Balitok: Voices from the Mines【English】

Cordillera Youth to Stage Mining Play in Philippines and Indonesia

Dealing with the state of mining in the Cordilleras, youth from various Cordillera communities will stage “Balitok: Voices from the Mines” in Baguio City on July 26 and in Makati City on July 29,2017.

“Balitok: Voices from the Mines” will be staged following a series of theater workshops in Tadian, Mt. Province and Baguio City. A post-production theater workshop will also be held in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. The play is organized through the Cordillera Green Network’s (CGN) Environmental Education Program – Theater Project on Environmental Issues for Indigenous Youth in the Philippines and Indonesia. It continues “Mining Stories,” last year’s theater project wherein young actors researched in mining areas in Benguet and Mt. Province. Miners, community elders, and other researchers were interviewed and mining sites were visited before a workshop series was conducted resulting in the performance of monologues and Forum Theater at the Holy Rosary High School in Kayan, Tadian. Members of Aanak di Kabiligan, CGN’s brainchild theater group, will compose most of this year’s acting participants. This year’s project, larger in scale and production, will pick up elements from last year’s process-based documentary theater including Forum Theater – an interactive theater developed by the late Brazilian director Augusto Boal. Forum Theater allows a mediating actor to guide the audience on stage and improvise on the script for them to understand the situation presented in the play.

Seasoned stage directors Toshihisa Yoshida and Setsu Hanasaki are back on the helm for this year’s production. Both specialize in experimental and process-based theater production and have previously worked with Baguio-based CGN in facilitating theater projects in the Cordillera Region. Rocky Cajigan will work on set design while Katsu Mizumachi and Adela II Bantasan will collaborate for music.

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BALITOK – VOICES FROM THE MINES

＜Baguio＞

6 PM, July 26,2017 (Wed)

at CAP DevelopmentCenter Auditorium,

4th Floor CAP Building, Baguio City, Philippines

Admission Free

Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1466881653334532

＜Manila＞

7PM July 29, 2017（Sat）

at TIU Theater

Amorsolo St., cor dela Rosa St., Makati City, Philippines

Admission Free

Facebook Event Page:

https://www.facebook.com/events/1701525313476663/

＜ Aceh, Indonesia＞

Aug 2, 2017

at Sultan Selim II

Jl. Sultan Alaiddin Mahmudsyah, Kp. Baru, Baiturrahman, Kota Banda Aceh, Aceh 23116, Indonesia

Phone: +62 823-6626-0999

Aug 3-7, 2017

Theater Workshops

at Green Paradise

Jeumpet Ajun, Darul Imarah, Aceh Besar Regency, Aceh 23232, Indonesia

Phone: +62 811-681-554

[Inquires]

Cordillera Green Network Inc.

+63-744230839　/ +63-9052297972(Hector) / +63-9283420719(Lily)

cordigreen@gmail.com

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Organizer:

Cordillera Green Network Inc.

# 25 J. Felipe Street, Gibraltar,Baguio City, 2600, Philippines

+63-744230839

cordigreen@gmail.com

https://cordigreen.jimdo.com

with corporation with:

Communitas Tikar Pandan　(Aceh, Indonesia)

Jl.Tgk. Geuceu Menara, Kampung Garot. Banda Aceh. Aceh. Indonesia. 23237

tikar_pandan@hotmail.com

www.tikarpandan.org

Creative Image Foundation & TIU Theater

Amorsolo st. cor. Dela Rosa st. Makati City

(02) 845-0804 or (02)478-9410

http://www.tiu.makati.j

tiutheater@gmail.com

Grant:

The Japan Foundation Asia Center

Grant Program for Promotion of Cultural Collaboration

Sponsors:

Kiyosato Experiment Educational Project, Japan

SDS Multimedia Services

Urasenke Tankokai Manila Association

Share and Guesthouse TALA

Café Yagam

＜About the Project＞

Theater Project on Environmental Issues for Youth

in the Cordillera,Philippines and Aceh, Indonesia

The Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR), Philippines is not only rich in cultural heritage but also in natural resources. However, deforestation and mining activities continue to adversely impact the quality of life in some indigenous communities where, in effect, water has become polluted and scarce. The Cordillera Green Network (CGN), an environmental NGO in the Philippines has been organizing projects and activities addressing these environmental issues. A theatre project under CGN’s Environmental Education Program is among these activities where theater workshops are held for the local youth. The program has been utilizing theater as a medium of change since CGN’s establishment in 2001.

