Theater Performance/Traditional Music and Dance/Environment Education

He is from Tubo, Abra. He participated in a theater workshop organized by CGN when he was in high school. In 2011, in Japan, as a member of the theater group “Anak di Kabilingan,” which is made up of young people from various Indigenous groups of the Cordillera, he participated in an environmental education program and theater performances based on folktales.

In the province of Abra, where traditional ways of life are still strongly preserved, he has participated in traditional cultural groups as a performer and player of bamboo musical instruments.

In 2017, he participated in the Balitok theater performance and international exchange program, which focused on the issue of mining development in Aceh, Indonesia. In 2018, he participated in the PAYO-Voices from the community performance at the Sai no Tsuno Theater in Ueda City, Japan, as an actor, along with teachers from the Ifugao province.

He has also been a facilitator for the environmental education workshops that CGN holds in various parts of the Cordillera, in his spare time from his studies.

In 2024, he is scheduled to participate in the Asia Meets Asia performance in Busan, South Korea and Tokyo, Japan.

Report Booklet ”FOLKTALES Community Theater Workshops for the Environment”

Theater Performance/Traditional Dance and Music

Roger Federico is a graduate of the Master of Arts in Theatre Arts program at the University of the Philippines-Diliman. He is a community-based theatre practitioner from the province of Benguet in the Cordillera Administrative Region and a member of the Northern Kankana-ey ethnolinguistic group. He has traveled to other countries in Asia, performing and participating in theatre festivals and conferences.

In 2020, he received the Continuous Operational and Outcomes-based Partnership for Excellence in Research and Academic Training Enhancement (COOPERATE) grant and was sent to Flinders University in South Australia as a Visiting Student Scholar for almost nine months. While at Flinders University, his research topic, "Performing Community at the Lang-ay Festival of the Cordillera Administrative Region: Theatre in the Nation, Nation in the Theatre," which is an ethnographic study of the Lang-ay Festival staged in the Mountain Province held annually every April, was among the few research topics featured on the website of Flinders University.

In 2018, he was the only Filipino to participate in the Theater for Young Audiences Program held in Okinawa, Japan. Roger has been working with the Cordillera Green Network for several years in their environmental theatre projects as a theatre facilitator, director, and performer. He directed and performed in several community theatre plays staged in the different communities in the Cordilleras, some of which were staged in Manila.

While studying at UP, he is being invited by several organizations to direct plays and as a resource speaker and facilitator in theatre workshops. As a theatre practitioner, he is exploring creating performances that merge contemporary and traditional forms of performances while promoting indigenous knowledge, systems, and practices of the Cordilleras. He considers theatre as a tool for documenting tangible and intangible cultural heritage through a collective memory among performers and audience members.

Roger’s research interests include cultural performances, oral traditions, and Indigenous Knowledge, Systems, and Practices (IKSP) among ethnolinguistic groups in the Cordillera Administrative Region. His research "Challenges and Discoveries in Conducting Community-based Theatre Workshop in the Time of Pandemic" is found in the book Folktales, published by Cordillera Green Network with support from Asia Center Japan Foundation.

Moreover, Roger also works in filmmaking. He was an actor and part of the production design team in the award-winning short film Tokwifi. He also wrote and directed the film Dad-an en Ina (A Mother’s Journey) and Namnama (Hope) and was the director, cinematographer, and film editor of Kasiyana that, won Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Portrayal of Casts in the Takilya sa Akademya 2022 organized by CHED-CAR. 

Project Report Booklet　”FOLKTAKES - Community Theater Wprkshops for the Enviroment”

Visual Art

George Rosales is a Baguio-based visual artist, art educator, photographer, and storybook illustrator. He graduated in 2016 with a degree in Bachelor of Secondary Education major in English. Since then, he continued to fulfill his passion and advocacy in teaching art for children.

He is adept in different art mediums—acrylic painting, mixed media, and ink, but his main medium and where he shows the most prowess is in watercolor painting. Exploring the styles of social realism and experimental child's play, George usually creates art rooted in themes of childhood and nostalgia, intricately intertwined with his questions in society.

