Kayumanggi
We launched Island Dispatches with National Geographic through Kayumanggi, the color of Filipino skin.
Through a video collaboration between National Geographic, Emerging Islands, and Filipino pop rock band Ben & Ben, we explored the many meanings of kayumanggi: embodied by the skin we’re in, and the land we live on. The song is a lullaby to all, carrying our dreams for a future where we, as islanders, can embrace our sun kissed color and rediscover our true identity in our duty to tend and care for our lands and seas.
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We immersed in and collaborated with three local communities here in La Union to tell the story of Kayumanggi: a weaving community in Bangar, a mangrove fishing community in Bauang, and four female surfers from San Juan. The music video was produced around the occurrence of Typhoon Maring, and so became a story of finding tenderness amidst adversity, in the communities’ ongoing struggles with ecological change.
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We expanded the concept of a music video by redefining the skin color Kayumanggi by where we see it, from the ways we tend to our land, to the ways we create from material provided by the planet, and even to the ways we play under the sun.
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The music video was launched in November 2021, at the NatGeo Planet Possible Asia event. Our conversation on the importance of engaging the arts in ecology reached 2 million people. Here we got to talk about our process, and shed light on the lives of the people whose stories we gathered for the telling of Kayumanggi.