Filipino Community Portrait (excerpt)
by MC Canlas
Cultural Foundations: Kapwa and Bayan
A fundamental Filipino cultural concept is kapwa, the unity of "self " and "others," a sense of "fellow being," a recognition of shared identity or inner self shared with others. "Anyone looking for a core concept that would help explain Filipino interpersonal behavior cannot help but be struck by the super ordinate concept of kapwa," wrote Filipino psychologist Virgilio Enriquez.
The Filipino immigrant is fond of asking a newly introduced Filipino, "Taga saan ka sa atin?" The question, literally "Where are you from in the Philippines?" is an essential part of Filipino identity formation. The usual response consists of one’s family name and the community he or she belongs to or identifies with. In my case, for example: "I am Canlas of San Fernando, Pampanga, but we moved to Quezon City when I was in my teens."
The question, posed without malice or sense of intrusion, elicits a response that facilitates discovery of a common bond, or ka. Kababayan, for example, are town mates (ka + bayan, or town) and kamag-anak (ka + mag-anak, or family) are relatives. Filipinos naturally seek out levels and degrees of connectivity to build kapwa and sociocultural affinity that contextualizes their interaction and establish rapport.
Again, in my case, for example, likely follow-up questions would be, "Are you related to the Canlas of Santo Tomas?" " Do you know the Calalangs in San Fernando?" "Was your family ever in Tondo, Manila? My mother’s mother is from there and she’s a Canlas," and so on. Chances are the person asking me will discover that our grandparents were cousins or our parents attended the same school, for example, and say: "Ah, it’s a small world, we’re related!"
This emphasis on place of origin dates back to long before Filipinos were even known as Filipinos, a time when our ways of life, culture, and identity were tied to settlement patterns and environment. Settlements tended to be located along rivers, lakeshores, and seacoasts, and even those in the hinterlands tended to parallel mountain streams. In fact, names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water. For example, Tagalog means "native of the river"; Kapampangan are "people of the riverbank," Cebu comes from Sugbu, meaning "riverbank," and Lanao, Maranao, Maguindanao, and Mindanao all come from danao, "lake of flooded areas." This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituted the material basis of the beliefs, customs, and traditions of the ancestors of Filipinos. The houses (bahay) were usually located near people’s source of livelihood, along the shore in coastal communities, and closer to the fields in the interior. People lived together in barangays of thirty to a hundred families, and social organizations developed around kinship and neighborhood connections.
Their sense of community, or bayan, is deeply rooted in extended family relationships and neighborhood bonds. The core traditions of family-based communities as expressed in their language and culture, leadership, and governance structures, and spiritual and social life have persisted for centuries despite colonialism, social upheaval, and natural disasters.
The connection between family and community is transparent in the lexicon. The term bayan is relative. Today, it may mean "motherland," Inang Bayan; "nation-state," Bayang Pilipinas; "town" or "municipality," Bayan ng San Roque; "town center," kabayanan; people or fellow citizen or belonging to the same ethno-linguistic group or region, kabayan or kababayan. The protector of the community is Bayani, while bayanihan, usually symbolized by a group of people carrying a house to another place, is a valued practice of cooperation, self-help, and mutual support among neighbors and extended families. Balikbayan is community and family renewing, either physically or spiritually to one’s homeland. Filipino returnees and tourists in the Philippines are called balikbayans.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In The News: Filipino Women Power
Originally published in Filipinas Magazine in the March 2009 issue, reprinted with permission from the author
Filipino Women Power
by Allen Gaborro (Filipinas Magazine, pg. 45-47)
It was with the arrival of European colonialism in the 16th century that the high ideal of an indigenous Filipina woman and its practice was uprooted alongside much of the pre-colonial culture and society that it had been embedded in for centuries. One of those feminine ideals was that of the “Babaylan” which is akin to something along the lines of a spiritual leader. Several definitions have been attributed to the term Babaylan. It is said to be the Visayan word for either “priestess,” “shaman,” “medicine man/woman,” “miracle-worker,” “mystic,” or for all of the above.
While both males and females could be babaylans, it was women who made up the majority of them during the pre-colonial period. Not relegated to being simply spiritual leaders, babaylans also assumed specialized roles in their respective pre-modern communities. Babaylans performed as healers, as receptacles of knowledge, as skilled practitioners in shamanistic traditions, and as native philosophers and therapists. Other duties ascribed to the babaylans included social mediation and spiritual mediumship.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the responsibilities of a babaylan is the amount of political influence and power they wielded. There is a considerable amount of historical evidence showing that babaylan women functioned as important counselors in their tribal communities. Babaylan women in addition, were valued as political and economic administrators in the service of the ruling tribal chiefs (datus). They also acted as communal custodians, oracles of wisdom, and as authoritative leaders of their people. In short, the babaylan were a pillar of social stability, or more precisely one of the four pillars—datu (chief), bagani (warrior), panday (native technologist), babaylan—of the barangay community. Indeed, they were what one writer termed as their community’s “central personality.”
In a sign of the more egalitarian ethos they lived in, the babaylan women were afforded comparable, if not entirely equal, status with men in their community’s social hierarchy. In some cases, they found themselves even more powerful and influential than their male counterparts. In fact, few decisions were reached without the consent of the babaylan.
While most babaylans were female, their male versions deserve some mention. It is said that the babaylan was the symbolic manifestation of both female and male power, an approximation of the yin and yang principle. Interestingly, babaylan men were believed to have worn feminine attire. This goes back to the idea that some babaylans were androgynous in nature and that they were endowed with the sexual properties of both genders.
The process of becoming a babaylan involved supernatural occurrences and paranormal states. According to babaylanic traditions, a person can begin developing into a babaylan by experiencing dreams that express a sacred summons, or a “rukut,” emanating from a mystical being. It should be pointed out that a person can become a babaylan by way of inheritance. A descendant can transmit a babaylanic tradition down to their successors.
