EDAYA
A creative bamboo multi-disciplinary collective, working in design/art, education, and community development
We redesign the relationship between humans, nature, and society by embracing local wisdom to co-create sustainable futures.
Co-founded by Ayaka Yamashita, Edgar Banasan
EDAYA was co-founded in 2012 by Ayaka Yamashita, a Japanese design producer, and Edgar Banasan, a native of the Indigenous Kalinga, Philippines, and a master bamboo craftsman recognized as one of the few remaining experts of Kalinga bamboo musical instruments. Since then, we have designed various creative bamboo projects that let people re-think their relationship to the environment, society, and themselves while actively preserving, revitalizing, and introducing bamboo musical instruments. We have organized various workshops, events, and exhibitions locally and globally.
Based in Tuba, 45 minutes car ride from Baguio, a UNESCO Creative City of Crafts and Folk Arts, our studio welcomes everyone willing to encounter local wisdom, enhance their learnings and discover new perspectives by immersing themselves in deep nature and culture.
—-------
EDAYA launched its first project of bamboo jewelry in 2012. It is an experiment of translating intangible to tangible by designing accessories inspired by vanishing indigenous bamboo music from the Northern Philippines. We aim to empower people by providing a new way to engage with social and environmental issues. People understand the problems more intimately and become agents to weave new narratives through embodied experiences of wearing accessories.
Since then, we have explored various forms of media, such as installation, performance, curriculum, book, and more, to share multiple perspectives on complex global problems and facilitate new knowledge production and exchange.
We critically observe the everyday environment to notice values embedded, creatively communicate local wisdom, and deconstruct the existing social and environmental risks that vulnerable populations face to co-create a resilient, just, and sustainable world. We have also emphasized transdisciplinary collaboration and extended our network by working from most remote villages to metropolitan cities.
EDAYA embraces the concept of the “Wisdom Junction,” which also applies to our ongoing Indigenous Crafts and Design School development. The “Wisdom Junction” is a symbolic representation of the melting pot of wisdom, thoughts, ideas, cultures, experiences, etc., which encourages individuals to find their passion, re-root themselves, see the world from a different perspective, and challenge some of the pressing issues confronting their own communities.
