Documentary Practice & Photojournalism: Hannah Reyes Morales
See a selection of images from Hannah Reyes Morales.
Caption
Slide 26 of 165
Cities Made of Water
December 5, 2017
Badjao sisters stand in front of their makeshift home as their mother washes clothes in Wawa, Batangas. Disparagingly labelled as "sea gypsies," Badjao follow the movements of the sea rather than the borders of the land, never quite belonging to the countries in which they live. Many Badjao families like this one settled in Wawa, a mixed community of Badjao and Tagalog peoples, after fleeing from the fighting in Mindanao. What is not visible in the background is the island that used to sit across this bay, which is where these Badjao families used to live before it was swallowed up by a typhoon a few years ago, forcing these fisherfolk to relocate once more. The Badjao here have been Christianised and want to be known as "Goodjao," to escape the prejudice and marginalization that their ethnicity has historically experienced in Southeast Asia. With the Philippines the third most vulnerable country to climate change, fisherfolk, who are the least responsible for causing the worsening climate crisis, are also the population most vulnerable to its disastrous consequences such as rising sea levels, storm surges, and coastline erosion.