Sometimes a sacred summons comes to a person in a trance. This trance resembles somewhat the phenomena of spiritual possession. If a person receives such a summons, they are deemed to be especially chosen by supernatural spirits to be a babaylan.
The chosen ones are then escorted by a “surog” or a spirit guide on a spiritual expedition. This journey will take them to a transcendental endpoint where they will be able to communicate with ancestral spirits. The completion of this unworldly journey, as it is indicated by the surmounting of the trance stage, signals the chosen one’s readiness for interaction with supernatural entities.
Under the auspices of an active babaylan, the newly-discovered babaylan is immersed in the essentials of babaylanic rituals and practices. Once the babaylan finishes their training, they receive amulets and other small ornaments (“pangalap”) which they use for a variety of ritualistic customs. Typically, these rituals entail ancestral spirit worship. Babaylanic rituals also have therapeutic powers that are utilized for the benefit of the sick. Ritualistic chanting is conducted by babaylans whenever a community is hit with an emergency or with trouble of some kind. The babaylanic rituals are intended to mollify the spiritual entities that are believed to be the origin of the difficulty.
Why is the memory of the babaylan so faint in the collective Filipino historical consciousness, given the leading positions that they held in pre-colonial society? Probably a key reason was the advent of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines in the 1500’s. The Spanish colonizers brought with them notions of masculine vanity, a dominant patriarchical paradigm, and a Catholic clergy that cast aspersions on the babaylan. This foreign clergy would supplant the babaylan and their rituals and instill Christian teachings and sacraments in their place.
It was not beyond the Spanish to use unadulterated violence in repressing the babaylan. In her publication, “A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan,” Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel writes that, as recounted by historian Mila Guerrero, babaylan women were physically slaughtered with wanton cruelty. Their bodies were consequently, in Strobel’s words, mutilated as well: “as if to make sure [the babaylan] bodies never return, their bodies were chopped and fed to crocodiles.”
The Spanish legitimized their pogrom against the babaylan by invoking the preeminence of Christianity in the new colony. The babaylan and their philosophy were seen as an anathema to the colonizers’ religious beliefs and therefore had to be eradicated for the sake of the Christian faith. As part of that strategy, the Spanish friars demonized the babaylans as the “monstrous feminine.” Accompanying this perception was the friars’ claim that the babaylan were malignant enchantresses who were endowed with black magic powers.
The Spanish onslaught on the babaylan disrupted the generational inheritance of babaylanic knowledge and traditions from babaylanic mothers to their daughters. Attempts to revive that inheritance with the defeat of the Spanish and the dawn of American colonialism were futile for the most part as the babaylans were regarded as heretical by American Protestants in the Philippines as they were by the Spanish Catholic friars.
At present, the babaylan tradition is being rejuvenated as a Filipina expression of feminine power, independence, and wisdom. As Neferti Xina M. Tadiar writes in her essay “Filipinas ‘Living in a Time of War,’” contemporary Filipinas are reinventing “the role of the babaylan.” This role, Tadiar suggests, encapsulates the power that Filipinas exert. She means both the “the power over life” and “the power for life” that Filipinas utilize “in struggle” against social and political repression.
This 21st century version of the babaylan is a fresh take on the tradition, one that keeps its followers engaged in the pre-modern understanding of the sagacious babaylan female. This version at once, espouses a babaylanic spirit that characterizes modern-day Filipinas’ collective empowerment and resistance against historical subjugation and inequity.
Filipina intellectuals and activists have divided Filipina women into two definitive archetypes: the Maria Clara type and the babaylan. The Maria Clara type is identified with the image of the submissive, compliant Filipina. In contrast, the babaylan type constitutes the politically-conscious, autonomous, and enlightened Filipina female.
Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel, through her writings and scholarship, has emphasized the postcolonial bearing that has been attached to the babaylan. Strobel reprises the babaylan as a revolutionary force, as a symbol for tearing down the psychological edifice of colonial dispossession and domination that has plagued Filipinos. She writes that by invoking the babaylan name, Filipinos everywhere can draw on its “power to heal” and its “power to call the wandering, colonized soul, back into its own body and home.” Strobel also tells us that babaylanic traditions “provide us a language for talking back to the [American] empire that we now paradoxically belong to.”
The babaylan ideal has been modified over the course of Philippine history. And yet, even in its evolved state, how the babaylan heritage is understood still revolves around its pre-modern past. That compelling and significant past is very much alive today thanks in part to the restoration of the babaylan tradition.
Filipino Women Power
by Allen Gaborro (Filipinas Magazine, pg. 45-47)
It was with the arrival of European colonialism in the 16th century that the high ideal of an indigenous Filipina woman and its practice was uprooted alongside much of the pre-colonial culture and society that it had been embedded in for centuries. One of those feminine ideals was that of the “Babaylan” which is akin to something along the lines of a spiritual leader. Several definitions have been attributed to the term Babaylan. It is said to be the Visayan word for either “priestess,” “shaman,” “medicine man/woman,” “miracle-worker,” “mystic,” or for all of the above.
While both males and females could be babaylans, it was women who made up the majority of them during the pre-colonial period. Not relegated to being simply spiritual leaders, babaylans also assumed specialized roles in their respective pre-modern communities. Babaylans performed as healers, as receptacles of knowledge, as skilled practitioners in shamanistic traditions, and as native philosophers and therapists. Other duties ascribed to the babaylans included social mediation and spiritual mediumship.
What is perhaps most fascinating about the responsibilities of a babaylan is the amount of political influence and power they wielded. There is a considerable amount of historical evidence showing that babaylan women functioned as important counselors in their tribal communities. Babaylan women in addition, were valued as political and economic administrators in the service of the ruling tribal chiefs (datus). They also acted as communal custodians, oracles of wisdom, and as authoritative leaders of their people. In short, the babaylan were a pillar of social stability, or more precisely one of the four pillars—datu (chief), bagani (warrior), panday (native technologist), babaylan—of the barangay community. Indeed, they were what one writer termed as their community’s “central personality.”
