Carmela Marie Santos
Pulangiyēn youth leaders gathered in Bendum in Bukidnon, Philippines from 6 to 9 January 2026 to greet the New Year in the spirit of reflection and community life. There were 32 participants that included Grade 11 and 12 students from the Apu Palamguwan Cultural Education Center (APC) school and members of the APC forest and water management teams serving the Pulangiyēn community who came together for a pagtimbaya.
The learnings from the RAOEN community process highlight the importance of exploring how to manage emotions that are seen as important to explore further with the Pulangiyēn youth as they increasingly live in rural-urban diversity. This emotional processing contributes to the deepening of the capacity to reflect.
Feelings and the faith
The welcoming pagtimbaya or salubong of a new year is a passage both of time and also of feelings. To recognize and to be able to name a dominant emotion is both skill and grace as it brings a person to the journey of self, family, and community in the previous 365 days.
For the indigenous youth, translating the Feelings Wheel into their own language was an exercise of embracing and owning up to the feelings that wrapped their 2025.
On one hand, dominant feelings were of thankfulness and pride in being able to hurdle responsibilities. There also was blessedness, trust, and faith. On the other hand, there was tiredness, fears, uncertainty, hurt, and loneliness.
How were they able to navigate these feelings, particularly feelings that tended to wear them down and keep them from lifegiving energy in studies or their roles in the community?
Rest and recreation (pahulay ug paglingaw-lingaw) was a response of some and for many it was reflection and prayer (pagpamalandung ug pag-ampo) and being able to share with family and keeping family as their inspiration.
Feelings and recognizing these helped guide the indigenous youth to where their inner compass points to – entrusting in a Presence beyond, to Magbabaya, Creator God..
My story and our common values as Indigenous
When tasked to recall core memories, or those that they could not forget in their childhood years, or growing up, many shared the joys of being in the land, climbing trees, bathing in the river, watching and helping out parents grow food from the land. Memories of a time when there was still no mobile technology were vivid, particularly for the indigenous who are crossing from their youth to growing their own families.
As each person shared their story, love for the land, simplicity, sense of community, peace, abundance in enoughness was a common thread as common and shared values. Being indigenous means rootedness in the land and community, even in and especially in a changing world.
The Letter: A Message for Our Earth documentary and Canopy 2050
Watching and reflecting on the 2022 documentary The Letter: A Message for Our Earth and its exclusive dialogue with Pope Francis, the Indigenous youth were moved by sadness and compassion. They were also imbued by stubborn hope and enduring pride.
They shared immense sadness for what is happening to their fellow Indigenous who are displaced and disconnected from their homes. They felt dismayed at what is happening to the corals and coastal areas, the melting of glaciers and what this means for biodiversity. There was deep compassion for their fellow youth whose childhood and growing up years are a struggle.
Yet they hold on to hope, that the story of the climate and peoples as it unfolds will not simply end in displacement and disaster of society’s own making. They see themselves not as helpless victims, but as voices bearing the value of the land and what it means for their culture. Their hearts are filled with pride in what their ancestors started, and they feel the urgency now to be able to continue, growing and restoring the forest, securing their land, water, and food.
When they walked through the Canopy 2050 in Bendum, an area reserved for forest restoration, they learned about ecological succession and the order in the forest regeneration: pioneer species, pillar, and filler species. They recognized that their ancestors are like the pioneer species who now have only a decade or so to live. They are preparing themselves to take on the role of the pillar species to sustain the forest and their community.
If they are able to do this, sustain the forest and their community and culture, they realize that the benefits of the forest and their culture go beyond their own local community. In an era of the climate crisis, they see how the local communities and forests help the wider community and world with which they share a biome: a network of ecosystems. A youth student shared: “We belong under one sky, where the water passes from stream, flowing to the rivers and the Ocean that binds us in Our Common Home.”
Our common message
In revisiting their common message of the Indigenous youth (From Ancestral Wisdom to Global Hope: A Call for Ecological Conversion and Intergenerational Solidarity) read at COP30 in Belém, Brazil in November 2025, there was a common resolve to continue knowing who they are, to grow into indigenous wisdom and leadership, to remember not only who they are but why they are here, why they study, and who they can become for the community.
As 2025 gives way to 2026, the salubong of the new year is both a passage of time and feelings and a passing through of values, core identity as indigenous and the common desire to deepen the faith, the care, and hope for the land.
Carmela Marie Santos is RAOEN’s Regional Coordinator for Southeast Asia.