmother often told us this story as well. Besides this story of Delung village, there are also many other stories my grandmother told me. For example, the story of Batu Belah (Cracked Stone), Putri Pukes (Princess Pukes) and many more.

This story is very famous in our society. When I heard this story for the first time, I began to feel afraid to break the existing rules/taboos especially in our area (Gayo) which has so many similar taboos. Today we rarely help the elephants like the story in the video of "Old Forest Guard's Story", but some people still look for herbal plants from the forest.

30 / FOLKTALES

SULPI WANTIKA 18 years old, Gayo Integrated Senior High School Bustanul Ulum

I felt excited and happy when I participated in these activities for three days and I am very grateful to the trainers for guiding and teaching me. These activities gave me the opportunity to gain a broader experience and to meet other schools or people from the Philippines and Japan.

ALYA KHAIRUNISA 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade Public Vocational Senior High School 5 Bener Meriah

HAIKAL 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade, Integrated Senior High School (SMA) Bustanul Ulum

I had a great experience and I am also very happy to be able to express myself through a folklore performance.

Regarding the elephants that appeared in the story, nowadays it is rare for people asking help from the elephants because elephants are almost extinct. I was excited when I watched the “Old Forest Guard” story, and I was so deeply impressed by this perfect performance.

SAHIDUN 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade Integrated Senior High School Bustanul Ulum I felt the excitement for three days and I am very proud that I can interact with people from two countries. The story of “KITE" and its unique taboo is widely known to the people of Gayo and I have heard this story before from my mother. When I heard the story for the first time, I felt impressed right away.

This taboo shows us that whatever the local people prohibit us to do, we should not violate the rules.

31 / Aceh, Indonesia

SYUKRI 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade, Integrated Senior High School (SMA) Bustanul Ulum

I felt excited and happy for three days, and I am very grateful to the organizers and trainers who guided and taught me during the three-day workshop. Their training made me gain a very broad experience. I was also able to meet with other schools or people from the Philippines or Japan. In addition to the “KITE” story, my mother and my aunt told me a story of KEMANG (a supernatural being who preys on children aged 3 to 5 years who play in the farm). When I heard the story "KITE" for the first time, I instantly learned a lesson - that for any taboo in our society or family, we must not violate it and we should not play with those words because people’s words represent their wishes.

SURYA RIZKI 17 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade, Integrated Senior High School (SMA) Bustanul Ulum

We discussed the folklore of "KITE" so that it can be more interesting. We tried to satisfy the audience when they watched the performances of our group members. I had a great experience and I was also very happy to be able to express myself through the performance.

LAILI MAULIDA 16 years old, Gayo 2nd Grade, Public Vocational High School 5 Bener Meriah

This activity was indeed something new for me personally and I had a great experience. I am also very happy to get to know many people during the activities. It also gave me things I have never experienced before. We chose the “KITE” story after watching other interesting stories. We felt that “KITE” was the best story to be introduced to the outside world. There are lots of interesting things in the story and I find it really fascinating that our team members thought about the story for the performance so that the story can be presented and viewed by both local and foreign audiences. I hope we can be good people who will not forget our history and pay more attention to issues that are already ignored by young people nowadays.

32 / FOLKTALES

The Facilitator

SURVIVING IN THE THEATER WORLD

THROUGH STORYTELLING IN THE ACEH TRADITION Agus Nur Amal TRANSLATED BY ASIH PURWANTI

Excerpts from a ZOOM session with workshop participants in Ueda City (July 3, 2021)

33 / Aceh, Indonesia

My name is Agus Nur Amal. Agus means that I was born in August. Nur is an Arabic word for “light”. If Nur means light, Amal means doing charity, doing good deeds to others.

I was born in Pulau Weh, an island in the Province of Aceh.

Weh means “go”. It is a small island located outside the main island of Sumatra. I attended my elementary school in Pulau Weh; then I finished junior high school and high school on the same island. Since elementary school, I have already fallen in love with art, especially drama or theater. During middle school and high school, I became more and more infatuated with art, to the point where I didn't care about other subjects at school anymore. From middle school to high school, I only had one blank book. When one book was full, I bought more.

I did this repeatedly. Those books contain all the poetry and short stories I could write. I realized that I was not a good role model of students. After I finished high school, I went to Jakarta to study theater at the Institut Kesenian Jakarta (IKJ) or Jakarta Arts Institute. From Pulau Weh to Jakarta, it took about 2 hours and a half by plane. Attending college to study art, I realized that I had found myself, my dream, and my happiness.

WHERE DOES THE TUNE OF STORYTELLING COME FROM? Melody has always been part of my personal experience.

Since childhood, we have learned to read the Koran. There is a rhythm in reading the Koran, right? So, rhythm is always close to me. It is a matter of rhythm. I studied theater arts. I studied acting, especially drama, studied realism in acting, then... after college, I decided to go back to my village because I was interested in Aceh's traditional performing arts, which is called "Hikayat Aceh". I will later explain the reason. Now first I will explain the reason why I chose Hikayat. In the past, in the theater performing arts in Jakarta under the New Order regime, the teachers were required to first submit the script of the show to the government if they wanted to perform a show. Our manuscripts were then selected by the government.

34 / FOLKTALES

The government then decided whether a manuscript is allowed to be performed or not. At that time, improvisation was not allowed in theater performances. The performers had to memorize the text very well, and the show lost the interaction with the audience. As a result, theatrical performing arts in Indonesia at that time were more symbolic than natural. One of the ways for the performers to remain expressive would be a performance that is full of screaming voices, angry expressions and very loud music. Theatrical performances in Indonesia have become loud.

This, in my opinion, discouraged the audience from watching theatre performances. Therefore, I need to find an alternative form of theater that can encourage the audience to come and a theatre performance that can create an interactive environment with the audience. That is why I decided to return to Aceh when I finished my college. I wanted to study Hikayat Aceh.

WHAT IS HIKAYAT ACEH? To my knowledge, Hikayat Aceh is the art of storytelling about Aceh's history: stories of the kings of Aceh, stories of the creation of the islands in Aceh, stories of the birth of the villages in Aceh, and stories about family trees. Hikayat Aceh or stories of Aceh is delivered by one person with chanting. I learned about and studied Hikayat Aceh for one year. Then I stayed in the house of a master of Hikayat, the late Teungku Haji Adnan PMTOH. From him I learned Hikayat Aceh and tried to search for new forms of storytelling to apply my academic background. Hikayat is usually delivered by people telling stories through singing and the audience will listen and imagine the story. Then I expanded this method by starting to use things and objects. I was thinking of how to enhance the audience’s imagination. I tried to create a theatre-like style of storytelling that allows the audience to capture the imagination of the Penghikayat (storyteller).

I learned from the children who like to play with their toys. I combined the children’s fantasy with hikayat. This style became my PMTOH style show.

35 / Aceh, Indonesia

PMTOH stands for "Perusahaan Motor Transport Ondernemer Hasan" and is the name of a bus company. Mr. Teungku Haji Adnan, the master of Hikayat, imitated the song that was often played on this bus and did the storytelling, so the group that inherited his style is called PMTOH.

PERFORMANCE OF APPLYING HIKAYAT IN JAKARTA After that, I returned to Jakarta and tried to popularize my style of performance. It turned out that my show was accepted across groups and levels in Jakarta society. First, my shows are not rigid; they are fluid, entertaining, and highly imaginative.

Moreover, I use items such as a water dipper or a bucket so that housewives will like it. With those things, I can perform anywhere: in front of my house, in theaters, in hotels, in villages, in cities, in conflict areas and in disaster-struck areas. I go everywhere to do my show. Almost all my shows I perform spontaneously.

During the New Order era, I was probably the only artist who could perform spontaneously and survived because I said, “I am a spontaneous artist, Indonesian traditional theater is spontaneous. (The government said that) Indonesia is now encouraging the development of traditional Indonesian theater, I am part of the development." I survived with that justification.

POPULAR PERFORMANCE USING A CHARGER I want to explain about this. This stuff (battery charger) I played with in 1998 became very popular. I put this thing here, then wewww… weeew (as if I was electrocuted). Using this object, I symbolically explained to the wider community that there were arrests, torture of activists and students during 1998. This was very popular in 1998, I see. Many people just realized the message after watching a few shows of mine.

For example, "eee... this loro is plugged in here. Put it here, brrrr." After the show, the audience asked me, "what does that mean?". Then I explained that many activists and students in Indonesia until today never returned home. They don't know about the fact that the government had kidnapped students in 1998.

Using this object became an entry point for me to explain human rights issues in Indonesia - that a person should not be arrested without any reason, that people should not be tortured to obtain information. The audience then laughed and laughed; but then they said, "We should not be beaten by the police at their station. We should not just be arrested by the KODIM (the local office for the Army)." This is a very simple way to explain human rights.

From the Facilitator

COLLECTING AND PRESENTING THE STORY AGUS NUR AMAL TRANSLATED BY ASIH PURWANTI

THE FIRST DAY After a five hours trip from Bener Meriah Regency, the kids arrived in the office of Komunitas Tikar Pandan in Banda Aceh early in the morning.

The boys and the girls I believed must be great in singing and clapping hands in rhythm (this is called didong). And surely, they can perform our traditional dance called Saman Gayo dance (a dance that combines harmonious movements involving hands and body). I greeted them and shook their hands one by one. I can feel that they are eager to see some entertainment.

37 / Aceh, Indonesia

THE PROCESS OF GATHERING PANDEMIC-RELATED FOLK STORIES First, I asked the participants one by one to share the stories related to their coffee farms, chili farms, potato farms, and so on. Then they began to tell stories about their farms.

Then I asked the children to remember some folk stories about taboos. In turn, they narrated stories about various taboos. There are beliefs such as: they should not plant potato seeds when it rains because the potatoes would rot, that they should not cut their nails at night or that they are forbidden to scream in the forest, and so on.

Finally, that afternoon, I believe that they have shared lots of stories. I asked them to remember whether there was a story from their ancestors about a pandemic disease.

Then, one of them began to talk about the taboo against flying kites in the village of Delung. Well, here it is. After he finished telling the story, I asked the other participants to complete the story. Then we managed to build a story to be performed. I made an announcement that we were going to make a theatrical performance on the story about the taboo on flying kites. We had two days to practice.

That evening we moved from the office of Komunitas Tikar Pandan to the bungalow at the beach. Before going to

38 / FOLKTALES

bed, I sent a WhatsApp message to everyone to write down the storyline of the show and to select the actors.

THE SECOND DAY In the morning, the kids went for a walk on the beach.

They really wanted to see the sea even though it was raining and the wind was strong.

Meanwhile, the place available for us to practice was quite small and slippery because of the rain. These conditions made me think, “How can I make a special theatrical performance to be recorded in this small and slippery location?” Then I came up with a solution.

At 10.00 am, the kids returned to the bungalow from the beach. I invited them to practice slow-motion movements for 30 minutes. The slow-motion technique helps performers move on slippery stages and is excellent to be recorded with cameras.

At night the weather was getting calmer. I invited all the participants to demonstrate the storyline from the beginning to the end. It will begin with doing “didong” and will be closed by performing a Saman dance. We used a dining table as the center of the stage, the stairs of the house were set on the left

39 / Aceh, Indonesia

side of the stage and a long chair was placed on the right side of the stage. That was how I drew the setting.

While the performers were doing the reenactment of the scenes, I asked some questions to elevate the scene. For example, in the scene where the mother meets the elephant, I asked “How do you demonstrate the elephant?”. “Use a sarung cloth!”, the kids said. “How to describe the forest?” They said, “we use tree branches”. To show the scene of people getting itchy, I added the sound of a stone being hit.

That night we had finished all the scenes.

THE THIRD DAY The rain and the wind were getting stronger on the third day. The kids just stayed in their rooms. I gave a task for each kid to make a selfie video on how to respond to the COVID pandemic situation. While I prepared the setting for the show, such as a shadow screen, I included two Zoom recording videos from the Philippines and Japan so that we will have multi-visual footage in the show for everyone to feel the collaboration between Indonesia, the Philippines, and Japan.

In the afternoon I took some time to train the performers on how to use the microphone safely. This was important so that we can hear all performers’ voices clearly and the performers will feel comfortable in expressing their acting. They asked to

40 / FOLKTALES

use only Gayo language, not Bahasa Indonesia. I agreed with their wish.

In the evening the show was very quiet, accompanied only by the voice of frogs and earthworms outside. The performers played their parts naturally and expressed their lines naturally. Scene after scene continued in an understated manner featuring multi-dimensional past and present times using multi-visual effects.

After the show, the kids promised to write down all the words and songs into a drama script for them to play at school.

They admitted it was so easy to produce a performance show.

On the other hand, they are starting to realize that our society has so many folk stories that were taken for granted before but those stories have useful and relevant messages for today.

VIDEO PRODUCTION STAFF Director Agus Nur Amal

Videographer Dio/ Fauzan

Producer Yulfan

Production Accountant Sukmayati Sukarni

Production Director Azhari Production Assistant Reza Hendra Putra

Subtitle Putra Hidayaullah, Bahtiar Ariga

41 / Aceh, Indonesia

Narrator Muhammad Reza Rachmadhani Lighting Agut IT Consultant Falrullah Maulana Jufri Liaison Officer Harsa

From the Author

ABDULLAH, THE FOREST GUARDIAN AZHARI AIYUB TRANSLATED BY ASIH PURWANTI

During our stay in the Gayo highlands, we visited Abdullah's house twice. As a respected chief in the society, he is always very busy. The residents visit Abdullah to ask for his blessing and prayers almost on a daily basis. He usually leads ceremonies such as weddings, circumcisions, baby birth, and funerals. He works hard to maintain the traditions and the social life of the community living on the slope of Mount Burni Telong. These people are mainly Acehnese and Javanese and the Gayo ethnic group is the majority.

Mount Burni Telong is a volcano with an elevation of 2,617 meters above sea level and one of the active volcanoes located in the Sumatra Island belt. Due to its fertile soil, the residents grow Arabica coffee beans. They claim that their coffee is one of the best quality coffee beans in the world. If we take a day’s walk from Abdullah’s house, we will reach the edge of a residential area with a tropical rainforest rich in vegetation and home to groups of wild animals that have been listed as endangered species since decades ago. Nowadays, these animals are on the verge of extinction. The problem of wild animals’ being extinct in Sumatra Island remains unsolved until today and many believe that the source of the problem is the conflict between animals’ survival and human behaviors. The expanding extractive industrial plantations, especially the palm oil plantations in Sumatra, is believed to be the main cause in destroying the wildlife’s habitat.

Among these problems are the destruction of elephant corridors (elephants’ passage), narrowing the areas for tigers to hunt and a disruption of the natural food chain. These problems were identified by the absence of boundaries between human and wildlife territories. For the last twenty years, wild animals such as elephants, tigers, or bears are getting used to entering people's settlements and farms in several areas in Aceh. These animals left traces of destruction and, in some cases, directly attacked humans.

Abdullah was formerly known as a hunter. He did not mention the reason, but he is keeping a noose and a hunting rifle hung up for almost 25 years, following his decision to become a farmer. Although he seems to be secretive in telling the story of his hunting days, we can see that for a hunter, the boundaries are very important. The boundaries here refer to the limit when a hunter leaves a zone that belongs to humans and enters a zone where humans are no longer in charge, but a zone where the force of nature is the master.

It can be said that the tiger is the king of the jungle, so is the weather, even supernatural things, such as spirits, genies, or demons. According to Abdullah, a hunter can only survive and bring home their catch if he surrenders himself to nature. This is a conventional tradition; however, hunters need to learn from the previous generation to be shared to the next generation.

Maybe what Abdullah meant was what we called a hunter’s professional ethics.

Abdullah, for example, learned this lesson from his father who was also a hunter. He has followed his father since his childhood. They usually hunt for deer or any animal whose meat is edible. Their motivation to do hunting at that time was solely to meet their protein diet. Hunting was carried out in groups, consisting of 6-7 people to go to the hunting area near the villages. Usually after they get a deer, they immediately kill it and clean it, take a certain part of the meat to make soup, and eat the dish right away. The rest of the meat will then be distributed among them to bring home.

43 / Aceh, Indonesia

"O Tiger, don't you come down before we leave.”

"O Tiger, you may come down.”

ILLUSTRATION BY RAINEL LEE

44 / FOLKTALES

Tigers also hunt deer in the same hunting areas where Abdullah's group went hunting. The hunters were fully aware of the presence of the tigers, but Abdullah was not worried that the tigers would attack them, because they believed the tigers understood their purpose. A respected and experienced shaman usually accompanies the hunters to go hunting and the shaman will mention their purpose when they enter the forest. The shaman will use an ancient traditional Malay poetry as the language to send the message from the hunters. The shamans did not face the tigers physically, but they will send the message silently in their heart. They believe that the tigers are always watching over the hunters so the tigers will hear the messages. Abdullah said some words which means, "O Tiger, don't you come down before we leave”. The shaman will know when the tigers give their permission or not. Abdullah mentioned that the tigers allow them to catch one or two deers. After the deer had been captured and the hunters are about to leave the forest, the shaman would talk to the tiger once more. "O tiger," Abdullah imitated the words, "you may come down."