In a sign of the more egalitarian ethos they lived in, the babaylan women were afforded comparable, if not entirely equal, status with men in their community’s social hierarchy. In some cases, they found themselves even more powerful and influential than their male counterparts. In fact, few decisions were reached without the consent of the babaylan.
While most babaylans were female, their male versions deserve some mention. It is said that the babaylan was the symbolic manifestation of both female and male power, an approximation of the yin and yang principle. Interestingly, babaylan men were believed to have worn feminine attire. This goes back to the idea that some babaylans were androgynous in nature and that they were endowed with the sexual properties of both genders.
The process of becoming a babaylan involved supernatural occurrences and paranormal states. According to babaylanic traditions, a person can begin developing into a babaylan by experiencing dreams that express a sacred summons, or a “rukut,” emanating from a mystical being. It should be pointed out that a person can become a babaylan by way of inheritance. A descendant can transmit a babaylanic tradition down to their successors.
Sometimes a sacred summons comes to a person in a trance. This trance resembles somewhat the phenomena of spiritual possession. If a person receives such a summons, they are deemed to be especially chosen by supernatural spirits to be a babaylan.
The chosen ones are then escorted by a “surog” or a spirit guide on a spiritual expedition. This journey will take them to a transcendental endpoint where they will be able to communicate with ancestral spirits. The completion of this unworldly journey, as it is indicated by the surmounting of the trance stage, signals the chosen one’s readiness for interaction with supernatural entities.
Under the auspices of an active babaylan, the newly-discovered babaylan is immersed in the essentials of babaylanic rituals and practices. Once the babaylan finishes their training, they receive amulets and other small ornaments (“pangalap”) which they use for a variety of ritualistic customs. Typically, these rituals entail ancestral spirit worship. Babaylanic rituals also have therapeutic powers that are utilized for the benefit of the sick. Ritualistic chanting is conducted by babaylans whenever a community is hit with an emergency or with trouble of some kind. The babaylanic rituals are intended to mollify the spiritual entities that are believed to be the origin of the difficulty.
Why is the memory of the babaylan so faint in the collective Filipino historical consciousness, given the leading positions that they held in pre-colonial society? Probably a key reason was the advent of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines in the 1500’s. The Spanish colonizers brought with them notions of masculine vanity, a dominant patriarchical paradigm, and a Catholic clergy that cast aspersions on the babaylan. This foreign clergy would supplant the babaylan and their rituals and instill Christian teachings and sacraments in their place.
It was not beyond the Spanish to use unadulterated violence in repressing the babaylan. In her publication, “A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan,” Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel writes that, as recounted by historian Mila Guerrero, babaylan women were physically slaughtered with wanton cruelty. Their bodies were consequently, in Strobel’s words, mutilated as well: “as if to make sure [the babaylan] bodies never return, their bodies were chopped and fed to crocodiles.”
The Spanish legitimized their pogrom against the babaylan by invoking the preeminence of Christianity in the new colony. The babaylan and their philosophy were seen as an anathema to the colonizers’ religious beliefs and therefore had to be eradicated for the sake of the Christian faith. As part of that strategy, the Spanish friars demonized the babaylans as the “monstrous feminine.” Accompanying this perception was the friars’ claim that the babaylan were malignant enchantresses who were endowed with black magic powers.
The Spanish onslaught on the babaylan disrupted the generational inheritance of babaylanic knowledge and traditions from babaylanic mothers to their daughters. Attempts to revive that inheritance with the defeat of the Spanish and the dawn of American colonialism were futile for the most part as the babaylans were regarded as heretical by American Protestants in the Philippines as they were by the Spanish Catholic friars.
At present, the babaylan tradition is being rejuvenated as a Filipina expression of feminine power, independence, and wisdom. As Neferti Xina M. Tadiar writes in her essay “Filipinas ‘Living in a Time of War,’” contemporary Filipinas are reinventing “the role of the babaylan.” This role, Tadiar suggests, encapsulates the power that Filipinas exert. She means both the “the power over life” and “the power for life” that Filipinas utilize “in struggle” against social and political repression.
This 21st century version of the babaylan is a fresh take on the tradition, one that keeps its followers engaged in the pre-modern understanding of the sagacious babaylan female. This version at once, espouses a babaylanic spirit that characterizes modern-day Filipinas’ collective empowerment and resistance against historical subjugation and inequity.
Filipina intellectuals and activists have divided Filipina women into two definitive archetypes: the Maria Clara type and the babaylan. The Maria Clara type is identified with the image of the submissive, compliant Filipina. In contrast, the babaylan type constitutes the politically-conscious, autonomous, and enlightened Filipina female.
Professor Leny Mendoza Strobel, through her writings and scholarship, has emphasized the postcolonial bearing that has been attached to the babaylan. Strobel reprises the babaylan as a revolutionary force, as a symbol for tearing down the psychological edifice of colonial dispossession and domination that has plagued Filipinos. She writes that by invoking the babaylan name, Filipinos everywhere can draw on its “power to heal” and its “power to call the wandering, colonized soul, back into its own body and home.” Strobel also tells us that babaylanic traditions “provide us a language for talking back to the [American] empire that we now paradoxically belong to.”
The babaylan ideal has been modified over the course of Philippine history. And yet, even in its evolved state, how the babaylan heritage is understood still revolves around its pre-modern past. That compelling and significant past is very much alive today thanks in part to the restoration of the babaylan tradition.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Features: Back from the Goddess Gathering - Part 3
Over the weekend of May 15, Letecia Layson attended the RCG-I Gathering of Priestesses and Goddess Women in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There Leticia presented a workshop titled workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future". The Center asked Letecia to share her experiences there. Part 1 of this article is her open letter to the Babaylan Yahoo group. Part 2 sets the context of her presentation. Part 3 is the resources she provided to workshop participants.
