bantayan island
Bantayan Island has always been a place of nomadic sea people who travelled among different islands. People lived on, with and from the land and ocean.
“Why would you go to school? If you go to school, you have to look for a job, for money. There is so much money. Look, if you go fishing at 04:00 am and come back at 08:00am, you will have earned plenty of money’. My mother wanted me to go to school. Because the fish will disappear. Look, the fish have disappeared right?”
- Lupo Atienza, our father and seafarer from Bantayan Island
Its transformation from a traditional fishing community to a modern, cash-based economy, is evident in the changes that have taken place in the past few decades; a growing diaspora, expansion of infrastructure, introduction of technology, changing family structures and culture, the dilapidation of marine life and a deteriorating relationship with the environment.
mining
pollution
malnutrition
food shortage
drinking water
oceanic degradation
over-fishing
commodification
charcoal production
remittances
income gap
land ownership
housing
cash
employment
miseducation
industrialization
education
privatization
intervention
community dislocation
scientific knowledge
empowerment
over-fishing
ownership
access to healthcare
local knowledge
westernization
paralysis
poverty
economic
environmental
social
Since 2010, art has been our way to document life on Bantayan Island. While this process has been motivated by a need to understand the place we are from, it is also been our way to respond to social, economic and environmental issues.
projects supported by
national commission for culture and arts (ncca)
bantayan island exchanges
small projects
dienst kunst en cultuur (dkc)
Transnational Institute for Grassroots Research and Action