What if the secret to a fulfilling life is seeing beauty in everything around you? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Waway Saway, a local datu (tribal leader) and lead singer of Talaandig Republic, as he shares the remarkable wisdom of his indigenous community in the Philippines. Waway teaches us the invaluable lesson that recognizing beauty in our surroundings carries the responsibility to protect and preserve it. We address the critical issue of land displacement affecting indigenous people due to external acquisitions and emphasize the urgency of safeguarding ancestral lands for future generations.
Together, we navigate through the environmental challenges the Philippines faces, from the alarming decline in primary forest cover to the heartbreaking loss of pristine rivers. Waway's dedication to reforestation through the Hinilaban Foundation shines through, offering a beacon of hope and a call to action for us all. Through personal stories and heartfelt reflections, we explore the simplicity and joy of traditional indigenous lifestyles, highlighting the purity of natural resources like water that have now become commercialized. Don't miss the chance to be inspired by new music releases and join us in planting seeds of consciousness and trees to revive our lost paradise.
What if the secret to a fulfilling life is seeing beauty in everything around you? Join us for an eye-opening conversation with Waway Saway, a local datu (tribal leader) and lead singer of Talaandig Republic, as he shares the remarkable wisdom of his indigenous community in the Philippines. Waway teaches us the invaluable lesson that recognizing beauty in our surroundings carries the responsibility to protect and preserve it. We address the critical issue of land displacement affecting indigenous people due to external acquisitions and emphasize the urgency of safeguarding ancestral lands for future generations.
Together, we navigate through the environmental challenges the Philippines faces, from the alarming decline in primary forest cover to the heartbreaking loss of pristine rivers. Waway's dedication to reforestation through the Hinilaban Foundation shines through, offering a beacon of hope and a call to action for us all. Through personal stories and heartfelt reflections, we explore the simplicity and joy of traditional indigenous lifestyles, highlighting the purity of natural resources like water that have now become commercialized. Don't miss the chance to be inspired by new music releases and join us in planting seeds of consciousness and trees to revive our lost paradise.
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Wisdom Podcast. I'm your host, Storm, and today we're diving deep with Wawai Sawai. He is a local datu, meaning leader in the Native tribes in the Philippines. He's also the lead singer of Talaandig Republic, an amazing musician, an advocate for the environment and a wisdom keeper of the Filipinos. Welcome today, Wawai Sawai. Yeah, thank you for having me. So I love starting every podcast with a simple question, and that is what is the best piece of wisdom you've ever received.
Speaker 2:
I think the best wisdom that I received from the universe is the wisdom of understanding about beauty. If you have that wisdom about seeing everything as beautiful, then you have the responsibility to protect that beauty. Like when I was a kid, we were walking with my mother. We were walking towards the forest, because I grew up in the forest and she was telling me that the moon is bright and beautiful. So I had that consciousness about beauty, that everything I see in this world is beautiful. So that's the greatest wisdom that I've ever received from the universe.
Speaker 1:
Wow, I resonate so much because part of my spiritual journey has really been about gratitude and I've came up upon this quote where it says that what you focus on grows. So if you're focusing on the things that are working out, if you're focusing on the small wins you have, you're putting more energy into positive things. You're putting more energy into things that are working and that will reflect in the things coming back to you. So that's really beautiful and even the Native Americans they practice this. They call it the beauty way seeing the beauty in the small things, the supposedly bad things, and making the most of having to fight for their land. We know that's a common issue, like what are the main issues that you feel in your heart that the indigenous people are facing?
Speaker 2:
Of course, first of all the displacements, because the indigenous people in the Philippines. They have these vast lands, they have these ancestral domains, ancestral territory, but of course they don't have this capital that they can start making plantations or they can establish their own farm that will sustain their lives. And then, because they don't have that capital, there are many people outside that take that opportunity that they are going to buy the lands of indigenous people. So slowly the indigenous people are losing their lands to the migrants, to the capitalists, and it's really a sad story.
Speaker 1:
And it's happening now. So, man, this one hits home to me personally, because I am from Manila and I did move to Siargao two years ago and currently I'm renting from a local, and this has been something pressing for me too, because, you know, I do believe that the space I'm creating was providing value. But also I ask myself how do I do it in a way that honors the people there, how do I do it in a way that honors the locals? And, yeah, how would you go about that?
Speaker 2:
If I'm from outside then I would just maybe rent the land but I will never buy the land Because once you buy the land, there will never buy the land, because once you buy the land and there will be no more land for the next generation. But if you only use the land as the people there and write some agreement that you're just using the land but you're not buying the land, it's not the, it's good because you do not get the land from indigenous people, you do not get the land from the next generation.