Here is some information to supplement what I shared about USA's historical role in colonialism and in the shaping of what is now the Philippines: Information on US Territories
Two authors who have books on the History of US that you might not have gotten in school:
The US History UnCensored by Carolyn Baker
The Peoples' History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Words of Power
As is the case of many cultures who have been colonized the original peoples of the land, indigenous people, are identified by 135+ distinct languages. Babaylan is the Visayan word, there were/are many words used in other tribes/languages. Common to these languages is only one pronoun. "..no gender pronouns or suffixes to denote sex." Carolyn Brewer, Holy Confrontation. Taking into account the varied creation stories a common theme is the co-creation of female and male. The most widely known creation story comes from the Visayan Islands of Magandas, the female (Beauty) and Malakas, the male (Strength). In the story, the human female and male emerge from a bamboo plant that was split. Regardless of which comes out first (in different versions of the story), Malakas bows to Maganda (as in strength bows to beauty) and they walk of hand in hand. The qualities of Strength and Beauty are cultivated in both males and females rather than gender assigning these attributes. You can read a version of the story here.
Ways of Knowing Tacit/Explicit
"Ancestral traditions are based on tacit modes of knowing. Examples are dreading body gestures, interpreting metaphors, deriving signs from complexities in nature. All these are aptitudes of this ancient way of understanding. Other skills are dreams interpretations, visualizations, trance techniques and more. Intergral to a lifestyle that is born from Filipino personhood, such pre-rational cognitive talents are universal and are found in every other corner of the world."
"Tacit knowing is assumed to be the older way of human understanding because it works with the primary processes of sensing, intuiting and feeling (pakiramdam) . Its function is to find order, closure and consistency in an overwhelmingly complex world."
"Explicit knowing evolved much later in our brains. Called the secondary process, it is seen to regulate the linear "either-or" operations at work when we make rational decisions. Its function is to regonize contrasts and to differentiate parts. This is also referred to as the "discovery process."
"Filipino person hood, after all, can be expected to differ from personality, because it is grounded in the tacit knowing (pakirmandam) rather than explicit knowing."
Note: Pakiramdam is "shared inner perception"
Quotes from KAPWA - the Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia
To facilitate the decolnization process and reference Filipinos back to their own her/history and culture Virgilio Enriquez developed Filipino Psychology or Sikolohiyang Plipino in 1975 . It is rooted in the experience, ideas and cultural orientation of Filipino http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Philippine_ Psychology A core value is KAPWA translated as 'the self in the other', the shared self or togetherness. Katrina de Guia has written a book entitled KAPWA - the Self in the Other (eds note: http://ugnayan.110mb.com/public_html/cnv%20stories/Indigenous%20Values.html - this link disabled as of 6/15/09).
This book includes Filipino culture bearers and by their livingness demonstrate and illustrate a living psychology of the people, not bound by western filters. The female and male are equally honored. The culture is about the children, unlike western culture that is focused on the adult male. One can see this reflected in the way Catholic Religion has adapted to the culture with Santo Nino and the strong female influence as in Suprema Isabel Suarez that Sr Mary John Mananzan writes about in her book Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia. You can find some information out about Suprema Isabel Suarez [here] and [here]. According to Mananzan, the Ciudad Mistica De Dios was founded by Maria Bernarda Balitaan born in 1876. Her birth was considered to be the dawn of the Age of the Mother. An article is availabe for more info.
Filipino Community Portrait "..names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water...This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituded the material basis of the beliefs, costoms and traditions of the ancestors of the Filipino."
Holy Confrontation - Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Philippines, 1521-1685 by Carolyn Brewer. Here is a review of the book and an article you can access on-line.
The Filipino Women;Before and After the Spanish Conquest of the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
The Woman Question in the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
Celebrating 100 years of feminism in the Philippines Sr Mary John Mananzan, Mother Superior of Saint Scolastica's College hosted a celebration and Babaylan Symposium with Agnes N. Miciat-Cacayan as the keynote speaker. Her presentation "Babaylan: She Dances in Wholeness can be accessed here. Dance as trance, dance as prayer, dance as healing are central to the work of the Babaylan. Agnes is the author of "The Shaman Woman's Dream - How can we worship god without the forest?"
Babaylan
Perla Daly writes at her website:
"Leadership is a sacred duty---not an act of self-aggrandizement . Let me put that in another way--- the most essential role of leadership is for survival, but the most sacred role of leadership is service."
"The Babaylan performed 4 main power roles in pre-hispanic Philippine village communities which were: Leader, Counselor, Healer, and Sage.
All those roles carried with it the qualities of community caretakers and bearers of wisdom.
Each role had a particular strength and spiritual principle that differentiated it from another.
The Leader embodied courage, making a stand and giving direction to a community. He or she was a leader and at times of conflict, a Warrior."
The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien reflect these primary babaylan roles.
I quoted from Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace"
"Who is the Babaylan
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.
How did babaylans become babaylans?
Women had dreams and experienced life-altering events that led them to become babaylans of their specific communities. The traditional path in babaylan formation was to be called by a mystical source or to inherit the role from an elder babaylan. The sacred call would come in a dream or the person would experience a life-threatening illness, be healed by prayers and then experience a change of consciousness, or what is called sinasapian (a spirit possessing the self). But this possession is just a signal. What is important is the continuing transformation which gave the babaylan the ability to widen her circles of concern and learn her multiple functions in society.
In this writers interaction with members of Lumad communities in Mindanao, especially the Matigsalom, she learned that the practice of choosing a babaylan is a lifelong process. Any woman or man who could identify and solve the problems of the community can be chosen a babaylan. She had to demonstrate her leadership in solving its problems as they arise and mature. In other Lumad communities, a woman or man must be able to wield a sword or a weapon in defense of the community. Once proven as a warrior, she would develop further her role as a babaylan. The education of a babaylan is lifelong and she becomes a full fledged babaylan when she understands and embodies the multiple functions of priestess, healer, sage and seer. That is why babaylans are already in their maturing years when they assume the mantle of babaylanism. "
Filipino Goddesses
From the womb of Mebuyan (Mebuyan is an Earth Goddess) by Vivian Nobles, Agnes N Miclat-Cacayan, Sr Esperanza Clapano, Geejay Arriola
Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess by Flaudette May V. Datuin
Contemporary Babaylan Movement International
The University of the Philippines Babaylan is the leading gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (lgbt) students' support group in all campuses of the State University, at the same time maintaining national and international linkages and presence.
