Grace Nono is one of the most renowned musicians in the Philippines. As an ethnomusicologist with roots in the Agusan del Sur river valley in northern Mindanao, she is strongly influenced by various indigenous singing practices. Grace Nono fights for the protection of these oral traditions that are ignored by the western-dominated Filipino music scene. Concerts, collaborations and study visits have taken Grace Nono all over the world. In her new performance, the musician now talks about her return to Agusan del Sur and her discovery that the land of her ancestors lies on peat soil, an ecosystem that is often overlooked, misunderstood and degraded.

“Home in Huyong-Huyong” is more than an autobiographical narrative. The performance is part song, part field report, part dream, as well as an invitation to learn to listen to the earth again, which recalls memories of colonial history, of responsibility towards family and community and of kinship with the unseen, of spirits brought to the surface. In the local language of Agusan del Sur, “Huyong-Huyong” describes a soil that is so wet that it bounces underfoot. It also stands for the trembling wisdom of wetness, for ecosystems that resist enclosure and thus rebel against human ignorance and the consequences of climate change, which particularly affect the Philippines as an archipelago.

Text, concept, & performance: Grace Nono
Video editing & visuals: Brandon Relucio
Dramaturgy & production lead: Franchesca Casauay
PH research & production associate: Bjork Colao
Outside eye: Eisa Jocson
Video footage from: ALIMA Eco, Agri and Heritage Park Development, Bunawan, Agusan del Sur

A co-production as part of “Sincerely Yours, the Philippines”, a project by Künstler*innenhaus Mousonturm in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut Philippines. Funded by the German Federal Cultural Foundation through the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media. Supported by the Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Goethe-Institut and “Philippines - Guest of Honor at Frankfurter Buchmesse 2025”.