Speaker 1:
Nice. Well, thanks past me for renting the land instead of purchasing.
Speaker 2:
Rent it.
Speaker 1:
So how about the people that already purchased land and they've already taken it from indigenous people?
Speaker 2:
They use it to use for work. Actually, they cannot buy that because, according to the law in the Republic Act 1871, you cannot buy the land from the indigenous people and you will go to prison if you do that and the person or the tribe that sells them.
Speaker 1:
So when you're referring to these tribal lands, you're referring to places in Bukidnon.
Speaker 2:
Not only Bukidnon, all Philippines, all Philippines.
Speaker 1:
I see. So I do know that you're an advocate for the environment. I'd love to hear your take on the most pressing issues right now that the Philippine people are facing.
Speaker 2:
You know I am a songwriter and I wrote songs about the environment. You know I am a songwriter and I wrote songs about the environment. I've been listening to the songs of the people that died, of me writing environmental songs. But then I realized that every time I did a concert, people came to me and had a picture with me. And people came to me and had a picture with me. And then what happened is the young people also write songs for the environment.
Speaker 2:
And then I realized that, according to the data, in 1900s the Philippine primary forest cover was 70%, down to 34% in 1970 and 7% in year 2000,. And now we only have 1.5%. That's the Philippine primary forest cover. Then I was shocked like there are so many people who sing about environment. There are, see the Gama Pinumbra. She also is really about environment. See the gamma penumbra. It shows us really about environment. Joe Ayala wrote songs about environment by various scene.
Speaker 2:
Now come that we only have 1.5% left. So I told myself I don't wanna end up singing my beautiful song in the last standing tree and beside the dry river. That's why, when this Hinilaban Foundation invited me for reforestation, I really go with that group because I know that I could reach out more indigenous people and then I can physically help in the preservation of the forest. Because it's very critical, because Bukidnon is where the four major mountains are located the Karatungan, the Pantaron and the Salo Grange and then it's where the big rivers of Mindanao are coming from. So if we cannot protect these mountains through tree growing, then we can have scarcity of water resources and we will be facing a really big problem in the future.
Speaker 2:
That's why what I'm doing is I'm really into reforestation and these coming rainy days I'm inviting again volunteers who will help us grow trees and we're inviting friends also to protect the creeks by not throwing garbage in the creeks. I've been collecting garbage somewhere here. There are creeks that are. You know, the diapers are being dumped in the creek and it's so sad. We collected four garbage trucks garbage truck diapers. It's so sad. We really want to find a way to convince people, to educate people how to take care of their garbage yes, that's really powerful work that you're doing, and I heard this quote how to change?
Speaker 1:
to change like policies, we have to change the way people think, and to change the way people think, we have to change the culture, and I think that's where the power of your music comes in, because you're sharing these things about protecting the environment, about standing up together as as a community, and coming together in the name of protecting the planet, the forest, and so I think that's really powerful stuff, yeah, that we're working on and and we're doing together. I'm curious now what's your creative process when it comes to making music?
Speaker 2:
My process is very simple. I just listen to the people talking or through observations, like one of my songs. It's called Iitsa Tamu. Actually it sounds like Japanese, but it is a Visayan language. It says throw catch and step on your fear to protect the environment. So I just hear it from from my brother-in-law talking. I try to put melody on it and develop into a song. Now I have the new one.
Speaker 2:
It's Kusing Baw Sata, sing Kuing Galo. It's also a joke that if somebody asks you, do you know how to speak Chinese, then you'll say, okay, kusing Baw bao sa taasing guin gaulo. But when you say it in the reverse, singku sa bao, singkuin talulgao. So it's five pesos for the soup and for the porridge 50 pesos. So I just try to listen to the joke and then try to make it into a song. But some serious things, like I have a new song also, this Buhayin ng Paraiso.
Speaker 2:
It's a song about agriculture. It's a song about asking people to plant, to plant, to plant, to plant, so that you can, you know, revive the, the paradise, because long time ago we have the paradise. Like indigenous people are living in a paradise. Just go to the forest and collect some fruits, wild nuts, and then if you need meat, then you just hunt some wild boar or deer or wild chicken. Hunt some wild boar or deer or wild chicken. But now we no longer have this paradise and paradise is lost. But we need to, I think, plant and plant and plant, not only for ourselves, but we should plant trees that will feed the butterflies, the bees, of course, the wild animals, so that we can see this paradise again.