In 2016, CGN’s theater project focused on small-scale mining issues in the Cordillera particularly on the health problems faced by miners and their family members and environmental damage to soil and water bodies caused by chemicals used in refining ore. Young participants from the six Cordillera provinces together with facilitators visited mining areas and researched on the life of miners and other people involved in the mining industry. The result is a documentary play composed of a set of monologue performances based on interviews made during the research period.

The performance was held twice at the Holy Rosary High School in Kayan East, Tadian, Mt. Province. The first show had an audience of the school’s students and faculty while the encore performance was seen by other community members. The play included Forum Theatre, an interactive theater developed by the late Brazilian director Augusto Boal where a mediating actor (the Joker) guides audience members on stage to improvise on the play and present their views on the issues presented in the play. It was actively participated in by both audiences and resulted in an examination of the positive and negative effects of mining.

For this year’s continuation of the theater project, the Japan Foundation Asia Center under the Grant for Cultural Collaboration funded an expanded version of last year’s project, now involving youth from the Philippines and Indonesia. The same participants from last year will be gathered for another series of workshops and performances in Baguio City and Makati City, Philippines. They will then be collaborating with Indonesian youth participants in workshops to be held in Aceh, Indonesia. Both groups will share experiences regarding the environmental issues that their communities face.

(Mariko Sorimachi, Project Director, CGN)

＜FACILITATORS PROFILES＞

Setsu Hanasaki (Director/Facilitator)

Setsu Hanasaki is executive director of the Engeki Design Guild, a group that leads and delivers applied theater projects. She isa theater practitioner, working as a facilitator, actress, director and teacher. She has worked on various theater and performance projects in manyAsian countries and beyond. Her works including Youth Drama Workshops in Aceh,Indonesia (2006-09), and Educational Theater Project for Environment in Cordillera, Philippines (2014-16), and so on. She is also a part-time lecturer in the Department of Theatre at Nihon University and Musashino Art University.

ToshihisaYoshida (Director/Facilitator)

Toshihisa Yoshida is a theater director and facilitator and a Filipino-Japanese translator and interpreter. He joined Ten-I-21 Theater Company as an actor in 1993 and Rinkogun Theater Company in 1995. He joined a theatre workshop by the Philippine Educational Theater Association(PETA) in 1999 and started an annual theater workshop for students of Japanese descent at ABONG in Baguio City from 2003 to 2010. He also facilitated several theatre workshops organized by Cordillera Green Network (CGN). Among his works and project involvements are Philippine Bed Time Stories (Omnibus), Walang Iwanan, 1000ng Tula para sa Dibdib ni Dulce and S. B. F. (2004); Taong Grasaand Usapang Babae (2005); Philippine Bed Time Stories 2, Unang Aswang, Hubad,and Ligaya sa Isang Pinoy Bar (2006); Terroristang Labandera by Debbie Ann Tanat Virgin Labfest 3 (2007); Amoy ng Langit by Hiroichi Hase at Virgin Labfest4(2008); and Kitchen Media by Gen Yamamoto at Virgin Labfest 5 (2009).

Rocky Cajigan (Set design)

Rocky Cajigan is an indigenous Bontok artist currently based in Baguio City, Philippines. His visual work, mostly in assemblage, painting and installation, are largely focused on identity issues and the transitioning of and decolonization in indigenous cultures. His work includes community organizing, art projects management in the Cordillera in Luzon, and theater set design. He is a recipient of the Ateneo Art Awards 2016 – Fernando Zobel Prizes for Visual Art.

Katsu Mizumachi (Music)

Music scope: Greek Bouzouki, Irish Bouzouki Guitar, Bodhran, Jew's Harp,EthnicInstrument, Vocals

Katsu's sound journey started with an exploration into folk, rock and experimental noise music. In the early 1990's, he started to become more interested in the resonance of ethnic instruments, and his travels around Europe and Asia taught him many things about music and sound. He found that despite the diverse differences in style between genres and music of the East and West, this music can cross borders and speak to our feelings. He came to the understanding that making music and exploring musical instruments are universal among people all ages and cultures, and he leads workshops teaching people how to make simple instruments out of bamboo and play them. Recently he has been incorporating poetry and storytelling with music and is exploring further possibilities with sound.