Babaylan Denmark is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe, The Philippine Women's Network in Europe, came about as a result of the first Europewide conference of Filipinas held in Spain (Barcelona) on 23-26 September 1992. It was in response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting their lives as Filipinas, needing effective and liberating support for each other.
Babaylan - The Philippine Women's Network in Europe is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe. A result of the first Conference of Filipinas in Europe held in Barcelona on September 23-26, 1992, it is a response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting women. It seeks to develop an effective and liberating support system for Filipinas.
Contemporary Babaylan Movement and Arts in the USA
Evelie Delfino Sales Posch
Mary Ann Ubaldo. One of my favorite articles on the website is Mutya by Grace Odal.
Filipino Scripts
I am including additional information mentioned in the course of the content linking/bridging to other cultures:
Korean Shamanism Links
Kim Kumhwa
Invoking a Spirit of Peace
Shamans: The Next Generation
Gukmu (eds note: this site is in Korean.)
Dancing on Knives: An Introduction to the Politics of Sexuality and Gender in Korean Shamanism
Raindeer Ancestors - Elen of the Ways part 1 and part 2
European-inspired
Greenwood Tarot by Chesca Potter
Online Greenwood Tarot Handbook by Chesca Potter
Hawaiian-inspired
Hooponopono
Mabel Katz on Hooponopono
Self-Identity through Hooponopono, Mabel Katz
Filipino Bookshop Resources:
Philippine Expressions Bookshop - The Mail Order Bookshop dedicated to Filipino Americans in search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2006, USA
Tel (310) 514-9139 FAX (310) 514-3485
e.mail: linda_nietes@ sbcglobal. net
We blazed the trail in promoting Philippine books in America. 2008 marks our 24th year of service to the Filipino American community. Thank you for your support. Mabuhay! Linda Nietes, a cultural activist, also owned Casalinda, the first all-Filipina bookshop in the Philippines, (Metro Manila,1972- 1983) and has provided a home for Philippine writings on both sides of the Pacific.
Arkipelago Books
ARKIPELAGO Philippine Books
953 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94103 U.S.A.
415/777-0108 Tel
415/777-0113 Fax
Besides Amazon.com I also use these online resources that compare pricing (both new and used) at FetchBook and BookFinder.
I think I covered all the material presented in the workshop. In closing I would like to invite you to visit The Center for Babaylan Studies to find out about a conference I am helping to organize in 2010. And be sure to stay in touch with the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and their conference in 2010.
I look forward to our next connect. If I have left anything out, please remind me. I do not think all the women who were at the workshop wrote their email addresses down for me (due to me going a bit overtime). If you might pass this post on to them, I would be most grateful.
Love and Gratitude, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Here is some information to supplement what I shared about USA's historical role in colonialism and in the shaping of what is now the Philippines: Information on US Territories
Two authors who have books on the History of US that you might not have gotten in school:
The US History UnCensored by Carolyn Baker
The Peoples' History of the United States by Howard Zinn
Words of Power
As is the case of many cultures who have been colonized the original peoples of the land, indigenous people, are identified by 135+ distinct languages. Babaylan is the Visayan word, there were/are many words used in other tribes/languages. Common to these languages is only one pronoun. "..no gender pronouns or suffixes to denote sex." Carolyn Brewer, Holy Confrontation. Taking into account the varied creation stories a common theme is the co-creation of female and male. The most widely known creation story comes from the Visayan Islands of Magandas, the female (Beauty) and Malakas, the male (Strength). In the story, the human female and male emerge from a bamboo plant that was split. Regardless of which comes out first (in different versions of the story), Malakas bows to Maganda (as in strength bows to beauty) and they walk of hand in hand. The qualities of Strength and Beauty are cultivated in both males and females rather than gender assigning these attributes. You can read a version of the story here.
Ways of Knowing Tacit/Explicit
"Ancestral traditions are based on tacit modes of knowing. Examples are dreading body gestures, interpreting metaphors, deriving signs from complexities in nature. All these are aptitudes of this ancient way of understanding. Other skills are dreams interpretations, visualizations, trance techniques and more. Intergral to a lifestyle that is born from Filipino personhood, such pre-rational cognitive talents are universal and are found in every other corner of the world."
"Tacit knowing is assumed to be the older way of human understanding because it works with the primary processes of sensing, intuiting and feeling (pakiramdam) . Its function is to find order, closure and consistency in an overwhelmingly complex world."
"Explicit knowing evolved much later in our brains. Called the secondary process, it is seen to regulate the linear "either-or" operations at work when we make rational decisions. Its function is to regonize contrasts and to differentiate parts. This is also referred to as the "discovery process."
"Filipino person hood, after all, can be expected to differ from personality, because it is grounded in the tacit knowing (pakirmandam) rather than explicit knowing."
Note: Pakiramdam is "shared inner perception"
Quotes from KAPWA - the Self in the Other by Katrin de Guia
To facilitate the decolnization process and reference Filipinos back to their own her/history and culture Virgilio Enriquez developed Filipino Psychology or Sikolohiyang Plipino in 1975 . It is rooted in the experience, ideas and cultural orientation of Filipino http://en.wikipedia .org/wiki/ Philippine_ Psychology A core value is KAPWA translated as 'the self in the other', the shared self or togetherness. Katrina de Guia has written a book entitled KAPWA - the Self in the Other (eds note: http://ugnayan.110mb.com/public_html/cnv%20stories/Indigenous%20Values.html - this link disabled as of 6/15/09).