Speaker 1:
Wow. This reminds me of a saying from the Native Americans, and they say whenever you do something, you think of the seven generations, the next seven generations that are going to be coming here and to think of it, to think and live unselfishly like this thing is something this planet, this, this forest that we have is something that we don't own or dominate, yeah, but something that we're stewards of and something that we're here to take care of so that our children and their children and their children and their children.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, because you know life is for me is to live until you die. But people, many people forget, like, how much kilo of rice you need until you die, how much clothes you need until you die, like, given you have 100 years of living in this world. But people forget that they don't know how to find happiness. You cannot find happiness by going to the river and swim in the river and then watch butterflies standing on the tae ng kalabaw. That's happiness. But people don't know how to find happiness and they forget how much kilo of rice they need until they die. That's why they feel so insecure. But if people will only know that we cannot consume two million pieces of a quart of rice until we die, then life is simple, life is easy and life is happy.
Speaker 1:
I'm curious was there a moment that clicked for you when you started to care about the environment? Or was it always just something embedded in your culture in the way that you were raised?
Speaker 2:
Actually I care for environment because I miss those days that when I was crossing the river I just took a drink from that river. It was so clean when I was like seven years old. And in the night time, when I see the mountain and there was a moon, full moon, and the mountain is so very beautiful. I miss that. I wanted to. You know my feelings like how could I share this to the next generation? That feeling, that emotion, that happiness. But of course now it's different.
Speaker 2:
So one time when I was in Bohol I was resting like two o'clock in the afternoon and then there was a flashback. My mind was like here, watching this full moon, this beautiful environment, and then the tears just came out from my eyes. Then one time also, when I went home here and I was standing on a hill up in the mountain and I was just standing with my cane like that, and then just the tears came out from my eyes Because I miss those days that when you know I saw those big trees and then thick forest and then you can hear wild pigs nearby, but those areine. It's so sad that I couldn't show it to my children. So that's why that makes me feel in love more about the environment Because I know it's important and I know how much oxygen that trees are giving to humans how much oxygen the trees are giving to human.
Speaker 1:
Wow, I can relate so much because you know, all my life I've drank water from a bottle.
Speaker 1:
I've drank water from five gallon plastic containers and it was so foreign to me to even drink from a river like until I experienced one time I went to a really nice mountain range in california and called mount shasta and they had like an edge waters like that comes straight from the mountain and it's so pure, so clean when you drink, and it was so cold too, because it was like comes from ice. So it's like wow, drinking ice water. And I was like comes from ice. So it's like wow, drinking ice water. And I was like I can't believe something like that existed. And so it's so interesting to me now, like, oh my gosh, like even our water is commercialized now.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah, even our water has been so-and-so capitalized. So I do feel you on this issue. And, yeah, I haven't drank from a philippine stream yet. So that's definitely something I want to try here in the philippines and experience, like water that comes from my own lands, my own, my motherland. So that's a beautiful story, very powerful story, and I hope we can have that too one day. Yeah, sure, now I'm curious about any events or organizations that you want to share light on, like if I'm a person that just wants to know more about tree planting or wants to know more about helping the environment.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I'm with this hinolaban foundation. Hinolaban foundation is one of the key player in mindanao reforestation, so people can, even even the people from other country or from Manila, from the cities they can, they can participate in Mindanao reforestation. By you know, they have we have this globe rewards. You can donate your rewards to the Hindu Lubang Foundation and people can always reach out. Connect with the Hindu Lubang Foundation and maybe we can find ways. If you want to plant trees, then we can plant trees for you. The Hinulaban Foundation can do that for you All right Now.
Speaker 1:
you guys know where to head out, what to check out. If you're in the Philippines, join us in planting some trees and planting some seeds of consciousness. Yeah, would you like to share anything else? Perhaps any new music dropping, or?
Speaker 2:
No, my new music is coming out. That's the Sing Kusabaw, sing Quintalogaw and the Buhay ng Paraiso. And there's another one, the she Loves Me, she Loves Me Not. And just wait for it. It'll be coming the next month. And, yeah, we have this exciting project with the foundation by the Bin and Bin. We are teaching, we have this songwriting workshop with the indigenous people's songwriters. Then we'll see what will happen in the future. Maybe there will be songwriters from indigenous people in bukidun awesome.
Speaker 1:
Well, thank you so much. Or inviting me, yeah, to your beautiful home like. It's so beautiful that we also get to have this in nature, because this is my first.
Speaker 1:
This is my first podcast where you're hearing actual chickens and there was cicadas earlier, so it's perfect because you're here representing the environment. You're here representing coming back to nature and planting trees, and so it's also beautiful to have that in the podcast today. Yeah, nature is with us in this podcast. So thank you, guys, so much for tuning in to the wisdom podcast. Once again, I am storm, your host and thank you so much for joining. Please check out his music, talandig republic, for amazing traditional filipino vibes and music that just empowers the people and empowers the environment. Go ahead and plant some trees and share this if you feel called. Maraming salamat.