Adela II A. Bantasan (Music)

Adela II A. Bantasan is the present director of the Socio-cultural Affairs Office of the Mountain Province State Polytechnic College where she teaches Humanities and Mathematics in the Teacher Education Department. Her involvement in theatre began with the Dap-ayan ti Kultura itiKordilyera, a cultural group that uses music, theater and visual arts in its Information Education Campaign to address socio-cultural issues confronting the Cordillera Administrative Region in the Philippines. The cultural group brought to the Cultural Center of the Philippines its first musical play as part of the 1stNational Theater Festival in 1991. She sings, plays indigenous instruments and writes plays including the "Life and Works of Fr. Leon Dapiaoen"(2008). She is also a member of the Bringing out the Indigenous Knowledge Nurtured by the Ancestors to the Next Generations, Inc. (BINANGI) that produced a music album titled "Day-eng di Ina" (2010). She believes that the theater arts play a great role in the cultural vitality of the community.

＜ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILES＞

Cordillera Green Network Inc.

Cordillera Green Network Inc. (CGN) is anenvironmental NGO established in 2001 at Baguio City, Northern Luzon of thePhilippines. CGN’s main purpose is to preserve and protect the naturalresources and to support income generating livelihood for the indigenous peoplein the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR) in an eco-friendly andsustainable way. CAR comprises six provinces namely Benguet, Mountain Province,Ifugao, Kalinga, Abra, and Apayao.

Part of CGNs projects is Agro-forestry thataims to improve farmers’ livelihood through seedlings distribution,reforestation in watershed areas, and technical assistance. CGN has beenintroducing appropriate technologies such as biogas, organic compost productionand many more.

CGN advocates environmental conservationthrough the use of various environmental education programs to educationalinstitutions from Kindergarten to the University. One of their environmentaleducation programs is the use of theater and visual arts to encourage thecommunity to protect and preserve their environment. Filipino and Japaneseartists do collaboration works to introduce theater and visual arts to thecommunity. Most of the CGN working staffs are members of indigenous people inthe Cordilleras.

Komunitas Tikar Pandan　(Aceh, Indonesia)

Komunitas Tikar Pandan (KTP)was established in 2002 by young activists and artists from various universities in Aceh to learn about the cultural issues that happen during political conflicts in Aceh. The group progressed in its initiatives as acultural-movement to influence state policies in defining the culture of politics in Aceh. KTP’s community grew as an organization in the cultural-league form: associating with organizations concerned with cultural issues in Aceh. KTP acts as a coordinator. Its partner organizations consist of Sekolah Menulis Dokarim, Toko Buku Dokarim, Metamorfosa Institute, JurnalKebudayaan Gelombang Baru, TV Eng Ong, Episentrum Ulee Kareng, and PenerbitanAneuk Mulieng Publishing.

Through a five-year strategic planning began in 2007, KTP sharpened its organization orientation by acting as a civil society organization that is a center of learning and strengthening society by emancipation – where culture influences and achieves a just and orderly society. KTP, in 2011, cooperated with human rights activists and established the Museum HAM Aceh (Aceh Human Rights Museum). KTP actively makes good relationships with support institutions in Aceh, Indonesia, and overseas:European Union, HIVOS, ICCO, Secours Populaire Français, Tifa Foundation, The Asia Foundation, Goethe Institute, Japan Foundation, Rotary Japan ClubFoundation, Rotterdam-Arab Film Festival, Iran Embassy in Indonesia, In-docs, Ruangrupa,KampungHalaman, INSIST.

Guided by the motto “It’senough of hegemony, it’s time for emancipation”, KTP has implemented andcontinues to implement programs including peace campaigns, conflict resolutions,and others through TV Eng Ong that reaches almost all regencies/cities in Aceh;established writing schools and published books and cultural journals; provided libraries both permanent and mobile in some regencies/cities in Aceh; teaches teenagers from regencies/cities in Aceh about conflict resolution and peace through participative theater workshops; regular screenings of films from Aceh,Iran, Europe, and others concerned with social issues; conducts researches and cultural studies for publishing; runs seminars, discussions, public lectures, book launches, and writers festivals either local or international; visual art exhibitions, and others related activities.

Creative Image Foundation & TIU Theater

TIU theater aims to be a society of the following two can berealized .