Abdullah described the tiger as a king with a charismatic personality for his powerful roar. A tiger's roar can stop anything. Monkeys hanging on tree branches can easily fall upon hearing the roar of a tiger. The wave of tiger roars could stop and bewilder a solid group of hunting dogs, as if hearing a magic spell.

Abdullah mentioned that such a spell no longer works in this modern day. The tiger will not hear any sound of the hunters. Why? According to Abdullah, there are at least two factors causing that phenomenon. Firstly, humans then started to hunt the tigers. Secondly, since the food supply in the forest has become increasingly limited, the tigers are having difficulties sharing the prey with humans. Human motivation in hunting has also changed. They hunt not to fulfill their protein diet, but they hunt for money or for trade instead.

"Now the tigers are no longer friends of humans," Abdullah said, "the tigers think that humans have betrayed them."

45 / Aceh, Indonesia

AZHARI AIYUB Azhari Aiyub is a writer born in Banda Aceh. He won the first prize in the short story writing competition held by the Indonesian Ministry of Education and Culture in 2003 and received the Free Word Award from the Poets of All Nation (PAN), Netherlands in 2005. His short story collections, Perempuan Pala and The Garden of Delights & Other Tales have been translated into English, French and German. He received fellowship from the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Amsterdam and Leiden in 2007 and was selected by the Indonesian Language Development and Fostering Agency (Badan Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa) as a resident writer in Mexico in 2015. His latest novel, Kura-kura Berjanggut (The Bearded Turtle) (Banana, 2018) won the 2018 Kusala Sastra Khatulistiwa in the prose category.

Aside from writing, Azhari founded the Tikar Pandan Community and the Dokarim Writing School. Along with several human rights activists in Aceh, he founded the Aceh Human Rights Museum in 2008.

He was entrusted by the Aceh Truth and Reconciliation Commission (Komisi Kebenaran dan Rekonsiliasi) to lead the Commission's final report on the alleged human rights violations and the impact of the 25 years of political conflict in Aceh.

46 / FOLKTALES

OLD FOREST GUARD’S STORY STORYTELLER: ABDUL KARIM BENER MERIAH, ACEH PROVINCE

People in the past were good. For fear of the tigers in the forest, they avoid lying and stealing other people’s treasure. When entering the forest, we greet the animals and tell them to keep their treasure and when we leave we tell them that they can untie their treasure. We do this to be safe from tigers or snakes.

We follow the water when we go up and down the mountain. We look at trees’ roots to tell us the direction of the sun. In the mountains we do not make a noise, or argue. Otherwise, we will only be going round in circles.

In the mountains, the animals are king. They know their territory better.

When looking for prey, the tiger examines a leaf. When it sees a human, it throws the leaf away and gets another. The tiger doesn’t like eating humans if it has a choice.

Elephants are united. They follow their leader on jalan gajah (elephant paths) and even accompany a dead one for ten days. The old elephants are fed by the younger ones, and when they die, they are buried under kayu empat (four fallen trees). If they have enemies, they pass this on to their progenies, keeping their secret in bamboo trees. We call them reje or abongkol (leader).

We ask for apology when we harm them, call for them when we get lost, or even tell them to back off. Now, we can no longer communicate with them.

We have wounded their feet with the nails placed on road constructions. They die from eating the pesticides we humans use. When one of them dies, the rest would attack a village or destroy a farm.

We have two charmers in the mountains: pawang tua (old charmer) and pawang setia (loyal charmer). The father left home when his son was born to look for a pregnant deer before naming the child. Failing to find one, he did not return and stayed on in the forest. When his son grew up, he sought his father in the forest and stayed with him. Today, people go to the forest to seek their help while others follow God’s directions.

47 / Aceh, Indonesia

OLD FOREST GUARD’S STORY PRODUCTION STAFF Storyteller: Abdul Karim Researchers: Fauzan Santa, Azhari Aiyub, Muhammad Yulfan Harsa, Muhammad Reza Videographer: Suhardiyono Production Organization: Komunitas Tikar Pandan, Banda Aceh, Indonesia

The Partners and Staff

ACEH'S NGO KOMUNITAS TIKAR PANDAN STARTED IN THE WAKE OF THE CONFLICT Excerpts from a ZOOM session with workshop participants in Ueda City (July 3, 2021)

My name is Yulfan. I am the program manager of the Tikar Pandan community, Aceh. I will briefly introduce Tikar Pandan and the history behind its establishment.

Tikar Pandan is a cultural organization that was founded in 2003 when Aceh was still an area of conflict. Until 2003, there had been a long-term conflict between the Aceh people and the government of Indonesia. The victims of this conflict were mostly women, children, and civilians. The dispute was essentially triggered by the political disagreement between the Acehnese and the government of Indonesia in Jakarta. Tikar Pandan then took part in facilitating the end of violence and building peace in Aceh. We employed art as one method to spread the values of peace and democracy.

Then, in 2004, an earthquake and tsunami disaster hit Aceh.

At that time, Tikar Pandan was still scattered and the members were working individually to survive. It was only in 2005 that we met again and decided to merge as one organization to work on activities to help the trauma healing for the disaster victims. We also helped the children who were victims of conflict.

We help these children to reunite and endure their violent past, encouraging them to have hope and purpose for their future.

We use art as our methodology. For example, we use PMTOH style in storytelling, dance, and music.

49 / Aceh, Indonesia

Our work continued to focus on villages which were severely hit by tsunami or villages in disaster-affected areas. We focus on how to rebuild those villages and to re-strengthen society after their social structure had been shattered by the disaster.

We are also working on how to set up a human rights museum as a reminder for all generations in Aceh that we survived from a devastating disaster that happened 10 or 20 years ago.

Until now, we still exist and continue to work on humanitarian programs and disaster mitigation programs to be published in the form of comics and films. Finally, we also focus on the outer islands of Aceh. In 2015, along with the children who study music and children from Nusa, a village Tikar Pandan has been working with, we visited Ofunato, Iwate, Japan. The purpose of our visit was to share experiences on how art can be an instrument to inspire the spirit of life, to generate optimism, and to exchange stories about the tsunami in Aceh and the tsunami in Ofunato.

In 2009, Yulfan visited the Cordillera with memberss of Komunitas Tikar Pandan.

The photo was taken in Kiangan, Ifugao.

50 / FOLKTALES

Cordillera, Philippines

51 / Cordillera, Philippines

Folktale Synopsis

Ambakbak

A folktale of Buguias, Benguet and Tinoc, Ifugao, Philippines STORYTELLING: JULIA ASUSANO RESEARCH: ROGER FEDERICO ILLUSTRATION: MEET-AN

Long ago, in a small community, there was a family who often had visitors.

Back then, the people were afraid of outsiders so they did not allow them into their homes. The community saw that this family welcomed strangers into their small house. Even travellers who pass by the area go straight to this family’s house to rest. Fearing their own safety, the community decided to tell the family to leave. They refused and continued to receive visitors. This made the community members even more furious. The people came and whipped the couple with napier grass, as if they were urchins. The two children stood watching their parents being punished. Eventually, feeling outcast, the family left. The community burned down their house to turn into a garden. They soon noticed that the ground was always wet. And exactly where the children stood crying, there formed two mounds of earth. This place is now called Ambakbak.

The water coming out of the land is clean. Later in the 1900’s some people bulldozed the area when they were looking for treasure. The place where there used to be two mounds is now a road. But there still is a part of the area that they cannot cultivate because water comes out of it.

52 / FOLKTALES

They soon noticed that the ground was always wet.

When they finally put down their basket, the girl stood up. The old couple were surprised but also thankful because they were childless.

She told them where she came from and how she became a cicada.

“My name is Ginnanayan but you can call me Sitan.

54 / FOLKTALES

Folktale Synopsis

Sitan

A folktale of the Kalinga community in Mankayan, Benguet, Philippines STORYTELLING: MELINDA ROSITO RESEARCH: KEVIN ROSITO ILLUSTRATION: MEET-AN

A family was living in a remote area in the mountain. They had no neighbors. For food, they planted rice and vegetables and took care of chickens and pigs for meat. The mother got sick and died leaving the father and their only daughter.

Years passed and the father, too, died of an illness.

After burying her father beside her mother’s grave, the child was filled with grief and cried to herself, “What will I turn into so that I will survive?”. “I wish to become a bird”, she said. But, nothing happened.

She wished to become a mouse, then a chicken but she remained the same. When she heard the sounds “ssst” “ssst”, she wished to become a sitan.

At this, she flew away and arrived at a rice field where she found people. She landed on a leaf and started singing “Ssiit, ssiit, someone please take care of me, I have no more mother and father.” But the people rejected her because she was too small to be of help. However, an old couple who went to harvest rice heard her song and put the insect in their basket. As they went towards their granary, the old man noticed his load becoming heavier. When they finally put down their basket, the girl stood up. The old couple were surprised but also thankful because they were childless. She told them where she came from and how she became a cicada. “My name is Ginnanayan but you can call me Sitan.”

The old couple insisted to call her Ginnanayan and treated her as their own child. Years later she got married and the old man and woman passed on.

55 / Cordillera, Philippines

Folktale Synopsis

Gumallingan A folktale of Tubo, Abra, Philippines STORYTELLING: PATRICIA DAMUASEN RESEARCH: LEEMAR DAMUASEN ILLUSTRATION: MEEKO KOIKE

Two young kids were quarrelling about their cell phone when the power went out. Their grandmother told them to sit and listen to her story instead. In the theatre performance, this scene is played in between the reenactment of an abridged version of the folktale.

A long time ago, Gumallingan was watching over their kaingin while her father Abnagan went to prepare fish traps. Gumallingan chanted for the rains so his father may have a good catch. At that moment, the rivers rose. With plenty of fish caught, Abnagan sent his wife Bugan to bring food for Gummallingan. On her way, Bugan chanted for the fog to hide her while she ate the food herself. Gumallingan was saddened to find that her stepmother had given her fishbones and burnt rice. She hung the fishbones in the scarecrow and kept the burnt rice in a basket. The same happened the next day. The third time, Abnagan decided to visit his daughter. Gumallingan instructed the trees, the grass and the bamboo hut to respond in her stead.

Abnagan called for Gumallingan to eat. He heard some reply but she was nowhere to be found. He searched the bamboo hut and found a bird in the basket under the bed. Abnagan called for his daughter to come home.

Time passed and the bird Gumallingan found a lad named Gatan fixing the roof of his hut. She teased him. Irritated, Gatan trapped the bird. Everyday, he went to work on his kaingin and came home to find the house work done for him. Determined to find out how, he set out for his kaingin as usual but returned earlier and discovered it was Gumallingan. They visited her father Abnagan who has been ill. After hearing her story, Abnagan decided to send the evil Bugan away. Abnagan blessed the marriage of Gumallingan to Gatan and they lived happily.

56 / FOLKTALES

She teased him. Irritated, Gatan trapped the bird. Everyday, he went to work on his kaingin and came home to find the house work done for him. Determined to find out how, he set out for his kaingin as usual but returned earlier and discovered it was Gumallingan.

57 / Cordillera, Philippines

Folktale Synopsis

Dagdagimoyo A folktale of Kibungan, Benguet, Philippines STORYTELLING: ALMA DAYSO RESEARCH: LYNETTE CARANTES-BIBAL ILLUSTRATION: MEEKO KOIKE

A long time ago, there lived a poor man named Dagdagimoyo. Whenever he attended a canao (thanksgiving feast), they always gave him the skin and fat and never the meat. Because the people did not respect him, he went into the forest to find his luck. He wandered through the forest and soon got hungry.

The suybo tree pitied him and offered its fruits. After eating his fill, he heard some noise coming from monkeys marching toward him. He climbed down the tree and pretended to be dead. The monkeys saw him and thought he was actually dead when he didn’t react to the ants they placed in his anus. They painstakingly carried Dagdagimoyo into their cave and instructed little Ak-aki to watch over him. While the other monkeys were away hunting for pig and looking for wood to make his coffin, Dagdagimoyo stood up and managed to trick little Ak-aki into showing him where they kept their treasure. Hungry, he also ate the food that was already cooking. He even cooked the little monkey in place of the food he ate. He rushed out of the cave taking with him the monkeys’ solibao and set of gongs. When the monkeys returned, they thought that little Ak-aki was clever enough to cook Dagdagimoyo. But they soon found out it was the opposite and quickly ran after Dagdagimoyo. Dagdagimoyo convinced a spider to spin a web to hide him from the pursuing party. Unable to find him, the monkeys went home miserable. Dagdagimoyo went back home and knocked on the door of their house. When the wife didn’t believe he was the husband who left a long time ago, Dagdagimoyo beat his solibao and the wife opened the door to him. Having those possessions, they were now able to hold a canao and the elders treated him well whenever he attended a gathering.

58 / FOLKTALES

...they thought that little Ak-aki was clever enough to cook Dagdagimoyo. But they soon found out it was the opposite...

Introduction of Participants

INTRODUCTION OF PARTICIPANTS From Buguias Team "Ambakbak" What things are important in your community?

FEDERICO, IAN RAYE C. 13, Kankana-ey Loo National High School

1. Nature. Without nature, then there would be no beautiful scenery.

2. Facemask. Without facemasks, we cannot protect ourselves from the COVID-19 Pandemic.

3. Clothes to keep us warm.

ASUSANO, KEVIN C. 13, Kankana-ey Loo National High School

1. Mountains. We need the mountains to protect us from strong typhoons. They grow trees that give us oxygen to survive.

2. Water. Without water, plants will not survive, and people will die.

3. House. They shelter us so that we can

CAWENG, JUNRIE UI FAREISE MANALOG 15, Kankana-ey San Isidro School of Abatan Incorporated

1. Guava leaves. They are more useful than aloe vera because I remember using this plant when my mom and I tested positive with COVID-19. We used the leaves as suob (traditional way of medication similar to the idea of sauna).

Because of this plant, I believe we were healed.

2. Money. They say money runs the world, but this money cannot buy everything, such as happiness and love.

3. Cell Phone. We use phones to communicate and keep updated, especially today that we are experiencing the pandemic.

TALABIS, ARELLA VALEEN B. 13, Kankana-ey San Isidro School of Abatan Incorporated

1. Light- sunlight, moonlight, flashlight, bulb, etc. If there's no 60 / FOLKTALES

light, then we can't see, especially those who are blind. If there's no light, they will have difficulty in determining if it is day or night.

2. Plants such as trees and flowers provide us oxygen, and without oxygen, we die.

3. We human beings are also important. If we are alone, then there's no point in living in this world. If we are alone, then we would be walking alone. Having no one to communicate with, we would not know what to do and say.

MADANES, FRANZEIN RAYE 14, Kankanaey Loo National High School

1. Clothes. Without clothes, then we are all naked now.

2. Vehicle. Without a vehicle, then we cannot go to places we want to go to.

3. Gas. Without gas, then the vehicle won't move.

MANALOG, ATHENA D. 15, Kankana-ey Loo National High School

1. The proper dumping site of any waste where it can be recycled and reused. I observed that most citizens burn or just throw their garbage around. This can cause severe problems in our community and the environment.

2. Internet connection for all. In today's situation, most of the transactions needed for education and work are more accessible with the help of the internet.

3. Communication is also important in remote areas with no network signal to send a text message to your relatives or call out for help.

4. Proper drainage and canals to prevent floods that can be a hindrance every rainy season.

CAWENG, SHINDLER CLYXKZ M. 11, Kankana-ey Loo Elementary School

1. Gadgets like a mobile phone. Due to this pandemic, we cannot go out and interact with others. Instead, we use our mobile phones to be updated on what is going on in our society or environment.

2. Money. Money makes the world go round. Money is an excellent motivation for some people. Lastly, money is essential because this is what we use to live.

61 / Cordillera, Philippines

3. Books (academic). This is important because it helps nurture our minds. After all, education is essential. Also, this is one way of relaxing and spending time wisely.

SIPI-AN, RONNEL DWAYN L. 14, Kankana-ey Loo National High School

1. Land. It is very rich in minerals which we use in many gadgets. The land also provides us space for gardening and for building houses that shelter us.

2. Vehicles. Cars are significant because we use them to travel and transport our local produce in the trading post. Vehicles reduce manpower and also help make our work easier.