This book includes Filipino culture bearers and by their livingness demonstrate and illustrate a living psychology of the people, not bound by western filters. The female and male are equally honored. The culture is about the children, unlike western culture that is focused on the adult male. One can see this reflected in the way Catholic Religion has adapted to the culture with Santo Nino and the strong female influence as in Suprema Isabel Suarez that Sr Mary John Mananzan writes about in her book Women, Religion and Spirituality in Asia. You can find some information out about Suprema Isabel Suarez [here] and [here]. According to Mananzan, the Ciudad Mistica De Dios was founded by Maria Bernarda Balitaan born in 1876. Her birth was considered to be the dawn of the Age of the Mother. An article is availabe for more info.
Filipino Community Portrait "..names for various Filipino ethnolinguistic groups and geographical locations are derived from bodies of water...This water-based culture, coupled with a sacred view of the mountains, constituded the material basis of the beliefs, costoms and traditions of the ancestors of the Filipino."
Holy Confrontation - Religion, Gender and Sexuality in the Philippines, 1521-1685 by Carolyn Brewer. Here is a review of the book and an article you can access on-line.
The Filipino Women;Before and After the Spanish Conquest of the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
The Woman Question in the Philippines (booklet) by Sr Mary John Mananzan
Celebrating 100 years of feminism in the Philippines Sr Mary John Mananzan, Mother Superior of Saint Scolastica's College hosted a celebration and Babaylan Symposium with Agnes N. Miciat-Cacayan as the keynote speaker. Her presentation "Babaylan: She Dances in Wholeness can be accessed here. Dance as trance, dance as prayer, dance as healing are central to the work of the Babaylan. Agnes is the author of "The Shaman Woman's Dream - How can we worship god without the forest?"
Babaylan
Perla Daly writes at her website:
"Leadership is a sacred duty---not an act of self-aggrandizement . Let me put that in another way--- the most essential role of leadership is for survival, but the most sacred role of leadership is service."
"The Babaylan performed 4 main power roles in pre-hispanic Philippine village communities which were: Leader, Counselor, Healer, and Sage.
All those roles carried with it the qualities of community caretakers and bearers of wisdom.
Each role had a particular strength and spiritual principle that differentiated it from another.
The Leader embodied courage, making a stand and giving direction to a community. He or she was a leader and at times of conflict, a Warrior."
The Four Fold Way by Angeles Arrien reflect these primary babaylan roles.
I quoted from Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace"
"Who is the Babaylan
Who is a babaylan? The babaylans, predominantly women, were mystical women who wielded social and spiritual power in pre-colonial Philippine society before the coming of the Spanish conquerors in the 16th century.
In his research on pre-colonial women, anthropologist Dr. Zeus Salazar described the babaylan as a specialist in the fields of culture, religion, medicine and all kinds of theoretical knowledge about the phenomenon of nature.
How did babaylans become babaylans?
Women had dreams and experienced life-altering events that led them to become babaylans of their specific communities. The traditional path in babaylan formation was to be called by a mystical source or to inherit the role from an elder babaylan. The sacred call would come in a dream or the person would experience a life-threatening illness, be healed by prayers and then experience a change of consciousness, or what is called sinasapian (a spirit possessing the self). But this possession is just a signal. What is important is the continuing transformation which gave the babaylan the ability to widen her circles of concern and learn her multiple functions in society.
In this writers interaction with members of Lumad communities in Mindanao, especially the Matigsalom, she learned that the practice of choosing a babaylan is a lifelong process. Any woman or man who could identify and solve the problems of the community can be chosen a babaylan. She had to demonstrate her leadership in solving its problems as they arise and mature. In other Lumad communities, a woman or man must be able to wield a sword or a weapon in defense of the community. Once proven as a warrior, she would develop further her role as a babaylan. The education of a babaylan is lifelong and she becomes a full fledged babaylan when she understands and embodies the multiple functions of priestess, healer, sage and seer. That is why babaylans are already in their maturing years when they assume the mantle of babaylanism. "
Filipino Goddesses
From the womb of Mebuyan (Mebuyan is an Earth Goddess) by Vivian Nobles, Agnes N Miclat-Cacayan, Sr Esperanza Clapano, Geejay Arriola
Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess by Flaudette May V. Datuin
Contemporary Babaylan Movement International
The University of the Philippines Babaylan is the leading gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (lgbt) students' support group in all campuses of the State University, at the same time maintaining national and international linkages and presence.
Babaylan Denmark is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe, The Philippine Women's Network in Europe, came about as a result of the first Europewide conference of Filipinas held in Spain (Barcelona) on 23-26 September 1992. It was in response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting their lives as Filipinas, needing effective and liberating support for each other.
Babaylan - The Philippine Women's Network in Europe is an initiative of Philippine women's groups and women's desks in Europe. A result of the first Conference of Filipinas in Europe held in Barcelona on September 23-26, 1992, it is a response to a long felt need of Filipinas living and working in Europe to link together and forge unity to improve their situation, address specific issues affecting women. It seeks to develop an effective and liberating support system for Filipinas.
Contemporary Babaylan Movement and Arts in the USA
Evelie Delfino Sales Posch
Mary Ann Ubaldo. One of my favorite articles on the website is Mutya by Grace Odal.
Filipino Scripts
I am including additional information mentioned in the course of the content linking/bridging to other cultures:
Korean Shamanism Links
Kim Kumhwa
Invoking a Spirit of Peace
Shamans: The Next Generation
Gukmu (eds note: this site is in Korean.)
Dancing on Knives: An Introduction to the Politics of Sexuality and Gender in Korean Shamanism
Raindeer Ancestors - Elen of the Ways part 1 and part 2
European-inspired
Greenwood Tarot by Chesca Potter
Online Greenwood Tarot Handbook by Chesca Potter
Hawaiian-inspired
Hooponopono
Mabel Katz on Hooponopono
Self-Identity through Hooponopono, Mabel Katz
Filipino Bookshop Resources:
Philippine Expressions Bookshop - The Mail Order Bookshop dedicated to Filipino Americans in search of their roots.
