THE Agtas are the aboriginal Filipinos who have been driven out of their lands to live in the mountains and far-flung lakeshore areas. The Savage Mind Bookshop and its offshoot, the Kamarin Art Gallery, have reached out to the Agta people of Lake Buhi to provide a means for them to create art, preserve their language and history, and ensure that their heritage and culture are not erased by the country's rapid industrialization.

The Savage Mind Bookshop was founded in 2018 by the writer and deputy director of the Ateneo de Naga University Press, Kristian Sendon Cordero, to address the lack of a cultural hub in Naga City in the Bicol region. It has become a much-needed and much-celebrated arts center and cultural space. It has also launched the works of local and regional Filipino artists and shone an important spotlight on the plight of the Agta people of Lake Buhi.