The Land Is Home, the Sea Is Community

Eight ways in which the Philippine Islands shape life

In 2020, I was introduced to a photography project that left me speechless. For ten years, Jacob Maentz had been photographing the Indigenous communities of the Philippines for a book he titled Homelands. He invited me to provide the accompanying text, but I found myself at a loss for words; in his images I saw glimpses of a home I didn’t know I’d lost, of a relationship I didn’t know I needed. It made me wonder if I’d ever truly known the Philippines, the country I call my own.

To find my way back, I would need to listen. In the Philippines, there are one hundred and ten communities whom we call “Indigenous,” those who have remained rooted to the diverse landscapes of our archipelago against great, unrelenting adversity. If we want to be in “right relationship” with our planet, we must learn from those who have never forgotten how. Together with Jacob and our team of researchers, we spent a hundred hours interviewing Indigenous leaders, students, nongovernmental organization (NGO) workers, artists, and academics from around the Philippines.

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