2114 Trudie Drive
Rancho Palos Verdes, CA 90275-2006, USA
Tel (310) 514-9139 FAX (310) 514-3485
e.mail: linda_nietes@ sbcglobal. net
We blazed the trail in promoting Philippine books in America. 2008 marks our 24th year of service to the Filipino American community. Thank you for your support. Mabuhay! Linda Nietes, a cultural activist, also owned Casalinda, the first all-Filipina bookshop in the Philippines, (Metro Manila,1972- 1983) and has provided a home for Philippine writings on both sides of the Pacific.
Arkipelago Books
ARKIPELAGO Philippine Books
953 Mission Street, San Francisco, Ca. 94103 U.S.A.
415/777-0108 Tel
415/777-0113 Fax
Besides Amazon.com I also use these online resources that compare pricing (both new and used) at FetchBook and BookFinder.
I think I covered all the material presented in the workshop. In closing I would like to invite you to visit The Center for Babaylan Studies to find out about a conference I am helping to organize in 2010. And be sure to stay in touch with the Association for the Study of Women and Mythology and their conference in 2010.
I look forward to our next connect. If I have left anything out, please remind me. I do not think all the women who were at the workshop wrote their email addresses down for me (due to me going a bit overtime). If you might pass this post on to them, I would be most grateful.
Love and Gratitude, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Features: Back from the Goddess Gathering - Part 2
Over the weekend of May 15, Letecia Layson attended the RCG-I Gathering of Priestesses and Goddess Women in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There Leticia presented a workshop titled workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future". The Center asked Letecia to share her experiences there. Part 1 of this article is her open letter to the Babaylan Yahoo group. Part 2 sets the context of her presentation. Part 3 is the resources she provided to workshop participants.
Greetings from Southern CA!
Thank you for attending my workshop at the RCGI Priestess and Goddesswomen gathering. Congratulations to the congregation for 25 years of service to women and the community. Congratulations to the four new ordained Priestesses! I feel fortunate to be a witness to so much joy, fun, laughter, deep sharing and a time capsule to be opened at the 50th - wow!!
I appreciate the patience you had for the technical difficulty, though you briefly were able to hear the voice of Mendung Sabal, who died a few months ago.
Mendung Sabal is one of the 10 Filipino Oralists interviewed in The Shared Voice - Chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono At the end of the post I am including (see part 3) resources where you might be able to find books I listed, or invite your local library to order them and have them on hand. Maybe you will be able to get them by way of interlibrary loans. Here are a a few of Grace's videos (eds note: the first few seconds of the Balaleng Video has a sharp teleprompter tone. Please be patient and wait through it, the video is well worth it.)
The time we had together seemed too short and I hope I did not overwhelm you with information. This workshop is inspired by the work co-presented at past gatherings with Deb Trent "She of Many Colors" It was my hope and intention to honor Deb with is work, our ancestors, our teachers, the ancestors of the land, the elements and the elementals.
It was is important to set a context from which the babaylan tradition lives in - yes, a living tradition that managed to exist through the 333 years of colonization by Spain and the 50 years of the USA's presence in the Philippines. "Without looking back at the past, one cannot go forward into the future." -- Jose Rizal. The challenge I had presenting the material is in the relam of the Sacred, the past is now, the future is now and the present in now. "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett shares insights into how culture affects thinking processes - the differences of Eastern and Western thought. Here is a review of the book.
"The Shared Voice" by Grace Nono also provides some good references regarding the oralist and the literate styles, recognizing the secondary oralist as one who bridges the two styles using both systems. Note: the book comes with a CD that has recordings of those interviewed with their music/songs with English translations in the book. To quote Grace:
"It is an enormous challenge for oral traditions to thrive in the era of globalization that has followed centuries of colonization. The survival of these traditions requires conscious effort, fortitude, and commitment, not for one, ten or a hundred, but of all Filipinos who are reawakened to the oralist calling."
"May we, secondary oralists, develop the habit of regular self-examination as well as a general attitude of humility in the face of our own frailties, and in acknowledgement of the inexhaustible source of wisdom from which we can draw guidance, hope, and inspiration in the course of our journey."
I shared two poems that nested the major content of the workshop, Recipe for Cooking Fear and We Are Born With Gifts, written by Leny Mendoza Strobel from A Book of Her Own - Words, Images to Honor the Babaylan. You can find links at Leny's website for her blog. Leny's first book, Coming Full Circle - THE PROCESS OF DECOLONIZATION AMONG POST-1965 FILIPINO AMERICANS identifies the experience of many Filipino Americans. While my experience being born to a Manong who arrived on the mainland in 1926 at age 16 and a WWII War Bride, who arrived on the mainland on 1947 (just as the Philippines was given its independence at the end of WWII) had many similarities as described in Coming Full Circle, I was raised with traditional Filipino values in the home.
Two streams of western Goddess Traditions and Filipino Spirituality/ religion came together in the first series of classes I took at Circle of Aradia in Feminist Witchcraft in the Dianic Tradition. At the end of the first class we were asked to research a Goddess from our ethnic background and if that was not something that worked for us, research a Goddess that called to us. The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama. The book is an ethnographic study of the people (you can read a bit about them here). In the chapter "The making of Baylan (the same as a babaylan)" the rituals, chants, etc are included. Any woman of the tribe can be a baylan (providing they qualify), a priestess. The diwatas show their acceptance by possessing the baylan becoming a channel, oracle, healer, visionary, etc. During the ordination ceremony, the woman would need to invoke and make tributes to Gamaogamao, believed to be a water goddess.
I spent the next five weeks meditating on/with Gamaogamao as part of the workshop series. I was to ask if there was something that She wanted share with the women of the class and what She wanted me to tell the women about her. The last class we were required to invoke and aspect (speak as) our Goddess. I invoked and spoke as Gamaogamao in that last class forever linking my two spiritual streams.
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Greetings from Southern CA!