3. Furniture. It makes our life easier, and they provide aesthetics for our house.

SAGPA-EY, SHERWOOD B. 14, Kankana-ey Loo National High School

1. Sunlight keeps our body warm.

2. Roofs protect us from the heat of the sun so that we will not get sunburns.

3. Trees are important because we use them to build houses.

TALABIS, ADREE VIEN B. 11, Kankana-ey San Isidro School of Abatan Incorporated

1. Succulent. My mother sells her plants for money and as I have observed, selling plants has been a business in our locality 2. Eco-bag. Using eco-bags reduces garbage, especially singleuse plastic bags. Moreover, these are tougher, more resilient, and are made of 100 percent biodegradable materials.

3. Vehicles. They provide us comfort and reduce the time of travel.

CAWENG, IRY CHAUGNEL M.

13, Kankana-ey San Isidro School of Abatan Incorporated

1. Slippers (Any footwear). Slippers protect our feet when we walk. Without slippers, it would be very difficult to walk on muddy roads and hot pavements.

2. Electric Posts. They connect electricity so that we have light in our homes when it gets dark.

3. Plants. They provide us with oxygen and food.

62 / FOLKTALES

Introduction of Participants

From Mankayan Team "Sitan"

BACACAO, IAN COLE

17, Kalinga Lepanto National High School

From this folktale “Sitan”, I learned that we can’t judge a person by its cover and that we must take care of our environment.

DAPIAWEN, XARDERLY JUNE 13, Kalinga Tabio National High School

During the process of the workshop, I discovered how to be generous and kind to others. The most impressive part is our teamwork.

BULAWIT, MARIA LUISA D. 13, Kalinga Lepanto National High School

In the process of creating the play, we discussed teamwork and about emotions. Prior to the workshop, I did not have that much interest in caring about the environment. However, after taking part in the play, I now know the importance of maintaining our environment.

MALAGGAY, CLAUDINE B. 12, Kalinga Tabio National High School

When I first heard of this folktale, I was shocked but I also felt happy in the end.

GAYAWET, CRIZEL 11, Kalinga-Kankanaey Sapid Elementary School

For me, the most impressive part of this play is when Ginannayan was adopted.

63 / Cordillera, Philippines

MALAGGAY, CHARLOTTE B. 16, Kalinga Tabio National High School

When I first heard of this folktale, I felt curious and got extra excited to listen to the whole story. As I portrayed Sitan, I realized we needed to value our parents because when they are gone, it will be difficult, and we may experience suffering.

We also need to keep the environment at its best because our actions will bounce back.

NGAOSI, JUNBEO D. 11, Kalinga-Kankanaey Tabio National High School

For me, the most impressive part of this play is when Ginanayan became a Sitan.

BULAWIT, LEIMARIE

15, Kalinga Lepanto National High School

In the process of creating the play, we discussed how to make it very interesting and how to act the role. After the workshop, I wanted to take care of our environment and I will start to clean my surroundings. I will also not throw garbage in the river.

TONGDO, WELA 16, Kalinga Lepanto National High School

When I first heard this folktale, I got curious about how life was a long time ago. I am so thankful because some of my friends invited me to join this workshop and it helped build my confidence.

DULLIPAS, RYAN ESTEEVE M.

15, Kalinga Tabio National High School

During the process of the workshops, there were many moral lessons from the story. For example, when Sitan (Ginanayan) lost her parents, we must not lose hope and we should not give up because in the end, our suffering will end and will not be permanent.

64 / FOLKTALES

Introduction of Participants

NGAOSI, JUDEL D.

14, Kalinga-Kankanaey Tabio National High School

I felt curious and excited when I first heard the story. I felt excited hearing the story because I imagined who would be playing the character and role of the trees, rocks, and animals.

The difficulties I faced during this workshop happened during practice since we needed to protect ourselves from the virus.

We had to wear face masks while maintaining social distance.

DOMINGUEZ, JERIMAR A. 14, Kalinga Tabio National High School

For this project, I heard folktales about many ghosts in the forest. It was difficult to find time to practice and I had to wear a mask all the time but I enjoyed the workshop especially the final performance.

From Abra Team "Gumallingan"

WAGAYEN, HONEY LEE KISMET M.

AMBRE, XHYSLYN LORIEMAR B.

14, Tingguian/Maeng

14, Tingguian/Maeng

Tiempo National High School

Tiempo National High School

DANGNGAY, MARK DHEVANIE

DAMASEN, FEBELYN B.

15, Tingguian/Maeng

16, Tingguian/Maeng

Tiempo National High School

Tiempo National High School

65 / Cordillera, Philippines

LUGATIMAN, REGINE C.

CAMILING, KRISTEL DEBY

22, Tingguian/Maeng

14

College Graduate/ASIST Bangued Campus

Tiempo National High School

ALMAZAN, ROSELYN MAE C.

CATRIZ, ALJEN FHIL

16, Tingguian/Maeng

13

Tiempo National High School

Tiempo National Highschool

LAWAGUEY, HEAVEN B.

GUIL-AD, PRINCE ZYLEX KENEDY B.

16, Tingguian/Maeng

13, Tingguian/Maeng

Tiempo National High School

Tiempo National High School

SALBIO, JAMES RAVEN

IDONG, DENISE ASHLEY C.

13, Tingguian/Maeng

14, Tingguian/Maeng

Tiempo National High School

Tiempo National High School

66 / FOLKTALES

The Facilitators

INTRODUCTION OF FACILITATORS FEDERICO, ROGER (AMBAKBAK FACILITATOR) Roger Federico is a member of the Northern Kankana-ey ethnolinguistic group in the Cordillera. In 2017, he was the only Filipino participant in the Theater for Young Audiences Program held in Okinawa, Japan. He was a Visiting Student Scholar to Flinders University in South Australia in 2020 and has recently graduated from the University of the Philippines Diliman with a Master of Arts degree in Theatre Arts.

For several years now, he has been involved in the Cordillera Green Network’s environmental theater projects.

He also directed several community theatre plays staged in the Cordilleras and in Manila. As a theatre practitioner, his interests include indigenous knowledge, systems, and practices as well as cultural performances.

Aside from theater, he is also engaged in film as an actor and member of the production design team in the awardwinning short “Tokwifi”. He also wrote and directed “Dad-an en Ina (A Mother’s Journey)”.

DAMUASEN, LEEMAR (GUMALLINGAN FACILITATOR) Leemar T. Damuasen, a student teacher at the Mountain Province Polytechnic State College in Tadian, is a theater artist and an instrumentalist. He is an active member of the Aanak di Kabiligan Community Based-Theater Group and the Cordillera Green Network. He performed in theater productions locally and in Nagoya, Japan in 2011. He represented the Tingguians of Abra during the Dayaw Festival organized by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts in 2015. He performed in the staging of the legend, “The Tale of Ayo" (Goddess of Music). He was also part of the cast of "Balitok: Voices from the Mines”, a documentary play shown at Makati City, Philippines and Aceh, Indonesia in 2017 and of “Payo", a play shown at Ueda City, Nagano, Japan during the Ueda Street Arts Festival in 2018. He is currently the adviser of Abra TingguianIloko Cultural Ensemble (ATICE), a cultural performing group of Tingguians and Ilokanos from the different colleges of Abra.

67 / Cordillera, Philippines

ROSITO, KEVIN (SITAN FACILITATOR) Kevin D. Rosito is a teacher, theater artist and a community event organizer. He is also an active member of Aanak di Kabiligan Community-Based Theater Group and Cordillera Green Network. He performed in several theater productions including a monologue entitled "Pedagogy: The Art of Teaching'' at Cordillera Career Development College during its 1st Arts Festival in 2020. He was a part of the cast of "Balitok: Voices from the Mines”, a documentary play shown at Makati City, Philippines and Aceh, Indonesia in 2017 and of “Payo", presented at Ueda City, Nagano, Japan during the Ueda Street Arts Festival in 2018.

He is passionate in facilitating theater workshops for and about his community in the Cordillera region and also in sharing these to audiences in other local and international communities.

CARANTES-BIBAL, LYNETTE GRACE (DAGDAGIMOYO FACILITATOR) Lynette Bibal is an acting coach, a speech trainer, and an English teacher who utilizes drama as a learning and teaching tool. She has taught extensively in various universities in the Philippines and in South Korea as an instructor in Theatre Arts, Speech Communication, Humanities and English Language. She has also designed a curriculum for theater drama and training modules on confidence building and English proficiency. Since 2018, she has been a consultant for Developmental Theatre and Corporate Training Management, Navigant Research and Analysis Services. An active resource person on indigenous theatre, she heads the committee on skills development and arts program at Milan National High School. Some of her projects include: “Shi Dugad Mi” (2018) and “Edafoan: A Creative Interpretation of the History of Benguet” (2018). She has also been part of Cordillera Green Network’s environmental theater projects.

WORKSHOP & VIDEO PRODUCTION - CORDILLERA STAFF Production Manager & Coordinator: Mariko Sorimachi Videographer & Editor: Rainel Lee, SDS Multimedia Photographer: Gladys Maximo Documenter: Sacha Garah Jasmin

68 / FOLKTALES

Translator for subtitles: Rainel Lee (English) Noriko Iizuka (Japanese) Mariko Sorimachi (Japanese) Ami Meutia (Bahasa Indonesia) Mayu Suzuki (Japanese) Midori Hirota (Bahasa Indonesia) Anastasya Wulandari Hasyim (Bahasa Indonesia)

no Julia Asusa e story, recounts th uguias, (B ak Ambakb Tinoc, d Benguet an o) ga Ifu

Rudy Lugao

Alicia Cabinta relates stories about a temengaw (unseen spirit in the school (Buguias, Benget) Magno Dangpa telling the story of Tiking Aguindang (Buguias, Benguet)

of Fred Lugnas narrates the story ga) Banna and Ginnanayan (Pasil, Kalin

STORYTELLERS

story Patricia Damuasen relates the r of Gumallingan,as told by her fathe (Tubo, Abra)

e en retells th Janet Gaew r r grandfathe he m fro y stor a t ou ab s Malione Mt. Kitongan temengaw at nguet) (Buguias, Be

Alma Dayso tells the story of Dagdagimoyo

Tessie Lyn ne Dulipas chants a p of Umaliw art of the and Ang-is story u (Pasil, K alinga)

Melinda Rosito narrates the story of Sitan (Pasil, Kalinga)

From the Facilitators

CHALLENGES AND DISCOVERIES IN CONDUCTING A COMMUNITY-BASED THEATRE WORKSHOP IN THE TIME OF PANDEMIC Roger Federico

Theatre activities have been very challenging with the existing circumstances brought by COVID-19. Mobility is limited and people cannot freely gather in a space and share the liveness and true essence of a theatre performance. Compared to a recorded performance, I still believe that it is essential for theatre plays to be performed live as they create a different experience among the performers as well as the audience.

How then can we create theatre performances when it is impossible to gather people in one space? This is the current conversation among theatre practitioners because internet connection is very challenging in most parts of the country. It is still blurry as to how we can migrate from the physical theatre

70 / FOLKTALES

stage to the virtual stage. As a community-based theatre practitioner, I am also dealing with these circumstances in order to continuously stage performances amid the pandemic.

In our area, which is Buguias, a municipality of Benguet Province, a maximum of 20 individuals are allowed to gather within the premises of the school especially that we are working with students below 18 years old. Even if it’s the case, we managed to gather 9 high school students and 2 elementary pupils. We had face-to-face theatre workshops as it is impossible for us to use online platforms due to slow internet connection in our area. We meet every Sunday afternoon as it is the most suitable time for the students as some of them have to go to church and others to their vegetable farms in the morning.

Most of the activities given to the participants were exercises to improve the level of their voice, to magnify their movements, and to enhance their imagination. We also had theatre games that helped improve their decision-making, focus, and presence of mind as these are needed during performances.

In the succeeding workshops, the participants shared about the things that they have in their community which are essential in their day-to-day transactions. These things also introduce the geographical and topographical conditions of their community.

DAD-AT: COMMUNITY SHARING OF LOCAL STORIES Indigenous communities are very rich in stories. These stories function to educate the children about important values they have to learn as they grow up. Also embedded in these stories are relevant cultural practices and historical accounts of the community. These stories come in different forms as most of which were based on the experiences of the earlier inhabitants that survived through time. Thus, the participants shared stories they heard from their parents, relatives, neighbors, and even read from books and online resources.

During the sharing, I myself was surprised that stories about unseen entities such as spirits of dead ancestors or anitos (unseen creatures) are common in Buguias. These stories offered a clear understanding on how close the relationship of the people is with their surroundings. For instance, rituals are being performed and animals are being sacrificed in order to appease the unseen entities they might have offended. Unforeseen incidents like unexplainable sickness of a community member can be seen as caused by an action that angered their dead ancestors or spirits living in the environment. Thus, a ritual must be performed.

71 / Cordillera, Philippines

Theater Performance Synopsis

AMBAKBAK Cordapio, an overseas worker in Spain, has recently returned to his home in the Cordillera, Philippines. His family welcomes him and his children happily eat the chocolates he has bought them.

Meanwhile, news of rising cases of COVID-19 across countries blast the radios and televisions in Cordapio’s hometown. The neighbors talk about the return of Cordapio and fears he and his family might spread the virus in their town. The store owners won’t sell their bread to Cordapio and Marites’s daughter.

To make matters worse, rumors spread that the cousin of Marites, who visited the family of Cordapio and asked for some chocolates, has fallen ill. With the news highlighting many more cases of Covid in Spain, the neighbors then decided to tell the family to leave. Cordapio explains that he had tested negative prior to returning home but the neighbors were unyielding. By this time Lolo Solano came to inquire about the commotion. He told the family to extend their understanding and move to the quarantine facility prepared for them.

Some people went to their home to disinfect the place and found near it a damp area in the ground. Warm water came out. Those who found the strange occurrence consulted Lolo Solano. Lolo Solano said that it is a good fortune from Kabunian. In the past, they bathe in this kind of water and inhale the steam (suob) for healing. He told the people that they should visit the family who lived in that place to thank them and also to ask for their forgiveness. He also reminded the people to take care of the water source so it won’t dry up.

The same neighbors visited Cordapio’s family to make peace with them and to give them groceries and vegetables. Weeks passed and the family held a feast to thank Kabunian for keeping them safe and for giving them the water for healing.

72 / FOLKTALES

In the following workshops, the other participants also shared the stories they researched. This time, the content of the stories was different as they talk about real experiences of people. The stories are passed on from one generation to the other through oral tradition like the famous “Legend of Apo Anno” (also a published material) that tells the story of a great hunter, leader, and warrior named Anno. Due to his valuable contributions in the community, he was mummified and it is believed that he was the first to have undergone the process of mummification. Another story, entitled “Tiking Aguindang”, tells of Aguindang who was accidentally taken by a big bird locally called as “toldo” to its nest. The bird was after the meat inside Aguindang’s rattan backpack and as it took the meat, Aguindang was taken with his backpack. When Aguindang died, his coffin was placed on top of the mountain which was believed to be the nest of the big bird. I also shared the story I researched entitled “Ambakbak” which was eventually the story that we staged for this project.

THE CHALLENGE TURNED-OUT TO BE AN ADVANTAGE During our sharing of local stories, I observed that only few participants are interested in learning about them. One reason for this lack of interest was their addiction to online games like Mobile Legends, which I admit held their attention during our workshop sessions. It was challenging to get their attention every time we started our activities because they are very hooked on their games. I was saddened to see how technology has affected the performance of the youth today - much different from my previous engagements in theatre workshops. However, there’s also a positive impact of technology as it was easier for the participants to act out what is needed from them because they have a lot of references readily available online. For instance, during

73 / Cordillera, Philippines

our brainstorming for their final performance, the internet was very useful in order to give them an idea on the current events happening around the world due to COVID 19. Thus, it became easier for us to make an adaptation of the “Ambakbak”.

In the process of creating their final performance, I saw that the interest of the participants grew as they were able to relate to the original story. This is proof that the worldview found in folktales doesn’t have a timeframe and that it spans generations. I incorporated in the play the challenge thatI faced with the participants addiction to online games. Had I known earlier that this kind of activity is what they love to do, then I would have allotted much time in the process of creating performances.

Even though we had a limited time towards the last phase of the project, I can still say that the participants enjoyed the workshop as they expressed their interest to be part of theatre projects in the future, if any.

A NEW DISCOVERY As a community facilitator in this theatre project, I realized how theater is essential in our lives after attending online workshops with international theatre facilitators, and continuing the conversations about how we create theatre at present.

Theatre, especially the process, was a rehearsal of reality and perhaps life.

It is where we experiment with certain things using our imagination and put them together through an art form that would encourage further explorations with the audience. I referenced this idea when I watched the performance of Indonesia where I saw how theatre can be powerful in breaking boundaries and offer a space where we could acknowledge each other’s differences and similarities. Moreover, I believe their performance offered a new conversation in theater making. Though I haven’t seen their entire process of creating the performance, it has come to my attention how we could also produce performances by taking advantage of our

74 / FOLKTALES

situation of not meeting face-to-face. Maybe, this is a new form of performance that we could explore in the future.