●To know each other , minority children of Southeast Asiais beyond the border , race , it is possible to mutually recognize thedifference

●The children of the Philippines poor can be realized adream in their own force.

TIU Theater , Based on the above vision , two of thefollowing is a mission , we are the business .

●Southeast Asia of the community - ethnic minorities andcultural exchange by children

●Education of children in the Philippines poor throughartistic expression.

The capital of Manila in the Philippines , there are twogarbage collection area of Payatas and Smokey Mountain people of the poorest ofthe poor live . NPO corporation Creative Image Foundation ( below CIF) is togive education to the children who live there in picking up trash , wasestablished in 2000 to the first object of the present invention is to providean opportunity to flowering talent . Make a school attend free of charge toboth areas , the number of graduate students said up to now amounts to about5,000 . Not only normal education , a workshop , such as singing and dancing ,children notice their own talent , and has been actively creating anenvironment that can extend it .

CIF sister facility in 2014 Makati City , founded the TIUTheater . At the same time by when the mission of the CIF more refinement andconcentration , aim to approach to the broader society . It is Southeast Asiancommunity mainly carried out in the TIU Theater minority by children andcross-cultural exchange , the original concept of education to the children ofthe poor through the artistic expression that further developed the mission ofCIF It is.

IU since its opening in 2014 in the Theater, the Philippineshas conducted performances of theater and traditional arts by ethnic minorityyoung people of Luzon island north . Philippines is an archipelago consistingof large and small islands 7107 , population in excess of one hundred millionpeople is a multi- ethnic nation consisting of various ethnic minorities . Inour theater , as minority children throughout the Philippines is proud of theirculture and tradition , have never lose at it the wrong values ​​, wewill continue to promote cross-cultural exchange of minorities between I aims .Philippines across ethnic exchanges , thus expanding the area in Southeast Asia, ethnic minority children in Asia it will work for the purpose of which isincreasing the community awareness through interaction

Is including the Philippines , are still in the SoutheastAsian countries that are considered to be " developing countries " israre that a minority culture and culture Discover , said that the Internet hasspread , actively micro- culture is the horizontal connections It never has .Future some children , to know each other's differences beyond borders and race, mutual respect . CIF and TIU Theater is , as the center of the connectionbetween the ethnic groups , aims to be a help to cultivate the spirit ofmulticultural children's parties as well as to introduce a variety of ethnicminority culture.

Specifically , first it is possible to continue thetraditional arts performances of young people of Luzon island north that arecarried out by currently ongoing , south and invite ethnic Mindanao , manyMuslim culture in Mindanao also Christianity is more than 90% it is thoughtthat it will introduce in this capital city Manila occupy . Further expand the scopeto Southeast Asia throughout , then , simultaneous performances , etc. , wewill actively create a place of exchange.

Aanak di Kabiligan

‘Aanak di Kabiligan’, is a term in one of themany languages in the Cordilleras meaning ‘Childrenof the Mountains’. Since 2007, the Cordillera Green Network (CGN) hasbeen conducting theater workshops concerning culture and environment for theyouth in various communities in the Cordilleras. Aanak di Kabiligan wasestablished when chosen youths from the past workshops were called to perform onCGN’s first Cordillera Eco Summit that happened in BaguioCity in 2008. In 2011, some of its members visited Japan to take part in aworkshopthat dealt with environmental issues through sharing of ideas andperformances.They performed four different folk stories that originated fromtheir own respective communities at Hokuto City, Yamanashi and Nagoya City,Aichi. Mostof the members of ‘Aanak di Kabiligan’ fromMountain Province were chosen to perform for this year’stheater project.

Garden Theater, Baguio City

On one of the street corners surrounding Center MallcalledDagohoy Street, sits a somewhat derelict building called the GardenTheater.While its ground floor is inhabited by small eateries and karaoke bars,theupper levels are a whole different story (no pun intended).

With cracked staircases, scattered cement rubble, andexposedsteel frames, many might call the Garden Theater a sketchy place. Butwe call itan indie movie-like experience, and we love every inch of the place.Previouslyabandoned, the Garden Theater is being given new life with differentBaguioartists, writers, and musicians organizing special events.

(Where to Baguio http://www.wheretobaguio.com/algoritmo-spoken-word-garden-theater/)