In 2020, he illustrated his first book entitled, Letters to Tatay: A Memoir of a Daughter of an Overseas Filipino Worker. In September 2024, the first children’s storybook he illustrated entitled, Si Diwata Kag Ang Dinagyang (Diwata and the Dinagyang Festival) will be published.

George has also been active in doing community engagements, such as art workshops and educational environmental talks in the Cordillera Administrative Region (CAR). Apart from partaking in various art talks during the height of the global pandemic, George is also an active advocate for mental health awareness who continuously works with different organizations with advocacies in line with his. 

Since 2022, he has been working with the Cordillera Green Network, an environmental Non-Government Organization in the Philippines, in doing workshops for children about the folktales in the region. His recent participation in these workshops during the Mtn. Province and Ifugao legs had been significant in enriching his knowledge in experimental mixed media art.

Last 2023, he also had the chance to talk about the power of art as a medium in braving through obstacles, during the Liwliwa 2: Solidarity Night for Mental Health.

He also had projects working with the Department of Education - Cordillera Administrative Region (DepEd-CAR) since early 2023. This includes organizing an art and mental wellness workshop in close coordination with the Guidance Office of Benguet National High School. He was also one of the key facilitators and editors in developing the children’s storybooks of the teachers in DepEd-CAR for Gawad Teodora Alonso 2023 National Writing Competition. In 2024, he was also one of the judges for Pintahusay, the on-the-spot painting contest of DepEd-CAR’s Regional Festival of Talents.

Environment Education

In 2012, He coordinated CGN's environmental education project in Sabangan, Mountain Province. He is of Bontoc and Ibaloi descent but was born and raised in Baguio City. He became aware of her identity as an indigenous person when he grew up and has been involved in community research in the mountain region. He is a member of the Ubbog Cordillera Young Writers, a group of young writers in Baguio City. He has worked as a facilitator for environmental education workshops and as a coordinator for study tours.

During the strict lockdown that lasted for over two years due to the coronavirus pandemic in the Philippines (from March 2020), he joined the community support team of the Catholic Church and visited various communities in the Cordillera. Her work was highly evaluated, and in 2023 he became an employee in charge of activities for environmental conservation in the Social Action Department of the Baguio Diocese.

After that, he has continued participating in CGN's environmental education programs as a facilitator on his days off.

Theater Practitionar

Theater practitioner and Noguchi Method instructor. After working with the Black Tent Theater Company, she joined the Corporate Union Theater Design Guild. She is mainly active in the field of applied theater, which makes use of theater in people's lives and expands the possibilities of theater.

In 2012, she began contributing to the promotion of educational theater for young people in the Cordillera region, starting with her role as a facilitator for theater workshops in the environmental education program of the Cordillera Green Network (CGN).

From 2014, she was the main facilitator for a three-year program of ”Environmental Education Utilizing Theater for Indigenous Children in the Northern Luzon Island” (funded by the Resona Foundation for Asia and Oceania). In 2016, she was the main facilitator for a theater workshop project for young people in the Philippines, Indonesia, and Japan (funded by the Japan Foundation Asia Center). In this project, she expanded the theater workshops on the theme of environmental issues that she had been holding in the Cordillera region to Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia, and Ueda City, Nagano Prefecture. In the third year of the project, when people were unable to travel due to the pandemic of the new coronavirus, she and CGN tried international exchange through online workshops and theater.

Her other major works include the composition and direction of the play “Minamata Ba Ikite” (2006), a creative drama for the 50th anniversary of the official confirmation of Minamata disease; theater workshops for young people in Indonesia (Aceh) aimed at reconciliation and regeneration after conflict (2007-2010); a group with people with disabilities called “Minameta Setagaya Koryu Jikkou Iinkai” (2007-); Committee) (2007-), theater activities with homeless people in London, research into educational programs for women with a history of imprisonment (2010-2011), planning and implementation of the Setagaya Public Theater's “Community Stories” workshop (2014-), planning and implementation of the NPO Pukapuka's “Workshop for Everyone” (2015-), etc.

MA in Arts from Goldsmiths, University of London. Part-time lecturer at Musashino Art University. Part-time lecturer at Nihon University College of Art, Department of Theatre.