Furthermore, it was also timely that this project’s focus was on folktales as most of the local stories have a universal language which are still applicable in our present time. The values that we learned from these stories do not change over time and they are being reinforced as we are facing new and more difficult challenges. These stories remind us about the importance of our intimate relationship with our environment and with the unseen entities which we must recognize and preserve.

This project was able to use the old (oral tradition through storytellers) and new (online platforms) forms of storytelling.

The traditional is interwoven with the contemporary.

From the Facilitators

LESSONS FROM “SITAN”: A THEATRE WORKSHOP IN THE KALINGA COMMUNITY OF SAPID, MANKAYAN Kevin Rosito

The project entitled “Communitybased Environmental Theater Workshop 2021” has taught many lessons that we reflected upon. Our team’s story, "Sitan", has been our foundation in achieving our goal for this project.

In our story, the orphaned girl who turned into Sitan was rejected by some villagers whom she approached when looking for someone to take care of her.

She begged them to care for her but they turned her down. Fortunately, an old couple showed her sympathy. This kind of setting in the story of Sitan is very much related to our present environmental problems that we are experiencing because of our negligence of our environment. We fail to see that our environment needs much

care from us human beings. We overlook many environmental issues like flooding of rivers, streets, waste canals and landslides in the mountain communities, and unpredictable weather that causes health problems. As humans, we are part of this larger and complex environment that what happens to it will also affect us.

Our workshop began with basic theater training. This included emotion tests, body movement, voice and breathing exercises etc. While we explored other theater works, we always referred to our story “Sitan” in visualizing and creating scenes, images, and activities for the workshop.

For example, we used trees that we imagined inside the village for body

76 / FOLKTALES

movement. We developed sounds of animals and insects that we can hear in the environment - like in the rice terraces where the family of the girl who turned into a “sitan” lived. We made a tableau depicting villagers in their environment.

These are some of the activities that I did with my participants. Also, our workshop sessions were conducted mostly in the month of July which is a rainy season.

We remember encountering Typhoon Fabian that caused floods and landslides in the mountain communities including in La Trinidad, Benguet. We have seen its effect on TV reports and pictures on Facebook. During our workshop sessions, we talked about these environmental problems that affect us human beings.

We reflect on what is happening to our neighboring communities in relation to our current actions.

The pandemic also urged us to stay at home and attend school online or through modules. My participants shared their insights on what the pandemic has taught them. They missed attending schools and missed their

friends. After all our sharing, I concluded that our lessons - giving importance to everything around us, our environment, our fellow human beings just like in the story of Sitan - will not end with our workshop but rather continue in our daily actions.

“Sitan” was our first story. It was narrated to us by my mother, Melinda.

We listened to another story shared Ms. Tessie Lyn Dullipas entitled “Umaliw and the Ang-isu”.This story talked about Umaliw, a woman from Kalinga that was taken by an ang-isu - a mythical creature that lives in bodies of water like rivers. It transforms its own image when it finds a victim. It also talks about why women of Kalinga carry banga or water clay pots over their heads. Our third story was told by two elderly men in our community.

The story of “Ginanayan and Bana” is a love story between a wealthy woman and a poor man. It was a journey of not giving up on each other despite many challenges. Among the stories that were told, many environmental forces were seen and depicted.

77 / Cordillera, Philippines

From the Facilitators

OUR COMMUNITY THEATER WORKSHOP’S JOURNEY IN THE TIME OF COVID-19 Leemar T. Damuasen

Following the COVID-19 health protocols, conducting workshops where people gather is prohibited. I was really happy and excited when the Community-Based Theater Workshop was held online especially as participants from Japan and Indonesia are involved. However, due to poor internet connectivity in our area, this has also become a challenge.

As I was collecting folktales for this project from my parents and from the elders, I noticed that there are different versions of the stories. Some stories are somehow related to our own culture and traditions. There are different folktales in Tubo. Some are magical and some are about mythical creatures and spirits living amongst humans. Through these stories we can see how our ancestors lived and the way they coexisted and respected their environment. I also realized that our culture here in Tubo, Abra is very rich and precious.

Listening to the stories brings us to the time when there is still no electricity here in our place and our grandparents would tell us stories during bed time. I personally treasure those memories with them. Grandparents are usually the ones who tell these stories but now even younger parents tell of the stories they heard as a child. The way our elders protected our culture and taught us these stories is very helpful in maintaining

78 / FOLKTALES

the peace and prosperity not only within our community but also with the neighboring communities.

One of the challenges I encountered in conducting the workshop was to find participants who are really interested since it is hard to force them to join, especially now when there is lots of work in the fields. Due to new Covid cases in another municipality, I could not go there to find participants. Luckily, some members of the youth organization in our barangay were willing to participate. We were able to proceed with our activities.

I facilitated basic theater workshops and training and I also shared with them my experiences in theater both here and abroad. It made them curious and eager to learn more about community theater. During the workshops, our sharing of ideas and thoughts from the folktales led us to create the presentation they wanted. There were also questions whether this really happened in the past. We do believe in and respect the spirits living and protecting our environment. I decided to focus on the story of Gumallingan since the participants have already heard of it from their parents. It became easier for them to understand and memorize their lines. In this story, I loved the part when Gumallingan forgave her parents for what had happened to her.

Even though I encountered many challenges that I almost gave up on this project, I can say that I learned a lot. With the support I was getting from many people, I was able to proceed with the project. It is always exciting to do theater even amidst this time of pandemic and even if it is online. It will always be an honor for me to be part of the Cordillera Green Network community theater workshops.

I hope that my participants in this workshop will remember and apply what they learned from our activities.

79 / Cordillera, Philippines

CORDILLERA FOLKTALES:

THE HERE AND NOW

BY SACHA GARAH W. JASMIN

Folktales are part of a wider range of oral literature in the Cordillera region. In his introduction to Cordillera Literature, author and literature professor Delfin Tolentino classified these into two types: ritualistic and non-ritualistic. Ritualistic literature are the stories, songs and chants that can only be recited in the observance of a ritual or ceremony. Nonritualistic literature, to which folktales belong, are performed during festivities or on any occasion. Unlike myths and legends, folktales are considered as fiction. Folktales can either be in the form of fables, Marchen (tales of Magic), trickster tales or numskull tales. They are not considered to be truthful accounts

of the past and are not taken seriously.

While they are told mainly to entertain, many folktales function to teach a moral.

The growing acceptance of Christianity and lowland culture led to the decline of many traditional rituals and eventually to the decrease in folklore associated with rituals - like myths. However, Tolentino noted that folktales continued to flourish despite the proliferation of cinema, television and other mass media.

The earliest records of the oral literature of the Cordillera were those recorded by American anthropologists and missionaries. These became the primary sources of anthologies of oral tales that were later re-told in the form

80 / FOLKTALES

of children’s books. Folktales, as with other forms of oral literature, have always been regarded as a rich source of indigenous wisdom.

Perhaps because we’re losing a generation of storytellers and raising a generation disconnected from their heritage, the role of theater and the arts in re-telling these narratives of the past has become more critical.

The Cordillera Green Network has been instrumental in activating communities in revisiting their folktales and retelling them in various forms. Writers, educators, researchers, community workers and artists alike have expressed the need to preserve and pass on this knowledge to the succeeding generations through various forms. Many teachers in the communities have become researchers themselves, compiling folktales for their IP education curriculum and more recently, have also begun to write their own stories.

The Department of Education promotes a mother tongue-based primary education and folktales have been excellent resources in making the teaching materials. Writers also went beyond re-telling folktales to writing about indigenous knowledge and tradition in other creative ways. There are stories about political and environmental

struggles as well as stories of modern-day culture heroes.

However, these efforts at reviving tradition are futile attempts when the relationship is not established and the connection is lost. Many book projects have stopped at the end of the last page.

Some research ends when the data is collected and sadly, some performances at cultural festivities have become merely a “show”. While these efforts are great, one needs to be more reflective so that these narratives do not become, as one writer said, just things or events of the past.

In our grand effort to revive our folktales we forget to look deeper inside ourselves why these folktales really matter to us, in our time, in our own lives. They should be further examined, digested, discussed, and even questioned as if they are things and events of the present time. In many places, we no longer have the dap-ay to have these conversations. Because of the COVID-19, the opportunities for sharing our stories have become rare.

Social gatherings have been restricted and schools have closed. But the world wide web opened its portals. Perhaps, like in this online theater international exchange project, we might find our way there.

SACHA GARAH WEYGAN JASMIN She was born in Baguio to parents from Bauko and Besao, Mt. Province. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Language and Literature in 2007 and with a Master in World Heritage and Cultural Projects for Development in 2015. She used to teach high school and college students and she has been involved with CGN’s community art workshops as a volunteer and as editor of some of CGN’s publications.

She is an occasional writer, a mountaineer, and a homeschooling mom.

81 / Cordillera, Philippines

ABOUT THE ENCOUNTERS THROUGH LOST PLAYS RIKI TAKEDA TRANSLATED BY ETSUKO DESEMBRANA

Has there ever been a time as today, when folk arts are sought after? Folk arts practices often have functions, such as the performance of prayers to spirits to end plagues, to form communities, or to hand down the wisdom to live on the land, and usually those garner attention during time of calamities such as a pandemic, or heavy rains similar to what we have been experiencing in recent years. In Japan however, due to circumstances, the performance of folk art traditions are cancelled or suspended, instead of showing their true value. That is as if to say, folk arts can no longer play the roles that they used to play in this society. “Bon” season is usually the high season for folk arts, but once again this year, the season has passed and the summer ended with many offerings unrealized. I wonder how many folk arts practices will disappear in these blank years.

What could be causing folk arts to lose this function? One reason is that folk arts have become a “cultural display-window” in relation to globalization and government policies. With the 82 / FOLKTALES

Folk performing dance in Furuya, Kutsuki.

Photo by KOJI TSUJIMURA

declining population in communities and the “tourism-ization” of folk art tradition, people outside of these communities have become bearers of these traditions, which has resulted in the community being unable to practice on their own in recent years.

Media such as TV, newspapers, and websites showcase the information about folk arts in parallel, like display windows in department stores. At the local level, folk arts traditions are turned into standardized “products” one after another, making it easier for outsiders to participate. Folk arts that looked for the new way of succession by “opening to the outside world and preserving form” in accordance with the subsidy policy of the government, cannot be performed as a dedication in rituals in the current situation, where the infection risk increases when people with diverse backgrounds encounter one another. Also, the concept of “inside” and “outside” is blurred by globalization. Thus, we are now looking for ways to co-exist with the Coronavirus which was originally supposed to be “outside”. The analogy of a “cultural display window” may 83 / Cordillera, Philippines

be rough, but all the more because of this, we can see clearly through folk art traditions, the way people live, the kind of environment that surrounds the tradition, and the people who engage in it.

In this project, “Folktales and Theater arts”, youths from three countries interacted with each other through the theatricalization of folktales passed down in the Aceh Province of Sumatra Island in Indonesia, the Cordillera Region of the Philippines, and Ueda City in Japan. They also analyzed the environment interwoven in these folktales. First, what was most interesting was that the folktale from Ueda was passed down not in families nor villages - but by the storytellers. According to the participants, the elementary school invited those storytellers of folktales as a part of their curriculum, but they did not have opportunities to come in contact with folktales in their daily lives. On the other hand, folktales from the Cordilleras of the Philippines, and from Aceh, Indonesia, were often told by parents or village elders. Folktales and folk arts are supposed to be “alive” in everyday lives, but in Japan, they may have already become special stories and may have special embodiments.

In the Cordillera region where diverse indigenous groups have coexisted since ancient times, there are peace keeping rules rooted in tradition and culture that govern the indigenous peoples. In many ways, the decisions and judgments of the elders of the community - in settling disputes or in times of natural calamities - are equally respected as those of the local government leaders.Of course, there are such communities as well in Japan, where the folk arts practices are still alive.

Now, let’s take a look at what kind of theater work was created using the folktales in this project. Roger Federico from the Philippines, together with 11 children, created a work based on “Ambakbak”, a folktale from Buguias, Benguet and Tinoc, Ifugao. “During the time when headhunting was practiced, villagers were scared of the outsiders. But one family was inviting the travelers passing through the village into their home and offered hospitality and a meal. The villagers got angry, and the family was punished with whipping and banished from the village. Later, water came out from the land they lived on, and two small mounds appeared where the two children had watched their parents being whipped.” Oddly, this is a folktale about dealing with people from outside the village, which may be one of the factors that may cause the loss of the self-help function of the village that I mentioned earlier.

84 / FOLKTALES

Roger replaced the setting of this folktale with the situation of the current pandemic. “A man comes home to their village from Spain during the pandemic. Though he had a negative test result, villagers suspect him of COVID infection, and pressure him to leave by not selling food to him and his family, and so on.

One day, water comes out of the land where he and his family live. The village elders regret that they tried to expel them, and call on the villagers to ask for forgiveness from him and his family. And the villagers hold a ritual to thank the mountain god for bringing the spring water to heal their illness.

It depends on the listeners how they would interpret the folktale, and it also depends on the storytellers who face the listeners. What we want to note here is that Roger and the children gave a happy ending to the story based on “Ambakbak”. Regardless of the country, folktales often do not have clear conclusions. Even in the “Ambakbak”, neither the original folktale said what happened to the family who were banished from the village, nor did it say why water came out and two mounds appeared. The reality is, so many people had to face miserable endings in this pandemic, and if we project this current situation over the cruelty of this folktale, it might have been easier to come up with a bad ending. Nevertheless,

85 / Cordillera, Philippines

Riki Takeda once stayed in the Philippines to create a performance.

"Cremate Octopuses", 2017. Film by Samantha Lee ©CNN Philippines

the reason why they came up with a happy ending was because it is the reflection of the current situation, where we no longer live in the era when the life in these communities, including the practice of folk arts, cannot be done within the village alone, and when the village is sustained with diverse trading (or otherwise the village life cannot be sustained). The point is, that it is not as simple as “opening up culture to the outside world means the deterioration of the culture”. What is the essence of the art that has been passed down in the village through generations? How can it be handed down to the next generations? I believe what is important is to think about these carefully, not getting carried away by the tide of times, but keeping an eye on the time. By doing so, these arts can be passed down through the generations, not just in form or shape, but with embodiment, spirituality and intentionality. We live in the age where inheritance of a legacy itself raises questions and issues. But if we look at our own environment, and discuss our response to these issues with the next generations, that itself can be an important activity of cultural succession.

There is a vision that becomes clear, when we re-represent the folktales and folk arts, by opening them up to the outside world and by sharing them. I could sense in the theatrical work

by Roger and the children their intention and their identity more than just by seeing folk arts that had been passed down in the land they live. Naturally, a theatrical work can be formed by reflecting on individual senses, but these re-representations create value unique and specific to this era. It is, for example, just like Kyogen shibai, a comic drama played by children, who still cannot join the circle of grown-ups who dedicate their arts in rituals, and the children would jump in and play during the breaks of the grown-ups between the performances. Those comedic plays may show their daily lives in the village, or parodies of the art performance itself that is being offered. And by performing these, children can process their environment with their bodies, and they may, by showing it to the people of the village (even if the performance itself may be immature or awkward), deepen their understanding and awareness of their community and their practices. We were able to catch a glimpse of such function in this project, in which the young people performed based on the folktales. Due to the recent custom of “opening to the outside world and preserving the form”, those comedic plays are no longer seen during the dedication rituals, but in those plays, people must have let the folk arts carry their dreams and enjoyment; that must have been the way people handed down folk arts for generations.

86 / FOLKTALES

Ueda, Japan

87 / Ueda, Japan

Synopsis of the Folktale

88 / FOLKTALES

Koizumi Kotaro TEXT: KYOKO ISHIZAKA TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA ILLUSTRATION: HIROKO TAKAHAMA

Long, long ago, there was a small Buddhist temple on top of Mt. Tetsuji in the south of Nishishioda. There lived a chief monk and a young monk. One night, a beautiful girl came to see the young monk and her visit continued night after night. They became close to each other; but she never told him where she came from.

Finding it strange, he consulted his senior monk. The old monk suggested that he pin a needle with thread to the girl’s kimono.

After she left the temple, the young monk followed the thread and it led him to Kurabuchi’s cave. He looked in and found a big snake, who seemed to be in pain, giving birth to a human baby. Terrified, he ran away. The snake was saddened and embarrassed to be seen in its true form. After three days, she died of iron poison from the needle. She caused a great storm that swept her serpent body downstream until it broke into pieces. These were known as snake bone stones. The river became known as Sangawa or the birthing river.

An old man from Junin found a baby floating by the swollen river. He prayed for the baby’s safety and it magically floated towards him. The baby had snake scales-like bruises on his side.

He named the baby Kotaro and raised him with his wife. When the old man passed away, his wife moved with Kotaro to Koizumi.

