Listening to the Hum of the Universe

This October, as we celebrate Indigenous Peoples Month, I shared our story, A Tale of Two Dreams (Lampara, 2013) at my workshop with the Gokongwei Brothers Foundation earlier today. 

It’s about a Mangyan child who dreams of a land he can farm and call home, while his friend dreams of seeing other lands far away. My friend Bernadette Solina Wolf—who illustrated the book—told me during our process of creation: “The Mangyan’s attachment to the land is not ownership. It is who they are.”

Having lived among the Mangyan, she understands the wisdom of our Indigenous people — a wisdom that preceded the knowledge of empire. But conquest came, and when colonial powers divided the land, they broke something deeper than borders: memory, and the knowing that we belong to the earth and are shaped by it. Being colonized meant that belonging turned into ownership, and kinship into control. Yet, the earth has a way of calling us back. 

That call resounds in Frankfurt, through the presence of our artists and storytellers: Rosie Sula, chanting with the Madrigal Singers, Renato Evangelista, carrying the ambahan of the Hanunuo Mangyan — slow, reflective, respectful; Darwin Absari, whose verse bridges Lumad, Moro, and Filipino worlds; and Kidlat Tahimik, our joyful indio-genius, whose films and creations remind the world that imagination thrives even in the power of empire. To reduce this to a mere trade fair is to silence the truth that every chant, every poem, every film born of our soil is already an act of freedom. 

Others call their presence at the Buchmesse as complicity, but it can also be a form of returning. Back to a place called home, before empire drew its lines and built hierarchies. Back to belonging, before ownership replaced kinship. Back to listening to the hum of the universe so we can sing our songs again.

#PHGOH #frankfurtbuchmesse2025 #indigenouspeoplesmonth