Omehen

Omehen: The Garden as Chronicle and Strategy of Resistance (2019-present) is an ongoing experimental collaboration that focuses on the creation, maintenance, and distribution of a precarious vegetable garden in Ateneo de Manila University. Omehen means “harvest” in the Manobo Talaingod language. In the forefront of the project is supporting the Lumad people of Mindanao, particularly the Bakwit Schools, and their struggle to seek refuge, education, and community in the capital as they experience land grabbing, redtagging, and state-sponsored killings. The project is a facilitation of exchanges of knowledges between all collaborators – students in Ateneo and the Bakwit schools, a Lumad agriculturist, Ateneo’s concerned staff, faculty, and administration – in growing four local crops namely ampalaya/bitter gourd, kangkong/”swamp cabbage”, sitaw/string beans, and okra.