Then he came to be known as Koizumi Kotaro. He grew up doing nothing but eat and sleep. When he reached the age of 15, the old woman nagged him for the first time to help with housework. He volunteered to get firewood and off he went to Mt. Koizumi. By late afternoon, he had cleared the mountain of bush clovers, tied them tightly into two bundles and took them home. He proudly told his grandma that she would not need to worry about firewood for a while. Kotaro also warned her not to cut the rope but to pull the sticks one by one. Doubtful that Kotaro was really able to gather all the bush clovers in a day, she carelessly cut the rope that held the bundles. The twigs violently popped reaching the ceiling then all fell down crushing her.

The descendants of Kotaro are still in Koizumi and all the boys have snake scale-like bruises.

89 / Ueda, Japan

Synopsis of the Folktale

Deidarabotchi and a Widow TEXT: KYOKO ISHIZAKA TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA ILLUSTRATION: HIROKO TAKAHAMA

This is a story from a long time ago. There was a giant called “Deidarabotchi” who was so huge that he could pierce the clouds.

Deidarabotchi came from the west, carrying Mt. Ogami on his back and holding Mt. Megami in his arms. When he reached the border between Bessho and Aoki-mura, he put down Mt. Ogami from his back, roughly placed it there and gently put Mt. Megami next to it Then he left for the south.

Once upon a time, there was a poor woman in a rural village beyond one mountain north of Bessho. She lived alone and decided to cultivate a barren land at the border. One morning, she went to the barren land early and plowed the hard soil all day to sow buckwheat seeds. The following morning, she went there with seeds, but the soil had become hard like before. She was disappointed, but worked hard again to loosen the soil. The following day, she thought,“It should be all right today” and returned to the field but the soil had become hard again. This continued for 15 days. Any ordinary person would give up if such a situation continues, but she desperately wanted to work this land.

So she visited a shrine of Fudo-san (Buddhist deity) of O-ne to worship day and night for 21 days. On the 21st night, Deidarabotchi appeared in her dream and told her, “The land you have been cultivating is my left footprint, so it is mine. But because you are a hard-working poor widow and you are kind and faithful, I will give it to you. But in return, when you harvest buckwheat, make sure to give me buckwheat noodles. This is a promise. If you break the promise, I will immediately turn your land hard again.” Believing that it was a blessing from Fudo-san, she plowed the land and sowed buckwheat seeds. In autumn, she abundantly harvested beautiful buckwheat. She made buckwheat noodles using flour from her first harvest and offered it to Deidarabotchi. Ever since then, her life became easier and easier.

90 / FOLKTALES

91 / Ueda, Japan

Introduction of Participants

INTRODUCTION OF PARTICIPANTS YUKO ANTOKU (RINKO HIME) By expressing the folktales through the workshop, I imagined that human beings are also a part of nature. As the satoyama landscapes increasingly disappear, bears and deer come to the fields cultivated by humans to look for food, creating dangerous situations for both. Paving the land with concrete stops the flow of water, degrades the soil, and causes the fields to become unproductive. When humans alter the circulation of nature, we will be affected. I became keenly aware of this. Convenience brings inconvenience in return.

YUKINO ISAWA I played a role without dialogue, but I felt that I could share images with people without using words. What left a strong impression on me was going to Kurabuchi, doing a sound workshop, and taking a walk in the woods. We live in a digital world and we spend most of our time looking at smartphones and computers. I learned that it is very comforting to get away from the hustle and bustle and listen to the sounds of nature.

RYUNOSUKE EGUCHI Everything about the workshops was fun. I was particularly impressed by the activity where we memorized the other person's pose and recreated it. It made me realize that even though I thought I was looking at people, I wasn't looking at them at all.

TOSHIE IMAI At the workshop, when I became the snake that was seen by a monk bearing a child, I was able to experience complex emotions such as the embarrassment and shame, and the love for my child in my arms. I was also able to directly experience the passage of days and the changes in Deidarabotchi's state of mind. It was exciting to see how everyone's interpretation of each scene deepened, changed, and resonated. I was also impressed by how elements in nature such as soil, wood, and water, became one character and functioned as a kind of protagonist.

92 / FOLKTALES

OTO KOBAYASHI It was my first time acting in a play. I don't usually watch a theatre play so it was a discovery that there are so many different ways to express oneself and that people can move in such a charming and natural way. I also learned that if you don't know about a local area, there are many interesting things to discover.

RINA SAITO Through the workshop, I discovered that even the smallest things in nature have great power. If we pay close attention to one tree in the large forest, we can observe the lumpy texture and the expressions of each leaf. I realized that a forest is not made up of the same trees, but rather of relationships of trees affecting each other.

WAKANA YUI During the workshop, I learned how difficult it is to produce a voice consciously. I felt frustrated that I could not control the volume, direction, and texture of my voice as I wished. I became more aware than ever of other people's voices and the state of my body when I speak. I also enjoyed the activity about paying attention to the movements of others while they speak.

I realized that I had been moving my body unconsciously.

KODAI NAGASHIMA I had never done a stage play before, so I was very nervous and excited to see what it would be like. I enjoyed going through the entire process with other members who gathered for the workshop. The process began without discussing anything about a theatrical play. We wove the story together while talking about folktales. I have always loved nature. While working as a member of the "Deidarabotchi" team, I felt the magnitude and grandeur of nature. Of course, I cannot be Deidarabotchi, and I remain who I am. I felt that nature is big, loving, and rich.

ASAKO NAOI

YUI MOTOSHIMA 93 / Ueda, Japan

KYOKO ISHIZAKA

The Facilitators

TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA

Setsu Hanasaki From the symposium after the performance at Sai no Tsuno on August 9, 2021

First of all, we visited Mr. Inagaki’s house, which was like a mini-theatre of folktales, to listen to the storytelling of folktales. We also visited Kurafuchi (or Kuragafuchi), where Kotaro is said to have been born. It was just after the heavy rain that had caused so much damage in Atami, Shizuoka. The water level in Sangawa (San River) was high, and it was muddy all over. I felt like the nature of present-day Kurafuchi overlapped with the world of the story, and it was a very fresh experience for me partly because I had been having less opportunity for outing due to COVID-19. After we came back from the trip, we started working on the play and were connected with Filipino and Indonesian teams via Zoom. We had an online fellowship yesterday (Aug.8th) and the day of the performance has come today. It took about five days to actually create the play.

There is no script for Koizumi Kotaro.

We had some direction and practice, but we did not have a fixed script. It was still experimental how the young participants would align their own senses and languages with the world of the folktales. As most of

the participants worked in theatre for the first time, I wanted to respect how they feel about the world of the folktales through fieldworks before they actually create a play. Therefore, I focused on how they express their senses and how they live actively in the folktales.

SETSU HANASAKI is a theater practitioner who works as a facilitator, director, actress and teacher.

She started her career in Black Tent Theater, one of the leading theater companies of the Japanese Underground Theater Movement. She has been facilitating a variety of projects and workshops not only in Japan but also in many Asian countries and beyond. Her works include: "Minamata ba Ikite (Living in Minamata)"(2006), a collaboration with Minamata Disease patients and multi-generational citizens of Minamata city, “Youth Drama Project in Aceh, Indonesia” (2006-09), a project on peace building.

She has been facilitating and directing community theater projects in Setagaya Public Theater for 20 years, including “Kaijo, Kaigo wo Kangaeru (Thinking about Caring)” (2014-15) and "Kazoku wo Meguru Sasayakana Boken (A Small Adventure about Family (2019)" which was a collaboration with Necessary Stage, Singapore. She has been involved as facilitator and director in the Theater Project for Environmental Education in Cordillera, Philippines (2014-21). She teaches at Nihon University, Musashino Art University and Rikkyo University.

95 / Ueda, Japan

The Facilitators

Riki Takeda From the symposium after the performance at Sai no Tsuno on Aug. 9th, 2021

For Deidarabotchi and a Widow, we discussed how we will start a play from Mr. Inagaki’s storytelling. Then, Ms. Toshie Imai wrote a script that became the basis of composing our work. I coordinated and facilitated how the members created the theatre play.

How can we retell a folktale through theater?

Of course, since each of us lives differently, we would have different images toward the folktale which was told. So when we created a play, I focused on how our performance can contribute to the various images which the audiences might have rather than the performance itself.

In that sense, I was very detailed in directing the performance. But the message I delivered was very simple: “to weave a story with care” and “to have an image”. When we tell something or casually move our bodies, what would these movements give to the audiences and what kind of images would these provoke in them? We tried to think of such “devices” together.

96 / FOLKTALES

Folk performing dance in Furuya, Kutsuki Photo by KOJI TSUJIMURA

RIKI TAKEDA is a theater director and folk arts archiver. He joined chelfitsch Theater Company as an actor and performed extensively in Europe and the US with the company. After the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, he began his career as a director. Takeda invites the audience to consider our contemporary time in a playful manner. Everyday matters form the material for his works such as: reprimands from a police officer, the Japanese street food takoyaki (octopus balls), and elementary education textbooks. He is also involved in the revival and preservation of folk art in depopulated rural villages in Japan. Recent activities include creating and presenting work in Metro Manila and Shanghai, as well as running an art space in Wuhan, China. He was a Yokohama Arts Foundation Creative Children Fellow in 2016 and 2017, and a Japan Foundation Asia Center Fellow in 2019.

97 / Ueda, Japan

The Storyteller

FOR INSTANCE TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA

Yuichi Inagaki

98 / FOLKTALES

For instance, when I try to narrate a story of Deidarabotchi and a Widow, I cannot do so without empathy for the woman and respect for farmers who turned her into a legend.

Due to poverty, she continued cultivating a piece of barren land, just the size of one field, with simple honesty. Her patience and sweat are surely the manifestation of the fundamental longing for happiness which farmers have. She wondered why the soil returned hard again and again, but she showed no sign of leaving and stayed on. Because she never thought of having awe of the invisible, she repeatedly cultivated the land.

This is different from a simple desire for a piece of buckwheat field. Farmers want to own a piece of land, however little, to harvest in reconciliation with nature. It is their instinctive hope.

In the folktale, there is a phrase “Any ordinary person would have given up, but the woman did not.” This shows that farmers totally empathize with her and wanted to cheer her up.

99 / Ueda, Japan

For instance, I like the reason why Deidarabotchi wanted to “give” his land to her. The way he talked to her was never arrogant. He says, “You are a poor widow, and are hardworking and patient. You are also faithful. So I will give that land to you.”

He uses simple language and talks in a simple manner just like how hardworking farmers usually talk. His feeling was born out of close interaction between human beings and nature before they created gods as religions. At the end of his reason, he lightly adds her faithfulness with a little shyness (Fudo, a Buddhist deity, and Deidarabotchi are a double exposure of the forces of nature). It is heartwarming to us as it overlaps with the mild climate of Japan.

Here, we can see how farmers and nature used to interact when they simply and honestly had awe of nature.

“For instance, for instance...” I can continue giving more examples just for this story. Folktales are synthesized forms of such examples and symbolic literature which is different from fantasy in quality. I have long been fascinated by them and now my hope is to appreciate them as deeply as possible.

YUICHI INAGAKI Mr. Inagaki is the Director of Shiodadaira Research Institute of Folktales. He is a book-reading advisor and lecturer on picture books. Born in Ueda-shi, Nagano Prefecture in 1932, he worked as a Japanese teacher in Nagano Prefecture after graduating from the Faculty of Education at Shinshu University. Following his retirement, he started working earnestly on picture books and folktales. He is a member of Nihon Minwa no Kai (Japan Folktale Association), Japan Storytelling Network, Shiodadaira Institute of Folktales, and the Ueda Library Club.

WHAT I FELT: LISTENING TO YUICHI INAGAKI’S RETELLING OF THE FOLKTALE From the participants' answers to the questionnaires TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA

I caught a glimpse of how people interacted with nature when the folktales were created. I felt the majesty of nature, including its horror, brutality, kindness, and warmth. I can no longer live in Ueda, a place filled with nature, but it was strange to think that this place once looked like it did in the folktales.

I was amazed that some of the place names and things mentioned in the folktales still exist. (Rina Saito) I felt familiar with the place names and the areas mentioned. Some of the characters' actions and emotions were difficult for those of us living in the modern world to relate to. However, it was interesting to realize the differences from today. It was also interesting to see how differently I, the other participants, and the facilitator imagined the scenes in the story. (Wakana Yui) I have lived in Nagano for more than ten years, but I have never had a chance to listen to local folktales, so it was very refreshing.The way Mr. Inagaki narrated it made the folktales feel very real.

Especially in the scene where Kotaro Koizumi's grandmother died, I felt as if she was buried alive right in front of me and her life came to an end in the blink of an eye.

I could feel the fragility of life. (Ryunosuke Eguchi) It gave me a nostalgic impression that I may or may not have vaguely heard somewhere before. No matter what time of the year it is, there is not much difference in the way people think. That's why folktales are good reading material that allows us to feel like life-size people. It would be a shame not to know them because they are interesting even if you just read them.

(Oto Kobayashi)

101 / Ueda, Japan

In the course of the workshop, the first thing I discovered in folktales was the diversity of folktales. There is a sense of valuing the individuality of people - that it is okay to live a leisurely life, and that it is okay to be useless. There is also the importance of taking time in today's fast-paced world. (Yuko Antoku) When I first heard the folk tales of Ueda, I felt the simplicity and nostalgia of the stories and the sincerity with which the storytellers dealt with them. In the process of the workshop, I realized that folktales are not necessarily just fiction for children. They are not hard-and-fast “lessons” but mere communication of "what happened”. It can be interpreted in many ways, depending on the period and the listener's position. That's what I felt. (Toshie Imai) When I first heard the Ueda folktale, I could easily accept it even though it was a story that could never happen in reality.

There are many references to nature in the stories and I felt that people had a close relationship with nature since ancient times. Participating in this workshop allowed me to research the folktales of my hometown, Saku, and reminded me of the folktales I learned in elementary school. I learned that there are many folktales in Nagano Prefecture. (Yukino Isawa)

102 / FOLKTALES

From the Partcipants

HOW EACH OF US FEELS Wakana Yui TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA

When we first listened to the folktale “Koizumi Kotaro”, we were left with a bad aftertaste and taken aback. Later, a storyteller, Mr. Inagaki told us an interpretation that the old lady might have been happy when she died, feeling how much Kotaro had grown up. I thought “I see…”, and was convinced by his interpretation, but yet it was difficult for me to empathize with it. Mr. Inagaki explained that he relates facts in a story in a detached manner, and lets the listeners make their own interpretation. As he told us, the story is unintrusive; nor does it force the listeners to empathize. However, it also made me feel abandoned as I am used to modern easy-to-understand stories.

After that, we, the participants, shared with each other how we felt about the folktale by talking and reproducing part of it with our own bodies. While sharing the same space and listening to the same story, there were many commonalities in what we felt. At the same time, what left the strongest impression on us and the sceneries we reflected in our minds were more diverse than I had expected. Other participants vividly remembered a sound or scent they felt from the story, which I did not even 103 / Ueda, Japan

pay attention to. By listening to their memories, and visualizing images which were different from those I had in my mind at first, I was able to find new aspects of the folktale and develop new images, and the story gradually penetrated me.

“Koizumi Kotaro”, which I acted in, had no script although the general flow and direction were decided. It was performed almost impromptu. It allowed us to perform freely and gave us enough room to make our own interpretations. This helped me to see how I and others had interpreted the story in a new light.

As we influenced each other with our expression and communicated our feelings, it was gradually formed into one artwork. In addition, when we exchanged our thoughts and feelings, my attention was drawn to striking parts only. However, by transforming them into a play, I felt like I was able to face what I used to ignore. By discussing with other participants, I was able to immerse myself deeper in the world of the folktale.

In the final on-line presentation, I watched the works of Indonesian and Filipino teams. Not only did I enjoy the folktales from their places, I also found it interesting how their senses were incorporated in their ways of expression and direction.

In the Filipino play, the phrase “Let’s go and ask the elder” was used as a matter of course. In the Indonesian play, music was used in various scenes. They were fresh to me although they

104 / FOLKTALES

might have been so natural for the participants from these countries. On the other hand, I found many commonalities in how we perceive nature and human relationship, and became aware of universality in human beings.

Each step left me with a remarkable impression, and it is not easy to organize them in writing. However, throughout the process of listening, dialogue, expression and sharing, I repeatedly reflected on how each of us feels: the senses of people who had passed down the folktales, those who joined this workshop, and those who live across the sea. Some were similar to mine, and some were not, and both of them surprised me many times. Being influenced by nature and society around us, we live in the world which we perceive in our own way. Through this workshop, I slowly gained new insight by trying to understand others’ senses which I did not empathize with at first. We all have different senses, yet we created a new form of artwork by influencing each other. We became aware that there were many commonalities in things which appeared to be totally different. This workshop gave me an opportunity to think about how I and others feel. I felt comfortable in the environment where we enjoyed the differences and said “Both are interesting” instead of judging which one was right. I truly hope that such an atmosphere would extend beyond this workshop.

