FOLKTALES, YOUTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Poster of the environmental program conducted in Kibungan in 2007.

WHO ARE THE MONKEYS OF KIBUNGAN?

“Boundary between fiction and true story” and Environment

NORIKO IIZUKA

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

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

(Left) Alma Dayso, a by tigers. They claim to have consulted a mystical white elephant young storyteller (Right) Lynette Bibal regarding their problems. But now, a road construction project facilitating a workshop has harmed the white elephant and caused the relationship based on Dagdagimoyo 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

existence that people thought was important even though it was invisible to the eye. When I think of "folktales," I tend to think of them as stories from some distant place, not here in time or space. They 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.

(Left) A sketch of a character from a folktale drawn by a participant in the course of the online workshop. (Right) Clint Taynan, one of the participants.

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).

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.

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.

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

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?

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

TEXT

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

PHOTOGRAPHY

Gladys Maximo Rainel Lee Roger Federico Kevin Rosito Leemar Damuasen Lynette Carantes-

Bibal Koji Tsujimura Kyoko Ishizaka Yasuhiko Naoi Megumi Naoi Japan Foundation Samantha Lee CNN Philippines Komunitas Tikar

Pandan Cordillera Green

Network Inc. TRANSLATION

Asih Purwanti Ami Meutia Anastasya Wulandari

Hasyim Motoko Shimagami Kazuyo Futaesaku Akari Nakamura Mayumi Hirano Etsuko Desembrana Fumiko Kobayashi Noriko Iizuka Mariko Sorimachi

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

[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

Cordillera Green Network

REFERENCES

YouTube links of theater production and Folktale Storytelling

CORDILLERA GREEN NETWORK

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

ACEH, INDONESIA

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

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

”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

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