Omehen: The Garden as Chronicle and Strategy of Resistance, 2019-ongoing
A project based in Metro Manila, Philippines including audio testimonies and stories from the garden; original drawings and paintings from the Lumad Bakwit Schools; photos by Alfred Marasigan and Karl Castro Organized in collaboration with the Lumad Bakwit Schools, Alfred Marsigan, Karl Castro, and Ateneo de Manila University
The project Omehen (which means “harvest” in Manobo Talaingod, the Indigenous language of the Mindanao region in the south of the Philippines) was conceived by Alfred Marasigan, Karl Castro, and Guelan Luarca in collaboration with the Lumad Indigenous community in exile in Manila. Following the bombing of Lumad schools during the ongoing armed conflict in Mindanao, the Lumad people found refuge in various academic institutions in Manila, including the Ateneo de Manila University, where the artists teach.
Harvesting is an integral part of the cosmological practice of the Lumad communities, and therefore fundamental to their systems of education and knowledge sharing. Thus, the artists worked together with members of the Lumad community and students of the University to create a space of harvest within the academic institution and to facilitate the continuation of this practice and the mutual sharing of knowledges. Over the course of a year, the artists, students, and Lumad communities engaged in artistic and agricultural practice together. In response to the ideas of Notes for Tomorrow, the project Omehen was invited to present this ongoing work, which operates at the intersection of Indigenous knowledges, food security, forms of precarity and labor, and addresses questions that are central to thinking about the worlds to come.
PODCAST
The accompanying audio includes testimonies and stories from the gardens as learning sites. For more updates from the Lumad Bakwit Students, follow Save Our Schools Network on Instagram to help, donate, and connect.