105 / Ueda, Japan

From the Partcipants

MY EXPERIENCE AS AN NGO INTERN IN THE PHILIPPINES AND AS PARTICIPANT AT A THEATER WORKSHOP IN UEDA Yukino Isawa TRANSLATED BY AKARI NAKAMURA

I would like to write about how I felt when I joined the theatre workshop in Ueda, Japan. My reflection is from both global and local points of view and is based on my experience as an intern of Cordillera Green Network (CGN), an environmental NGO based in Baguio City, the Philippines.

The Cordillera Region, where I stayed as an intern, is located in North Luzon in the Philippines. It is rich in nature with magnificent mountains and beautiful rice terraces. This is where indigenous mountain tribes called Igorots have been living since ancient times in harmony with great nature, nurturing their unique culture. However, the wave of capitalism has crept up their communities in the mountains compelling them to shift to a new way of life to earn cash. They started deforesting their land to create vegetable fields to grow cash crops. In order to prevent environmental destruction and preserve diversity in the forest, CGN has been training farmers to grow coffee through agroforestry.

106 / FOLKTALES

During my internship, I reflected on “economic development” and “nature”. In Baguio City, where CGN is located, I felt the rapid advancement of economic development in my bones. During my 3.5-month stay there, Uniqlo and H&M opened in a big shopping mall, and many new hotels were under construction. I saw this happen in Baguio, a city surrounded by beautiful nature, during my internship, and it made me think what sustainable society really meant.

With this experience, I was impressed to see that “nature” was featured in folktales from all three countries when I joined this theatre project and saw the online presentations by teams from three countries. Respect for, appreciation for and awe of nature are common to all human beings in spite of the differences in our languages and cultures. I think that folktales have proven the inseparable relation between our lives and nature since ancient times.

On the other hand, in the plays by the Filipino and Indonesian teams, there were scenes in which social issues associated with economic development were highlighted. In “Ambakbak”, performed by the Filipino team, the spring was landfilled and turned into a vegetable field. In “Kite”, the play by the Indonesian team, people were no longer able to talk with the white elephant from the forest because of the road construction. In Japan, while our lives have become more convenient due to increasing digitalization, we have less interaction with nature and have even become disconnected from nature. In the Japanese team, we also talked about a lack of folktale-storytellers and young people who are interested in folktales. I felt that economic development was the common factor that had influenced these three countries.

From a global point of view, while the economy connects the world and promotes standardization, social issues such as environmental destruction have become a global issue shared by all human beings. From a local point of view, each community has its unique culture and nature.

Folktales are a living part of every culture. How can we succeed and preserve nature and our local culture/ tradition? When we face this issue and achieve this task, we will be able to realize a sustainable society where diversity is celebrated.

From the Facilitator

THE WATER IN KURAGAFUCHI OVERFLOWS Thinking about the power of nature and the human condition through the expression of folktales SETSU HANASAKI TRANSLATED BY MAYUMI HIRANO

ENCOUNTER WITH MR. INAGAKI I cannot talk about the theater workshop based on folktales in Ueda without mentioning my encounter with Mr. Inagaki of the Shiodadaira Research Institute of Folktales. I met him for the first time in the spring of 2020, just barely before the explosion of a new Coronavirus infection. I visited him at his home, where a tunnel-like path lit by constellation lamps led me to a tatami room where people sit around a sunken hearth for folk storytelling. There I had the chance to listen to the folktales of "Shitagui-ike" and "Koizumi Kotaro." I was overwhelmed by the storyteller's expression and the possibilities of various interpretations and social functions that the folktales could play. I vividly remember discussing excitedly with Mr. Arai of Sai no Tsuno Guesthouse and Theatre, and the coordinator Ms. Naoi that this program would be complete if we could have Mr. Inagaki tell the folktales.

108 / FOLKTALES

After some postponement due to the pandemic, we invited Mr. Inagaki to the first day of the workshop. In the two-hour session, Mr. Inagaki told the folktales of "Koizumi Kotaro" and "Deidarabotchi and a Widow" and discussed his interpretations of the tales. Most of the participants, ranging from junior high school students to adults, had never had the chance to hear the folktales told orally before. They were stunned by Mr. Inagaki's mastery of storytelling, passion, and the depth and breadth of his thoughts. In addition, we had the opportunity to touch a piece of jakotsuseki (a type of Zeolite), which is said to be the bones of the snake that gave birth to Koizumi Kotaro. Touching the stone evoked the mysterious sensation where I felt the world of folktales and the real world overlapped beyond time and space. In the following day's reflections, the participants shared various feedbacks about the content of the folktales and their interpretation, but also about the nature of folktales that stories may slightly change from teller to teller (oral literature).

They also shared their realization that folktales have specific links to actual places and their impressions of Mr. Inagaki's room of folktales.

A FIELD TRIP TO KURAFUCHI (KURAGAFUCHI) On the fourth day of the workshop, Mr. Inagaki's friends from Shiodadaira Research Institute of Folktales, Mr. and Mrs. Sakai, guided us to Kuragafuchi in Sangawa, or "Kurafuchi" as called by the locals, supposedly the birthplace of Kotaro. First, we looked at the large map in front of our meeting place Tokkokan, to identify the locations of various sites mentioned in "Koizumi Kotaro" and visualized the overall size of the area covered by the story. We were amazed that the area was quite large. Finally, we started our trip to Kurafuchi. It was just after a heavy rain, and the water level in the Sangawa River was high, and the road was muddy. Water dripped from the soft moss and greenery of the trees, and the sounds of birds echoed in the air. Feeling the humidity and the presence of invisible forces of nature, I simultaneously experienced the beauty and menace of nature. I felt my senses as a living creature were reviving. It felt even more so since the pandemic had made everyday life suffocating, as wearing masks was mandatory as practically speaking.

I led the Ear Cleaning that I had facilitated the day before.

It is an activity of sound education, which examines the environment through sound, proposed by Raymond Murray

109 / Ueda, Japan

Schafer, a contemporary musician, and educator. For about three minutes, the participants meditate and focus on listening to the sounds. Then they make a sound map by writing down the description of the sounds they heard on pieces of paper. Schafer proposed the concept of the "soundscape" and proffered the need to reconsider the changes in the sound environment due to urbanization, especially the environment surrounded by machine noise. By concentrating on sound, we, too, could freshly reimagine our environment that we could not perceive by sight alone.

When we returned to our workshop venue Sai no Tsuno, each of us selected three sounds that left strong impressions on us from the sound map and tried to express them with our voices. We also wrote down the sounds chosen on cards and combined them to create musical improvisation. Finally, we glued the cards onto a large piece of paper to create a "musical score."

The sounds of Kurafuchi made at this time were later recorded and inserted into the play as a sound representing Kuragafuchi.

In addition, each of us wrote a five-line poem about what we felt at Kurafuchi and presented it to the group. Afterward, each person's poem was disassembled into pieces and brought together to construct a group poem. The group poem was like a three-dimensional tapestry of words, intricately woven with individual impressions. The method is called Dula-Tula (poetic drama). The play began with the reading of the poem by the participants, standing around the audience. It set the stage right into Kurafuchi that the participants experienced, and into the world of Koizumi Kotaro.

110 / FOLKTALES

Impressions of the Kuragafuchi written by the participants during the Tula Dula workshop.

WAS THE GRANDMOTHER "HAPPY" TO BE CRUSHED BY KOTARO'S BUNCH OF JAPANESE CLOVER? By the way, "Kotaro Koizumi" ends with the sudden death of the grandmother who raised Kotaro. She gets trapped under the pile of Japanese clover, which the grown-up Kotaro gathered for her. As she unravels the bundle without listening to Kotaro's warning, pieces of Japanese clover fly off and kill her.

Mr. Inagaki told us his theory about the ending of the folktale and said the grandmother must have been happy. But, how could she be happy when she lost her life? The participants couldn't fully understand it, and the puzzlement lingered among the participants for a while.

In the play, Ms. Yuko Antoku (Rinko Hime) took on the dual roles of the snake and the grandmother and gave an outstanding (monstrous) performance, but it was not my original intention to have one person act the two roles.

However, now I see some overlap between the characters of the snake and the grandmother. Both give birth to or foster the next generation and then pass away. In the modern sense, where pursuing personal happiness is considered a virtue, it is difficult to imagine the joy when a person's life is cut short. However, as living creatures, both the snake and grandmother have accomplished their primary mission of nurturing the next generation. The sense of primitiveness inherent in folktales may feel uncomfortable to us today. We also have to be aware that primitiveness has been historically exploited for other purposes. However, at the same time, it provides us with an opportunity to rethink various things around us.

THE FLOW OF A RIVER THAT SWALLOWS UP EVERYTHING Mr. Riki Takeda took charge of playing "Deidarabotchi and a Widow”. As I took the lead of "Koizumi Kotaro," I prepared

112 / FOLKTALES

thread and fabric for the play. The thread represented the young monk's string that he attaches to the snake, and the fabric represented water, including the Sangawa River. I wanted to prepare at least 1000 meters of thread. In the scene where the young monk follows the snake in the forest, I thought it was essential to express the scale of the world captured in the folktale and organically depict the forest that the young monk passes through chasing the snake. I borrowed a magnificent wooden spool of thread. Many households in Ueda own one since sericulture once flourished in the past. On the stage, the thread was unrolled from the spool, and the monk followed the line.

The last scene, as I mentioned earlier, ends with the grandmother dying under the Japanese clover. Is this the right way to end the piece? I asked the participants because I remained uncertain if it was the right way to end the play, which reconsiders the relationship between the environment and human beings. Is it right to close the play with the story between human beings (although Kotaro is a child of a snake)?

Then the coordinator, Ms. Naoi, asked, “What if the river water swallows up everything?”. In other words, her suggestion was to have the fabric representing water cover the collapsed grandmother and the people acting the role of Japanese clover. That's what I was also thinking. All the participants agreed on that.

In the story, the snake, after giving birth, gets swept into the river and torn apart in the raging weather, while the newborn Kotaro is carried downstream and rescued unharmed. The story portrays the ambivalence of the force of water: destruction and mercy. When we went to Kurafuchi during the workshop, we felt the freshness and beauty of nature. At the same time, some also felt fearful because of the disaster that occurred in Atami just before the workshop

113 / Ueda, Japan

due to heavy rains, and the flow of the Sangawa River was more intense than usual. In my mind, the river in the story was connected with the images of the Chikuma River flood a few years ago and the red iron bridge of the Bessho Onsen Railway that was swept away by water. It represented heavy rain, disasters, and the enormous power of water. But how can I express it?

The idea of using fabric for the last scene came while rehearsing "Koizumi Kotaro" with the participants. The heavy rains caused by climate change swallow up both the world depicted in the folktale and the world of human activity itself. Isn't this the situation we are heading to now? The last part of the play suggested such a question.

We experienced folktales as oral literature, which changed our view of the local rivers and mountains. While engaging in every step of the workshop, we were able to rethink the force of nature and its relationship with human beings through expressing the rivers and forests in the world of folktales. It was the opportunity for us to think about where our world is going today. Interestingly, during the group reflections, we talked about the workshop and the relationship between work and money and work and life. The time we spent together thinking about the money-driven economy that has caused environmental problems from our standpoint carved in us an enriching moment.

114 / FOLKTALES

The Partners and Staff

SAI NO TSUNO / THEATER & ARTS UEDA Theater & Arts Ueda provides a venue for cultural exchange among local residents and artists through expressive activities such as theater, music, and art.

Our projects include theater, workshops, hosting film festivals and exhibitions of outsider art. We also run the cultural facility, Sai no Tsuno.

Sai no Tsuno, located in Unno-machi Shopping Street at the center of Ueda City, is a private cultural facility that consists of a “theatre” with a coffee shop and a “guesthouse”. It is a place where you meet something outside yourself. The building, which used to be a small bank, has a space for a theatre where batons for stage lighting are installed all over the high ceiling and a small guest house where you can feel the breath of the castle town. This is a space open to the community, where local residents, artists and backpackers

can meet and have out-of-the-ordinary experiences while enjoying theater, music and art.

Artists and backpackers bring diverse values and bodies to the shopping street at the center of the city. In order to vitalize a community, we believe that following the trend and consuming things are not enough. We need to find something outside ourselves, such as great art works or others who have different values.

Stand still, think, and doubt the world which you have long believed in. Sai no Tsuno offers an opportunity to encounter the unknown world, creating new values and disseminating them from Ueda.

HIROFUMI ARAI Board Chairperson Sai no Tsuno/Theatre & Arts Ueda

MEGUMI NAOI Born in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. She worked in international cooperation and in many projects where NGOs and educational institutions collaborate on development assistance and the creation of diverse learning venues. She is involved in the Ueda Peace Film Festival and dachi no kioku. Since 2015, she has been working as an overseas exchange advisor at Ueda Prefectural High School. Since 2017, she has also been involved in the relaunching of a 100-year-old movie theater as a director of the NPO Ueda Film Theater. She is a papercut artist and she creates works with a natural and rustic taste. She is also in charge of the overall cutout art for this booklet.

WORKSHOP PRODUCTION STAFF Production Manager Hirofumi Arai Coordinator/Publicist Megumi Naoi Assistant Coordinator Kyoko Ishizaka Stage Manager Azusa Murakami Lighting operator Chairo Ito Interpreter & Translator Tomo Yoshizawa, Reina Yuriko Yuliana , Mio Nogawa Videographer & Editor Asuka Hashizume , Kenji Taruta, Marehito Antoku Photographer Yasuhiko Naoi, Megumi Naoi, Kyoko Ishizaka

116 / FOLKTALES

Folktales, Youth and the Environment

WHO ARE THE MONKEYS OF KIBUNGAN? “Boundary between fiction and true story” and Environment NORIKO IIZUKA

Poster of the environmental program conducted in Kibungan in 2007.

In the Cordillera region of the Philippines, four theater facilitators, together with local youths, interviewed elders in their barangays (villages), discussed and interpreted their folktales which were later turned into plays. By June 2021, they compiled simple texts of a few of the folktales they had heard. From these, they would choose a tale to turn into a play. These folktales were from Tubo, Abra; the Kalinga community in Mankayan, Benguet; the towns of Buguias and Kibungan in Benguet; and Tinoc, Ifugao, all of which are very interesting folktales born out of themes of earth, water, and wind.

One of the facilitators, Lynette, chose "Dagdagimoyo" from Kibungan in Benguet. As the story goes, Dagdagimoyo, a poor man who was looked down upon, went into the forest to try his luck for better things in life. When he pretended to be dead because he felt threatened, the leader of the monkeys took pity on him and carried him to their home to bury him. Dagdagimoyo killed the monkey guarding him, stole the treasure, escaped the angry monkeys, and fled back to his village. With the treasure he took, Dagdagimoyo was able to perform rituals and was respected by the villagers.

The folktales are interesting as they allow for different readings. When Lynette asked my opinion, I interpreted the folktale as follows. The monkey is a symbol of the mountain/ nature/animal world, which is richer and wider than the human world. Therefore, the monkeys could show compassion 118 / FOLKTALES

and tolerance for Dagdagimoyo. But humans sometimes kill animals and take resources from nature. There is a sense of resignation that "this is how we live." Rituals are sometimes a way to communicate and show awe between the human world and the natural or supernatural world. As Dagdagimoyo was able to communicate with the natural and supernatural world (monkeys), he could perform rituals as a symbol of someone who is familiar with the supernatural world.

Later, however, we found out that the story of "Dagdagimoyo" was much more complicated. Mariko Sorimachi, who has organized a number of environmental education programs as Cordillera Green Network (CGN), said, "Kibungan people used to have no barriers between them and monkeys, or they didn't regard monkeys as 'animals' at all. She then showed me a video recording of a project called "Where have all the monkeys gone? (https://youtu.be/ogPl5pTFLZ4), a record of the forest and village of Kibungan 15 years ago.

At the time the video was made, there had been no monkeys in Kibungan for at least fifteen years. However, the recollections concerning these monkeys are still important to many of the older people in Kibungan. They say, "We ate so many monkeys that they disappeared," or "We had small monkeys that helped us get rid of lice”. Furthermore, as Mariko mentioned, a woman shyly said, “Monkeys wink at me like young men wooing me.”

It seems that monkeys are like “somebody that is different from us, but lives next to us, and is like us.”

A society where the neighbors are only human beings is probably a society that has very recently emerged in history.

Perhaps 30 years ago in Kibungan, the neighbors could have been monkeys, and interactions with non-domesticated animals would have been more “usual.” Even more surprisingly, the name Kibungan seems to have come from the name of a “big monkey.” Even in the recorded video, the expressions on the faces of the old people who talked about the presence of the "big monkey" were serious. The encounter with the "head of the monkeys" that pitied Dagdagimoyo may have been a fictive account of historical events; thus, this folktale has created a kind of borderline existence between fiction and reality.