Aisa Meets Asia vise president. 

Visual Art

Lives in Kobe, Japan. She graduated from Saga College of Arts with a major in Japanese painting. After graduating, she continued her art activities while helping out at her family's stationery and general goods store. After being affected by the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995, she moved her base of operations between Nara and Tokyo and expanded her activities to include book cover design, stage art, and stage costumes.

In 2004, she returned to Kobe and joined the non-profit organization C.A.P.. In 2008, she lived in rural Bengal, India, for about a year as an exchange student to study the ideas of Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore. In 2011, she studied under sculptor Etsuro Sotono (chief architect of the Sagrada Familia Basilica) in Spain.

In 2014, she first came to the Philippines as a facilitator for the “Environmental Education Program through Art” that CGN had been running in Mountain Province for three years, having been recommended by Hiroshi Nakagawa of C.A.P. At that time, she held art workshops for children and teachers at three elementary schools in Kadaklan, Barlig, more than 10 hours away from Baguio. After returning to Japan, she shared her experiences with many people at talk sessions and other events. 

In April 2018, she came to the Philippines to facilitate the backdrop production workshop with Ms. Koike Meiko. She performed an art workshop for high school students and teachers in the Ifugao Province. In October 2018, she appeared as a guest actor in a play by teachers from the Ifugao Province at the Sai no Tsuno Theater in Ueda City, Japan. 

She returned to the Philippines in 2022 as a facilitator for art workshops on folktales in Tadian, Mountain Province (funded by the Resona Asia Oceania Foundation). She stayed for two weeks and held a workshop in which students from eight elementary schools were free to draw pictures.

Some of the artworks by children were brought back to Japan, where exhibitions and talk shows were held.

In recent years, she has been using art in mental health care, such as holding art workshops for trauma-informed care in hospitals, and she is working to make art more widely available for mental health care.

Coffee specialist

He is a coffee expert knowledgeable in all aspects of coffee, from growing coffee to cupping and marketing. After graduating from university, he worked at a small coffee roaster shop to acquire expertise in roasting and brewing coffee. Then, he worked at one of Japan's major coffee bean wholesaling companies. Every day, he cupped more than 50 kinds of coffee beans imported from all over the world. In 2013, he moved to the Philippines to learn more about the cultivation of coffee with subtle aromas and flavors. He decided to study at Benguet State University (BSU) for two years.

While studying in the Philippines, he learned about coffee varieties and cultivation conditions at BSU. He also discovered CGN's frequent visits to the coffee-growing areas to learn about the actual conditions at the coffee cultivation site. He was interested in how CGN worked closely with the farmers to study how coffee should be made and processed after harvesting. By visiting the Cordillera with CGN staff, he had been working with farmers in various communities and giving all kinds of workshops on coffee production. He also conducted workshops on the growth of the Philippine coffee industry, which is still in its infancy, and workshops on Aeropress. He was also active in Manila, where he served as a competition judge; he had become widely known as "Hiro, Coffee Man." 

After returning to Japan in 2015, he was invited to participate in the Agroforestry Project in Kayah State, Myanmar, As a leader of the project "Organic Coffee Farming and Forest Conservation: Building Sustainable Communities." With that, he has also expanded his activities to Myanmar. Also, In East Timor, he joined the productivity improvement project of Peace Winds Japan, an accredited NPO. 

After thoese project he has been involved in a project started by the non-profit organization Peace Environment Moyai Net and CGN in the Cordillera region. As an expert, he joined the project "the Standards Development and Dissemination Project to Improve the Quality of Arabica Coffee", and he has been continuously guiding coffee production in the Cordillera Region. 

In 2019, he was in charge of providing technical guidance on selection for the "Small-scale farmers' coffee processing and operational guidance project for coffee production" (funded by JICA for the people of the world) of Manalabo Learning Design for Environment and Peace.

In 2020, he began working at Saka no Tochu Co., Ltd. as an employee in charge of purchasing coffee from coffee-producing regions. He continues to be passionate about introducing unknown coffee to the Japanese market. He is currently one of the executive committee members of the company.