Research group IBON and several partners are launchiing an album to help amplify farmers’ and Filipinos’ ‘land to the tiller, food for all’ clamor. The music album Punlaan will be featuring original compositions by Filipino farmers, indigenous peoples and cultural workers. The album launch caps an “organic food and farming for all”-themed exhibition on the same day.
Punlaan pertains to fertile soil. The album offers songs narrating the continuing plight, aspirations and struggle of Filipino farmers across the nation.
Punlaan will be launched on October 22, 4pm at the Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) Gymnasium amid peasant and indigenous Filipinos’ campaign for land and rights and an overarching call for a just and lasting peace.
In various textures and featuring indigenous Filipino sound and music forged through the centuries, the songs depict the neocolonial nature of Philippine society and how it causes farmers’ miseries (Neo Kolonyal; Manggagawang Bukid; Ambahan; Mangunguma Ako), the plunder of agricultural resources by corporate projects posing as bringers of development leading to farmers’ and indigenous peoples’ displacement and rights violations (On Potok; Saringsing sa Oma; Kabudlay ng Mangingisda; Bakwit); how farmers’ and indigenous peoples’ communities painstakingly sow and reap the benefits of collective work, and continue to strengthen their ranks and unify with other sectors to achieve social justice (Misyonero ng Kanayunan; Pagay; Magsasaka Ikaw ang Punla; Titulo). The album’s bonus track On Bado Kong Ledot also speaks of a farmers’ family’s travails beginning with a child’s lament of having only one piece of torn garment to wear.
For the album, IBON collaborated with the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP) with help from DAR, the League of Authors of Public Interest Songs (LAPIS), Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), and the National Center for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), and support from the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC).
A Green Action Exchange side event will feature an exhibit of organic products, photos and methods. The Exchange will be spearheaded by the Green Action PH Network composed of various groups united on the importance of advancing green producerism. With these activities aiming to reach out to the broad Filipino public, IBON and Green Action PH Network likewise join Green Action Week, a globally coordinated campaign for organic food and farming for all.
(Punlaan artists hail from various groups of farmers, workers and cultural workers from the Cordilleras to Mindanao: the TUBAW Music Collective, Salidummay-Dap-ayan iti Kultura ti Kordilyera (DKK), Sining Kanlungan, REDs PangKat Sining (Redemptorists-Simbahan at Sining para sa Katarungang Panlipunan) with Bigkis at Lakas ng Katutubo sa Timog Kataglugan (BALATIK) and DUMAGAT Sierra Madre, Samahan ng mga Magsasaka sa Kanlurang Mindoro (SAMAKAMI), Unyon ng mga Manggagawang Bukid sa Kanlurang Mindoro (UMBKM), Sining Banwa Albay Performance Collective Inc. (Sining Banwa), Artista kag Manunulat nga Makibanwahanon (AMBON), Teatro Obrero, Samahan ng Lingkod na Artista sa Mindanao (SALAMIN) and Kalinawagan Ensemble.)