Speaking of borderline, "Ambakbak", retold by Roger and his team of young people in the Philippines, was also a symbolic folktale, but it still seemed to have qualities of nonfiction. Furthermore, in the Aceh province of Indonesia, the folktale narrated by a forest guard had an amazing quality that cannot be called a mere story. The villagers there claim to have witnessed and taken advantage of various miracles performed 119 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

(Left) Alma Dayso, a young storyteller (Right) Lynette Bibal facilitating a workshop based on Dagdagimoyo

by tigers. They claim to have consulted a mystical white elephant regarding their problems. But now, a road construction project has harmed the white elephant and caused the relationship between it and the villagers to break down.

High school students in Takengon, Aceh, created a play called "KITE," incorporating the story of this white elephant.

The performance and the story were ambiguous as to how much of it was fiction. In the village, there is a strange rule: “You must not fly a kite.” Some young villagers who laughed at the ridiculousness of the rule, broke the rule and contracted the plague. This incident caused a female villager to go into the forest and negotiate with the white elephant for knowledge about some medicinal herbs. The "kite" that soars across the boundary, carried by the wind, is the very symbol of the spread of the plague. At the end of the play, a high school student said, “The theme of the play is our pandemic. The kite is an important symbol for us.

The conservation of nature and water protects us from disease and epidemics.”

The dialogue didn't seem like mere acting. The high school students were dressed in traditional costumes, sang and danced in a manner that was so "learned." There, the meaning of the symbolism passed down through the generations seemed to come alive in the present. Now, is this village with its strange rules fiction? In the questionnaires filled out by the high school students after the event, they wrote such comments as, “I heard from my grandmother, grandfather, and aunt about a village where kite flying was forbidden,” “The prohibition is unique and known to many people,” and “The words of such people are prayers and should not be taken lightly.”

Even when circumstances and environments change over time, the mind and beliefs that respect existence will symbolize and inherit that existence. KITE seemed to be a symbol of 120 / FOLKTALES

(Left) A sketch of a existence that people thought was important even though it character from a folktale was invisible to the eye. drawn by a participant in the course of the When I think of "folktales," I tend to think of them as online workshop. (Right) stories from some distant place, not here in time or space. They Clint Taynan, one of the participants. begin with the words "Once upon a time, there was a place…," contain some kind of lesson, allow for symbolic interpretation by each reader, and are fictionalized to reflect some fact of the past. Folktales in the Philippines and Indonesia, however, were much closer to the here and now. Of course, the opportunities to listen to folktales have been decreasing in recent years for young people, even in the Philippines and Indonesia. But if they walked around and talked with the elderly, the folktales were closer to non-fiction. In such lands, the environment of forest and water that exists here and now has the power. The lanes can act as a stage for the revival of mysterious folktales.

When I think of the forests and rivers of the Cordillera, I feel like affirming such the power of the environment.

An environment that cannot serve as an active stage for folktales would not allow the existence of "things that are different from us, but live next to us like us”’. As I watched plays and came to know folktales from various regions, I was reminded of the human activities that have deprived “those who are different from us, but live next to us like us” of their place in the region. In an environment where we have no choice but to believe that folktales are fictional, the “theater” or "imagination" seem to play a greater role as something calling them "here and now.”

Later, Lynette and others interpreted the monkeys' treasures like drums and gongs taken by Dagdagimoyo as “human culture.” In their new interpretation, the monkeys are not “symbols of nature in binary opposition to humans," but monkeys are concealers and protectors of human culture.

121 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

It is just like the Kibungan monkeys because the boundary between humans and monkeys is ambiguous, and because the monkeys have a large role, which made me happy. The interaction of people with stories through theater brought out a new way of looking at monkeys from young people and shattered my stereotypes.

Let‘s review what the folktales in this theater workshop taught us. The Kibungan monkeys, elephants, tigers, giant snakes, Deidarabotchis, Kabunians, and others “that are different from us but live next to us” varied from region to region and from folktale to folktale. These "differences," which vividly reflected the earnest relationship between people and nature and the diversity of their lives, fascinated us and sparked our interests in other cultures. At the same time, we witnessed that the respect for life and existence “that are different from us but live next to us” have a certain “universality” that resonates across the three regions. The participants broke out of the “society constructed only by human beings” and recreated the existence “that living next to us,” structurally reinterpreting the pandemic-stricken society from the perspective of folktales. The stories and prayers passed down from generation to generation in each region were brought back to life in the youth through theater, giving them an opportunity to rethink today's world from the starting point of the relationship between humans and the environment.

REFERENCES Uno, Yusuke, 2015, "Mukashibanashi no Ningengaku: Inochi to Tamashii no Tsutaekata(in Japanese)" (The Anthropology of Folktales: How to Convey Life and Soul), Nakanishiya Publishing Co.

NORIKO IIZUKA Noriko Iizuka organizes a series of workshops focused on understanding other cultures using theatrical methods in which anthropologists and actors collaborate. This is a practical exploration of educational methodologies in which citizens and children have the opportunity for “cross-cultural” experience and encounter within themselves the customs and ideas of North American Indians and African hunter-gatherers. In the process, she focuses on folk tales or religious views such as animism from various regions. She is the representative of Manalabo Learning Design for Environment and Peace, and a researcher at the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University. Her publications include “In the Classroom Where the Field Emerges: An Experimental Study of an Educational Workshop Using the Play-Acting of African Hunting and Gathering Society,” Japanese Journal of Cultural Anthropology, 85(2): 325-335 (Iizuka, Noriko et al., 2020).

122 / FOLKTALES

ON THE DIVERSITY OF FOLKTALES AT THE TIME OF “INFLATION OF JUSTICE” RIKI TAKEDA

Where people gather, societies are naturally formed.

However, they are not permanent. They are changed both consciously and unconsciously by the people who have gathered. Looking at such societies from a viewpoint of daily life, in Asia, which has a harsh natural environment, they have been sustained based on co-existence with “others” such as earthquakes, tsunami, volcanic eruption, typhoon and heavy snow. This is especially true in Japan where regions are divided by mountains and each of them has its own unique ecosystem. Living in this small island country, we have been bewildered by our relationship with these tough “others” and we have been learning from them. In a society which is formed by a gathering of people, the most crucial issue is “happiness” for its members including their future descendants. In other words, societies have been aggregations of people who prioritized the continuation of their “happiness” at least until the pre-modern times.

123 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

How about the society in which we live now? Many societies have been changing, adapting to particular environments for each region, and have also been preserving their uniqueness. However, especially since the Meiji Era, the Japanese government has imposed various rules to place them “under the control of the nation state”, and the societies that have been parallelized/unified are expanding. On the other hand, the slogan “respect for diversity” has recently been vigorously called for. This is about highlighting words which have long been neglected and that speak of human rights - such as respect for “individuality”, “ethnicity”, and “culture”. However, as the media and SNS promote respect for diversity, aren’t we swept over again by the wave of parallelization/unification just like in the Meiji Era? As we are exposed to enlightening information to respect others, if we discipline ourselves out of the sense of obligation without real empathy toward them, would the subsequent “respect for diversity” eventually lead us to “happiness”? Of course, this trend to respect others has contributed to improvements in many aspects. However, before we discuss its merits and demerits, we should recognize that the meaning of diversity before and after modernization is different as it has changed over 150 years since the opening of Japan to the world.

124 / FOLKTALES

In June 2021, the project “Folktales and theatre – a story to re-spin this world” was launched in Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. It is a project to reflect on the current society by bringing folktales, which have been passed down for generations, to the present day, and transforming them into theatre plays after a series of workshops with participants.

On the first day, together with the participants, I visited Mr. Yuichi Inagaki, a director of Shiodadaira Research Institute of Folktales. He told us two folktales which have been passed down for many generations in the area. After that, in response to questions from the participants, he explained about the environment where folktales have been placed.

In pre-modern Japan, there were many travelers. As they traveled from one place to another, they shared about the places they had visited through folktales. Interestingly, some folktales may have the same title, but not necessarily the same content. Unlike in the present day, stories could not be sound-recorded nor video-recorded. It was also not easy to record them in writing. Folktales have been expressed with the body based on memories and passed down. Folktales with the same outline might be interpreted differently depending on how they are told by storytellers and how they are received by listeners. When people meet, stories are told. This is how the diversity of folktales has been secured. In other words, the world of folktales kept expanding in an environment where there is more than “one rightness”.

Mr. Inagaki also says “folktales existed so that each of us could choose our own culture.” Numerous folktales told by travelers had no right answer, but they were wisdom for people who lived in the particular area, and they also offered choices for them. Needless to say, there is much room for interpreting folktales. At the same time, they include “traps” such as during the Second World War, folktales were interpreted in favor of the nation state, and used to form nationalistic ideology.

In the modern society where we live, a romanticized term “respect for diversity” is symbolically used. At the same time, isn't society trying to take away from our thinking this room for interpretation and choice - which our traditions, our folktales, have preserved and handed down, only to fill it up with “one rightness”?

As mentioned above, the meaning of diversity and the environment which surrounds it have greatly changed over 125 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

the past 150 years. Now the function of folktales, which was once the travelers’ means of communication has been replaced by the media, such as TV and SNS, which delivers information quickly and extensively. This trend has become more marked because of the pandemic of COVID-19. Folktales have existed because people meet and share the time and space together.

Therefore, they cannot be defined by “one rightness”, but now the media has allowed us to go beyond time and space. In the face of overflowing information, we inevitably have to make choices, and are unified into the “one” guided by the general trend. TV is a typical example, and the number of views in Youtube also enhances the trend.

“In folktales, there is no real good person nor bad person.”

These are the words of Mr. Inagaki. In the first place, human beings have in them both good and evil. Folktales are created based on the episodes that actually took place. Once again, what about in modern society? Is using the term “respect for diversity” as a perfectly just concept appropriate for us human beings? In blindly following “the only one rightness”, we are reminded of the trap which we thought we have overcome, regretting the mistakes we committed before and after the war.

Diversity means imagination for others. Discovering and accepting each other leads to respect for diversity. In the face of ongoing “inflation of justice”, haven’t we accepted it as a norm and stopped thinking? Have we given up on regenerating our perceptions? As I mentioned above, isn’t the accumulation of something which cannot be defined by “one rightness” exactly the one which “diversity” refers to?

The world is full of potential. Remembering that, what are we confused about and what can we learn from diverse and tough “others” which exist in Japan?

126 / FOLKTALES

ENGAGING THE YOUTH IN ENVIRONMENTAL AWARENESS THROUGH ART MARIKO SORIMACHI

Recently, there has been a remarkable increase in public interest in the climate crisis.

The negative effects of climate change on the earth have been talked about for a long time, but in recent years, abnormalities in natural phenomena have become prominent all over the earth. With these resulting in disaster, people finally realize that the earth is screaming for help.

There is an urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developed countries, and the business world has finally begun to take serious action. In addition to reducing the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, it is necessary to absorb these gases. Therefore, new afforestation efforts and the management of existing forests are necessary.

According to data from Global Forest Watch, between 2001 and 2020, the Philippines lost forest area of 1.29Mha or 6.9% of its land area. The amount of carbon dioxide that could not be absorbed due to forest tree loss is equivalent to 753 Mt. Even after 2017, when the Philippines agreed to the international Paris Agreement on climate change, the rate of deforestation has remained flat.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Philippines has been experiencing remarkable economic growth. While the Philippines was focused on catching up with its more economically advanced Southeast Asian neighbors, it had no time to worry about environmental issues.

127 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

This is happening not only in the Phiippines but also in all countries in Southeast Asia undergoing rapid economic development. Indonesia, one of the participating countries in this project, has an even higher rate of deforestation than the Philippines.

In developing countries with rapidly growing economies, the remote areas far from the capital have maintained their forests. In addition to forests, many of these areas are rich in water resources and valuable underground mineral resources. The people living in these resource-rich areas are often indigenous peoples. Many indigenous peoples live in the Cordillera region, the Philippines, and in Aceh of Sumatra Island, Indonesia. These two areas are the focus of this project.

Foreign and domestic companies seeking economic benefits have preyed on these areas for their rich natural resources. These resources are vigilantly sought after. The indigenous peoples who have been living in the abundance of nature do not realize the value of what they have. While they have lived in harmony with their environment, they are quickly sucked into the changing economy. Of course, they have no way of knowing that the carbon sequestration rate of their all-too-familiar forests play a vital role in achieving carbon neutrality.

As a result, indigenous peoples living in remote areas are busy converting their "useless" forests, which do not directly generate money, into vegetable gardens (in the Cordillera region) and palm tree plantations (in Sumatra), to provide their daily wages. Conservation of endangered wildlife and plant species and biodiversity do not bring food to the table and therefore, it is not their primary concern.

No matter how much the people in the cities raise their voices about the importance of nature or how strict the government is in enforcing environmental protection laws, the environment cannot be protected unless the people living there themselves feel the need to protect the forests to change their behavior. This is the 128 / FOLKTALES

motivation behind our environmental education programs that led us to communities deep in the mountains where forests still exist, clear water flows, and rich mineral resources are hidden.

The environmental education we organize in the communities is based on the local environment and people's lives. First, we listen to the voices of the people in the community. This is not a top-down teaching style that talks about the difficult task of solving environmental problems. We have been facilitating workshops to have them rediscover the beauty of the trees, forests, and water that have been passed down from generation to generation by their ancestors, and that have supported their lives. We believe that workshops that use the five senses and sometimes the six senses through the application of theater and art will leave a deep impression on people's hearts. We have conducted many such workshops in mountain communities in the 20 years since our founding.

However, in the end, it is up to the indigenous peoples who live there to decide how to use their land and resources.

As outsiders, we have no say in the matter. Adults who live in poverty tend to pursue material wealth in their daily lives. Therefore, our workshops are often held for children and adolescents who are soft-hearted. We hope that when they grow up and become adults and have to make important choices about their land and resources, they will have options other than "money."

Fortunately, the indigenous youths from the Cordillera region of the Philippines and Aceh, Indonesia, who participated in this theater workshop project are young people who love their land and are very proud of the culture they have inherited.

For them, the reduction of greenhouse gases must be a distant world, but I could see the bright future of the earth in their straightforward gaze.

MARIKO SORIMACHI She has lived in Baguio City, Philippines since 1996. In 2001, she founded the Cordillera Green Network (CGN). Since then, she has been planning and leading environmental education programs mainly for indigenous peoples in the mountainous region of the Cordillera. She is currently an advisor for CGN Philippines and President of CGN Japan.

129 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

ACTIVITIES CALENDAR May 14, 2021 Philippines/Japan Activity Title: Online Workshop for Filipino Community Facilitators “How will the world be different because of COVID-19?”

Facilitator/Speaker: Setsu Hanasaki This was the first online session with Japanese facilitators and Filipino community facilitators as participants. All participants each shared the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their lives. Setsu Hanasaki, talked about the possibilities and difficulties of conducting the workshop online, and everyone had a discussion. Mariko Sorimachi of CGN explained the overall flow of the project with the online component.

May-August, 2021 Philippines Activity Title: Face-to-face and online theater workshops in the communities Facilitators/Speakers: Kevin Rosito, Roger Federico, Leemar Damuasen, Lynette Bibal In four communities (three in Benguet and one in Abra), community facilitators conducted a combination of face-to-face and online theater workshops. The participants and facilitators researched the folktales and conducted a series of theater workshops based on the research. Each team eventually produced a theatrical piece, which was videotaped for presentation in the online exchange.

May 29, 2021 Philippines/Indonesia Activity Title: Online Special Lecture for Indonesian & Filipino facilitators “ What Folktales Tell Us” Facilitator/Speaker: Noriko Iizuka Ms. Noriko Iizuka, an applied cultural anthropologist, was invited as a guest speaker to give an online lecture to partner organizations, facilitators and staff in Aceh, Indonesia and community facilitators and staff in the Philippines.

Ms. Iizuka gave a presentation titled “What Folktales Tell Us: Learning from the Tlingit Indigenous People’s Mythology in Canada by Theater Workshop” where we learned about the significance of symbolic learning.

June 12-13, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Day 1 & 2: Face-to-face workshop in Ueda, Japan; "Folktale Telling by Yuichi Inagaki" Facilitators/Speakers: Yuichi Inagaki, Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda On the first day, we had a self-introduction workshop using portraits. Then we visited a story-teller, Yuichi Inagaki and listened to folktales. On the second day, participants wrote down their impressions of the folktales on a sheet of paper, and then participated in a workshop to express the folktales with their bodies.

130 / FOLKTALES

June 12, 2021 Philippines/Japan Activity Title: Online sharing of five important things Facilitator/Speaker: Setsu Hanasaki Facilitator Setsu Hanasaki asked the community facilitators in advance to think of five important things in their homeland and to prepare photos of them. In this online session, the community facilitators showed and explained the photos they had prepared. They also reported on the status of folktale collection in their respective communities. They also shared their progress in organizing workshops in their areas.

