Unheard Voices of Climate Action

In popular imagery, grassroots communities are often represented as silent, powerless, and helpless victims of the global climate crisis needing urgent help and expert intervention. Veiled from broader public discourse are the long-standing community knowledge and action in pushing the tide of climate impacts, as they disproportionately bear the devastating effects of climate change.

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The Tagpuan Ateneo Center for Dialogue, Research, and Collaboration, the Arete, and the Arete Sandbox Programs have teamed up with MindaNews in bringing these underrepresented voices into wider multi-platform public conversation. 

MindaNews, a digital news organization based in Mindanao, produced a series of multi-media production, including photographs and short documentaries of indigenous and fisherfolk climate actions from the highlands and uplands, often underrepresented in the climate discourse.

Through Unheard Voices of Climate Action, Tagpuan fosters multi-sectoral, transdisciplinary dialogue on climate action by centering indigenous knowledge and local practices in Mindanao, and bringing them into conversation with science, policy, technology, and creative practice to advance inclusive and collaborative climate solutions.

Engagement Opportunities:

A. Forum + Interactive Discussion

Date & Time: 20 February Friday, 9:00AM - 12:00PM (3 hours)

Venue: The Loft, 4F Innovation Wing, Areté

Capacity: 50 seats available. Pre-registration is highly encouraged.

The forum will screen short videos played between conversations among participants.The conversation draws on the MindaNews arts-based journalistic video and photographic documentary of indigenous upland farming communities and conservationist fisherfolk initiatives in addressing global climate challenges in four Mindanao areas, particularly in Siargao, Turtle Islands, Marilog District of Davao City, and Maguindanao del Sur. 

1. Frontline Community Climate Action Exhibit

Opens 20 February Friday, 11:30AM to February 23, 12:00PM 

Venue: Joselito and Olivia Campos Interactive Teaching Lab, 3F Bridgeway, Areté

Walkthrough time: 20 minutes

The exhibit features 4 thematic zones, each showcasing a distinct ecosystem and community practice: (1) Lalapung (Storehouse) that shows Indigenous Matigsalug initiatives in preserving heirloom rice seeds in response to the complex pressures of shifting agricultural yield; (2) Anjing Laut (Sea Dogs) that feature the brewing pressures on the human-animal relationship amid noticeable shift in behavioural patterns of tropical smooth-coated otter; (3) Siargaw (Mangroves) island fishing community action in transforming their sideline livelihood from cutting mangroves for firewood and selling to eco-tourism entrepreneurship; and the (4) Kerüt (Rootcrop of Salvation) of the Indigenous Teduray and their ancestral and sacred knowledge in extracting deadly toxins from dry spell-resistant forest root crops as a culturally and inter-generationally shaped adaptation practice to the cyclical El Niño weather phenomenon.

The exhibit will be formally opened at 11:30AM on 20 February 2026. After which, guests can enjoy the exhibit at their own time and pace. The exhibit will run until 12:00nn of 23 February 2026. 

C. Film Viewing with Talkback

Date and Times: February 20, Friday, 3:30PM & 5:00PM (1.5 hours)

Venue: Joselito and Olivia Campos Interactive Teaching Lab, 3F Bridgeway, Areté
Capacity: 20 seats available per time slot. Pre-registration is highly encouraged.

A dedicated film screening and talkback session with the filmmakers from Mindanews to further the exchange on how scientific and environmental challenges can be transformed into human-centered stories.

Register your participation HERE.