Paper short abstract:

This paper probes how the islanders deal with the environment and disasters by utilising their knowledge on rains, winds, and waters vis-a-vis destructive natural forces such as typhoons, super typhoons, floods, and monsoon rains.

Paper long abstract:

This paper probes how the locals from Talim Island in the Philippines deal with the environment and disasters by utilising their knowledge on rains, winds, and waters. The everyday lives of the islanders have been shaped by their constant interaction or "conversation" with these forces as typhoons, super typhoons, floods, and monsoon rains are a commonplace in the island. Accordingly, the islanders have come up with a unique way of life as evidenced by the construction and composition of their shelters, reinvention of their livelihoods, partition of their community into suitable and unsuitable areas for house construction, etc….

In the light of this, this paper examines the "world" of the locals and highlights their knowledge about the different kinds of winds, waters, and rains, and in turn, how this knowledge shapes their lives. In this regard, this paper investigates how the islanders construct their "world" based on this "conversation". Consequently, it looks into how this worldview or ideology is affected by the weather phenomena. In addition, this paper explores how they use this ideological adaptation to deal with the environment and mitigate disasters and natural hazards.