June 13, 2021 Philippines/Japan Activity Title: Online Exchange Program between Japan and Philippines Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki , Riki Takeda, Mariko Sorimachi, Megumi Naoi This is the first online exchange between the participants and facilitators from the Cordillera, Philippines and Ueda City, Japan. Mariko Sorimachi introduced the Cordillera region and the coordinator, Ms. Naoi, introduced Ueda, and each participant introduced themselves. This was followed by a question and answer session.

June 23, 2021 Philippines/Indonesia Activity Title: Online Theater Workshop with Agus Nur Amal Facilitator/Speaker: Agus Nur Amal Agus Nur Amal from the Jakarta Studio joined us as a guest facilitator, and taught us how to use familiar objects and smartphones in a fun way to create theatrical performances.

July 3-4, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Day 3 & 4 : Face-to-face workshop in Ueda, Japan; Field work at Kurafuchi Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda The facilitator challenged the participants to imagine the sounds, smells, and touches in the two folktales. On the third day, the participants first shared them with each other.

This was followed by a workshop called “Ear Cleaning,” which focused on sound. On the fourth day, they went on a field trip to a place called Kurafuchi and practiced the workshop “Ear Cleaning” in nature. Afterwards, they returned to the workshop site and held a poetry workshop “Tula Dula”.

July 22-23, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Day 5 & 6 : Face-to-face workshop in Ueda, Japan Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda On the fifth day, participants discussed two themes in relation to "Deidarabotchi and a Widow" on “experiences that don’t work no matter how many times you try” and “prayer”. This was followed by a vocal exercise. For the final presentation, the participants were divided into two teams, and each team was assigned one folktale.

131 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

July 29, 2021 Philippines/Indonesia Activity Title: Online Exchange Program between Indonesia and Philippines Facilitators/Speakers: Agus Nur Amal, Setsu Hanasaki, Fauzan, Raza, Yulfan, Riki Takeda High school students from Bener Meriah in Aceh, who gathered in Banda Aceh for the workshop, interacted online with Filipino community facilitators and participants from their respective teams.

July 29-31, 2021 Indonesia Activity Title: Face-to-face theater workshop Facilitators/Speakers: Agus Nur Amal, Fauzan, Reza, Yulfan, Azhari In line with local regulations to curb the spread of COVID-19, the workshop was held in Banda Aceh, with participants coming from Bener Meriah. The workshop took place over three days, during which the participants shared their collected folktales, conducted a drama workshop, and shot a video to be presented online. During this time, there was also online interaction between the Japanese participants and the Filipino participants.

July 31, 2021 Indonesia/ Japan Activity Title: Online Exchange Program between Japan and Indonesia Facilitators/Speakers: Agus Nur Amal, Fauzan, Raza, Yulfan, Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda Participants from both Aceh and Japan introduced themselves. On the Philippine side, the Mankayan team presented a chant that they plan to use in a play, and the La Trinidad team presented a digital drawing of a folktale.

July 31- Aug 1, 2021 Philippines Activity Title: Video shooting of theater production in Mankayan and Buguias, Benguet Province Facilitators/Speakers: Roger Federico , Kevin Rosito A video and photo crew went to Buguias and Mankayan in Benguet to film the folktale telling and theatrical presentation.

132 / FOLKTALES

July 31-Aug 1, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Day 7 & 8: Face-to-face workshop in Ueda, Japan Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda On the seventh day, the participants from Japan had an online exchange with Aceh, Indonesia, and then later rehearsed with the facilitators. On the eighth day, they continued the rehearsal and then recorded their performance on video for the online exchange.

Aug 2, 2021 Philippines Activity Title: Final live presentation of Mankayan Team Facilitator/Speaker: Kevin Rosito The Mankayan team did a final rehearsal and then performed live to their parents and community as their audience.

Aug 7, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Day 9: Face-to-face workshop in Ueda, Japan Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda On the ninth day, the participants together with their respective facilitators conducted a full-day rehearsal of their folktale theater plays.

Aug 8, 2021 Indonesia/ Philippines/ Japan Activity Title: Online Exchange Program; Final Presentation of theater based on folktales and discussions Facilitators/Speakers: Agus Nur Amal, Yulfan, Bartiar, Harsa, Roger Federico, Kevin Rosito, Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda, Noriko Iizuka The participants from the three countries gathered at their respective venues with facilitators and connected online. The program began by sharing a video of the folktale telling, followed by a video presentation of the play created during the workshop. After each presentation, there was a question and answer session among the participants.

The Philippines was represented by the Buguias team. The participants from Aceh participated from the school in Bener Meriah, while the facilitators attended from the organization’s office in Banda Aceh. The main venue, Sai no Tsuno in Ueda City, provided Indonesian and English interpreters to support them, and everyone had a very fruitful exchange.

Aug 9, 2021 Japan Activity Title: Final live presentation of Ueda Team Facilitators/Speakers: Setsu Hanasaki, Riki Takeda In the morning, the participants had a final rehearsal with the facilitators. In the afternoon, a theater performance was held with an audience. There was also a live narration of the folktales by storyteller Yuichi Inagaki. The audience numbered 28.

After the presentations, all the participants, facilitators, and Ueda’s coordinator held a symposium on stage to discuss the project.

133 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Project Organizer

CORDILLERA GREEN NETWORK (CGN)

CGN was established in 2001 in Baguio City, Philippines, and is an environmental NGO registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission of the Philippines.

CGN's activities aim to conserve the environment in the mountainous Cordillera region and improve the livelihoods of the indigenous people living there with less environmental impact. Although it is a small NGO, it has been steadily carrying out various projects in the mountain communities for 20 years.

CGN's main environmental conservation and restoration activities include planting native trees on communal lands for water source recharge, teaching agroforestry, and distributing seedlings to private landowners. At the same time, the project has provided guidance and materials for nursery establishment so that the communities, on their own, can continue planting trees and maintain their forests.

In the agroforestry project, the CGN has been encouraging the cultivation of Arabica coffee in the highlands, which suits the geographical requirements and climate. CGN believes that introducing the coffee produce to a good market will motivate farmers to expand agroforestry. In recent years, CGN has been teaching post-harvest processing techniques to make high-quality coffee and providing equipment and materials necessary for processing. To support marketing, CGN has also established a marketing arm, Kapi Tako Social Enterprise.

134 / FOLKTALES

Environmental education is also another pillar of CGN's activities. It started with an Ecological Painting Competition held in 2001 in collaboration with the Kiyosato Educational Experiment Project (KEEP), Japan. Over the past 20 years, CGN has developed and implemented a variety of art-applied environmental education workshops in the mountainous communities of Cordillera. The target beneficiaries are children, youth, and teachers. CGN has also produced educational materials to guide the implementation of environmental education in schools and communities. In addition, CGN has organized many environmental events to convey the message of environmental conservation to the broader community.

Through the network of Mariko Sorimachi, one of the founders of CGN, many Japanese artists and environmental educators have participated in CGN's ecological projects.

Due to the pandemic that started in 2020, CGN's activities were also restricted.

It became difficult to enter communities, especially in the mountainous regions. This "Theater project on Environmental Issues for Youth of the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan" was also postponed. Coincidentally, this project was resumed in 2021 as if to commemorate the 20th anniversary of CGN's founding.

135 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ART WORKS & ILLUSTRATIONS ISWADI BIN BASRI Born in Geuleding in 1977, Iswadi bin Basri completed his education in Padang Tiji. From 1997 to 2003, he began to sharpen his talent in painting while working as a street painter in Jakarta. Since 2003, he started working in various magazines as an illustrator and began to hold and participate in various art exhibitions in many cities in Indonesia. He is also actively involved in art activities with high school students in Aceh. He has received many awards for his artworks, including the ISBI Aceh logo competition in 2012, the “Visit Aceh Year” t-shirt design competition and contemporary calligraphy works in 2013, an art award from the Office of Culture and Tourism of the Province of Aceh in 2014, and from the 7th Aceh Arts Week in 2018.

RAINEL LEE Born in Baguio City, Rainel Lee studied BS Development Communication in Benguet State University but decided to leave school in his third year to pursue happiness instead. At present, he mainly works as a videographer and occasionally takes on illustration commissions, mostly pro-bono or with minimal pay, simply because drawing is one of his passions. He also likes making independent short animation projects as a way to seek happiness, which is quite elusive most of the time.

MEET-AN Born in Miyazaki Prefecture in 1982, she completed the Graduate School of Education from the Fukuoka University of Education. With the theme, “Blessing of the Individual”, she has developed her works using various techniques such as sculpture, installation, and drawing.

Through these works, she tries to shake the

memories of individuals and places forgotten over time and affirm their existence. In recent years, she has been exploring the technique of "listening and drawing," in which she listens to the trivial and personal stories of people close to her and then draws them.

MEEKO KOIKE She has been creating works of art while imagining the stories of herself and others and seeking to develop a positive relationship with the world. Since 2005, she has been working on an art project called "live-rally," She carries a yellow globe made of cloth and travels around various regions, asking people she meets to write down where they want to go and where they have been. Under "Art Space Passage”, she has been organizing exhibitions of works by children from Asian countries since 2010.

In 2020 she was in charge of stage design for "Haplos," a joint project between PETA (Philippine Educational Theater Association) in Manila, and BRDG, a theater company in Kyoto. She is a lover of the delusional and the material at the same time.

HIROKO TAKAHAMA Born in Kobe, Japan in 1969, she began exhibiting in 1991. After experiencing the Great Hanshin Earthquake at the age of 25, she began to think about the relationship between life and art. At 39, she went to India to study the philosophy of the poet Rabindranath Tagore and later studied under Mr. Etsuro Sotoo, the chief sculptor of the Sagrada Familia Cathedral of the Atonement in Spain.In addition to creating her own art, she has been a facilitator of art programs that deal with human dignity through community revitalization, environmental education in the Philippines, and trauma-informed care in hospitals. Painting is the root of all her activities. Painting is her soul.

136 / FOLKTALES

TEXT

TRANSLATION

Agus Nur Namal Yulfan Azhari Roger Federico Kevin Rosito Leemar Damuasen Sacha Garah Jasmin Wakana Yui Yukino Isawa Setsu Hanasaki Riki Takeda Yuichi Inagaki Noriko Iizuka Mariko Sorimachi Hector Kawig Kyoko Ishizaka Megumi Naoi

Asih Purwanti Ami Meutia Anastasya Wulandari Hasyim Motoko Shimagami Kazuyo Futaesaku Akari Nakamura Mayumi Hirano Etsuko Desembrana Fumiko Kobayashi Noriko Iizuka Mariko Sorimachi

PHOTOGRAPHY Gladys Maximo Rainel Lee Roger Federico Kevin Rosito Leemar Damuasen Lynette CarantesBibal Koji Tsujimura Kyoko Ishizaka Yasuhiko Naoi Megumi Naoi Japan Foundation Samantha Lee CNN Philippines Komunitas Tikar Pandan Cordillera Green Network Inc.

SPECIAL THANKS TO [ACEH, INDONESIA] Fauzan Santa Sukmayati Sukarni Muhammad Reza Rachmadhani Reza Hendra Putra Hasra Putra Hidayatullah Fakrullah Maulana Jufri Bahtiar Ariega SMK N 5 Bener Meriah SMA Bustand Ulum RTIK Yulfan & Rekan Law Office Sahoo Room Info Nanggroe [BUGUIAS, BENGUET PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES] Rolly Federico Shylah Caweng Astrida Talabis Loo National High School Loo Elementary School

[TUBO, ABRA PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES] Valerie D. Lataoan Zedrick John P. Macario Tiempo National High School Principal Charito B. Dioayan Proper Tiempo Achievers Youth Organization (PTAYO) Tiempo, Tubo, Abra Province Captain Anthony Lataoan and the Community [MANKAYAN, BENGUET PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES] Jay Ar Dongga-as Wayford Sab-it Gloria Ngaosi Levanie Dongga-as Arnel Lugao Robin Baniaga Renzie Bart Dullipas Tabio National High School Nursery-Kalinga Community Pasil Residents and Employees Association (PRESA) Kalinga Women’s Organizations Sapid, Mankayan, Benguet

137 / FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

[LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES] Clint Taynan Macush Taynan Lacambini Carantes Scaffold farm [PHILIPPINES] Hector Kawig Department of Education (DepEd) Benguet Province Division Office Lily Jamias Mhyra Seset Kika Sorimachi Aliya Sartbayeva Peleo Amador Peleo Awil Achuan Kika Sorimachi [UEDA, JAPAN] Saeko Oyama Masayo Matsuda Mio Nogawa Tomo Yoshizawa Reina Yuriko Yuliana Shigesawa Coffee Hiroshi Sakai Nagisa Kaneda Asako Minase Hiroko Sakai

SCAN

REFERENCES YouTube links of theater production and Folktale Storytelling

Cordillera Green Network

CORDILLERA GREEN NETWORK YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/ UCBkVPVHQMhulUMGvbUzYIuA/videos

“Gumallingan” Theater Play (Tubo, Abra Province) Facilitator/Director: Leemar Damuasen [English & Japanese Subtitle] https://youtu.be/-5tbwEEIcqI

ACEH, INDONESIA

”Gumallingan" Original Folktale Storytelling (Tubo, Abra Province) Storyteller: Patricia Damuasen [English & Japanese subtitle] https://youtu.be/13sMCX0iPPc

”Kite” Theater Play Facilitator/Director: Agus Nur Amal [English & Japanese Subtitles] https://youtu.be/C6IrbMXeBD4 Documentary "Interview with Old Forest Guard" in Aceh, Indonesia [English & Japanese Subtitles] https://youtu.be/NKyfScK_nuk CORDILLERA, PHILIPPINES "Ambakbak" Theater Play (Buguias, Benguet) Facilitator/Director: Roger Federico [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia Subtitles] https://youtu.be/nBppssJoYJY "Ambakbak" Original Folktale Storytelling (Buguias, Benguet & Tinoc, Ifugao) Storyteller: Julia Asusano [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia Subtitles] https://youtu.be/RWdxZVqnvpk A Short Documentary of the Theater Workshop Process of “Ambakbak” [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia Subtitles] https://youtu.be/nM0G9kZEAIE "Sitan" Theater Play (Mankayan, Benguet Province) Facilitator/Director: Kevin Rosito [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia Subtitles] https://youtu.be/OOjmVC_hMVY "Sitan" Original Folktale Storytelling (Mankayan, Benguet Province) Storyteller: Merinda Rosito [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia subtitle] https://youtu.be/x8hyqxAULGY A Short Documentary of the Theater Workshop Process of "Sitan" [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia] https://youtu.be/PydbF6ftJXs

”Dagdagimoyo” Original Folktale Storytelling (Kibungan, Benguet Province) Storyteller: Alma Dayso [English & Japanese & Bahasa Indonesia subtitle] https://youtu.be/e1WMeI_P-aE UEDA CITY, NAGANO, JAPAN ”Koizumi Kotaro” Theater Play Facilitator/Director: Setsu Hanasaki [English subtitle] https://youtu.be/lOMFKtuGiRQ [Bahasa Indonesia subtitle] https://youtu.be/ebJYzxiqocM ”Koizumi Kotaro” Original Folktale Storytelling Storyteller Yuichi Inagaki [English Subtitle] https://youtu.be/XrA0O8kVfWs [Bahasa Indonesia Subtitle] https://youtu.be/M4AwIm7Quog ”Daidarabotchi and a Widow” Theater Play Facilitator/Director: Riki Takeda [English Subtitle] https://youtu.be/DhaZK6gG8w8 [Bahasa Indonesia subtitle] https://youtu.be/6jNz9cmljy4 ”Daidarabotchi and a Widow" Original Folktale Storytelling [English Subtitle] Storyteller: Yuichi Inagaki https://youtu.be/srkJNnbXsFw [Bahasa Indonesia Subtitle] https://youtu.be/gs-0KD3_1I8

138 / FOLKTALES

THEATER PROJECT ON ENVIRONMENT ISSUES FOR THE YOUTH OF THE PHILIPPINES, INDONESIA AND JAPAN

ORGANIZED BY:

Cordillera Green Network (CGN) (Philippines) CO-ORGANIZED BY:

Komunitas Tikar Pandan (KTP) (Indonesia)

Theater & Arts Ueda (Japan) Daichi no kioku Executive Committee IN COOPERATION WITH: Manalabo- Learning Design for Environment and Peace

WITH GRANTS FROM:

The Japan Foundation Asia Center Grant Program for Promotion of Culture Collaboration Osaka Community Foundation Kodomo Yume Fund

Calle Uno Building, 3 Escoda cor. Naguilian Road, Quezon Hill 2600 Baguio City, Philippines https://www.cordilleragreen.net