Oriang

Oriang in its current iteration is hopefully the start of a collective or a collective-adjacent entity of largely women and queer folks who are artist-activists. The intended shared goal is to build a library of resistance or a library of heroes / human rights defenders for young people who are now entering into their own [ideas of] heroism. Our main output so far has been three portrait songs about three people who we acknowledge and honor as heroes — Kerima Tariman, a poet-revolutionary killed a year and a half ago by state forces in Silay, Negros Occidental; Chad Booc, a math and science teacher to Lumad youth killed a year ago by state forces in New Bataan, Davao de Oro; and Amanda Echanis, a peasant woman organizer currently imprisoned by state forces on false charges in Tuguegarao, Cagayan. Oriang acknowledges that these three heroes have given / continue to give their lives to seeking justice for the state’s atrocities against these indigenous and farming communities who continue to protect and till our lands even under intolerable living conditions, fatal government neglect, and outright state-sponsored extrajudicial killings and incarcerations.