AETA WOMAN I
(Philippines)

Oil on Canvas - 40" x 32"

 

Imagine yourself living in a busy community with people all around, work to be done, and a flurry of activity. Suddenly, the majority of the population disappears and you find yourself in a starkly different environment. This is basically what happened to the Aeta people when, within a few months, a bustling $3 billion naval base at Subic Bay, Philippines, turned into a ghost town. The Aetas are a native people who live in an 18,000 hectare forest reserve adjacent to the base. In the presence of the military, they worked as guides and staff and provided jungle survival training. Following the military evacuation, the Aeta people of Pamulaklakin quickly found themselves without employment and income. I was guided to their village by a man from JEST (Jungle Environmental Survival Training), a group which had trained the U.S. military in jungle survival. I met this woman while walking up a long trail through the jungle to her village. Her smile was captivating.