Thank you for attending my workshop at the RCGI Priestess and Goddesswomen gathering. Congratulations to the congregation for 25 years of service to women and the community. Congratulations to the four new ordained Priestesses! I feel fortunate to be a witness to so much joy, fun, laughter, deep sharing and a time capsule to be opened at the 50th - wow!!
I appreciate the patience you had for the technical difficulty, though you briefly were able to hear the voice of Mendung Sabal, who died a few months ago.
Mendung Sabal is one of the 10 Filipino Oralists interviewed in The Shared Voice - Chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono At the end of the post I am including (see part 3) resources where you might be able to find books I listed, or invite your local library to order them and have them on hand. Maybe you will be able to get them by way of interlibrary loans. Here are a a few of Grace's videos (eds note: the first few seconds of the Balaleng Video has a sharp teleprompter tone. Please be patient and wait through it, the video is well worth it.)
The time we had together seemed too short and I hope I did not overwhelm you with information. This workshop is inspired by the work co-presented at past gatherings with Deb Trent "She of Many Colors" It was my hope and intention to honor Deb with is work, our ancestors, our teachers, the ancestors of the land, the elements and the elementals.
It was is important to set a context from which the babaylan tradition lives in - yes, a living tradition that managed to exist through the 333 years of colonization by Spain and the 50 years of the USA's presence in the Philippines. "Without looking back at the past, one cannot go forward into the future." -- Jose Rizal. The challenge I had presenting the material is in the relam of the Sacred, the past is now, the future is now and the present in now. "The Geography of Thought" by Richard Nisbett shares insights into how culture affects thinking processes - the differences of Eastern and Western thought. Here is a review of the book.
"The Shared Voice" by Grace Nono also provides some good references regarding the oralist and the literate styles, recognizing the secondary oralist as one who bridges the two styles using both systems. Note: the book comes with a CD that has recordings of those interviewed with their music/songs with English translations in the book. To quote Grace:
"It is an enormous challenge for oral traditions to thrive in the era of globalization that has followed centuries of colonization. The survival of these traditions requires conscious effort, fortitude, and commitment, not for one, ten or a hundred, but of all Filipinos who are reawakened to the oralist calling."
"May we, secondary oralists, develop the habit of regular self-examination as well as a general attitude of humility in the face of our own frailties, and in acknowledgement of the inexhaustible source of wisdom from which we can draw guidance, hope, and inspiration in the course of our journey."
I shared two poems that nested the major content of the workshop, Recipe for Cooking Fear and We Are Born With Gifts, written by Leny Mendoza Strobel from A Book of Her Own - Words, Images to Honor the Babaylan. You can find links at Leny's website for her blog. Leny's first book, Coming Full Circle - THE PROCESS OF DECOLONIZATION AMONG POST-1965 FILIPINO AMERICANS identifies the experience of many Filipino Americans. While my experience being born to a Manong who arrived on the mainland in 1926 at age 16 and a WWII War Bride, who arrived on the mainland on 1947 (just as the Philippines was given its independence at the end of WWII) had many similarities as described in Coming Full Circle, I was raised with traditional Filipino values in the home.
Two streams of western Goddess Traditions and Filipino Spirituality/ religion came together in the first series of classes I took at Circle of Aradia in Feminist Witchcraft in the Dianic Tradition. At the end of the first class we were asked to research a Goddess from our ethnic background and if that was not something that worked for us, research a Goddess that called to us. The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama. The book is an ethnographic study of the people (you can read a bit about them here). In the chapter "The making of Baylan (the same as a babaylan)" the rituals, chants, etc are included. Any woman of the tribe can be a baylan (providing they qualify), a priestess. The diwatas show their acceptance by possessing the baylan becoming a channel, oracle, healer, visionary, etc. During the ordination ceremony, the woman would need to invoke and make tributes to Gamaogamao, believed to be a water goddess.
I spent the next five weeks meditating on/with Gamaogamao as part of the workshop series. I was to ask if there was something that She wanted share with the women of the class and what She wanted me to tell the women about her. The last class we were required to invoke and aspect (speak as) our Goddess. I invoked and spoke as Gamaogamao in that last class forever linking my two spiritual streams.
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/15/09.
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Performances: diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word
diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word @ grace exhibition space in brooklyn 2/6/09
Philippe Javier Garcesto is a NYC-based Filipino-American Multi-Disciplinary Artist who transforms and energizes each venue according to the essence of the performance piece. Leaving his homeland of Iloilo, the City of Love, at the tender age of 8 for the exotic suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey his work is about balance between worlds. He walks a fine balance between two aspects of the brain hemispheres of intellect and intuition, science and spirituality, west and east. He often metamorphs into his alias Diwang Ilaw, which is translated as “Spirit of Light” in the Earth-rooted language of Tagalog, who is a holistic healer fusing the Babaylan techniques of Inner Dance with surgical lyrical barrages of Spoken Word Poetry. He summons the spirits of all humans living or dead, all creatures and plants, the Earth, and the Universe to flow through him to reawaken humanity to the collective power found within themselves as individual co-creators of our reality. He considers his art movement as Multi-Media Holistic Arts Activism designed to raise consciousness and awareness of the interconnectedness of all things and the Love that binds us all as One.
Submitted by Leny Strobel
Links accessed June 3, 2009
diwang ilaw: inner dance spoken word @ grace exhibition space in brooklyn 2/6/09 from Philippe Garcesto on Vimeo.
Philippe Javier Garcesto is a NYC-based Filipino-American Multi-Disciplinary Artist who transforms and energizes each venue according to the essence of the performance piece. Leaving his homeland of Iloilo, the City of Love, at the tender age of 8 for the exotic suburbs of Maplewood, New Jersey his work is about balance between worlds. He walks a fine balance between two aspects of the brain hemispheres of intellect and intuition, science and spirituality, west and east. He often metamorphs into his alias Diwang Ilaw, which is translated as “Spirit of Light” in the Earth-rooted language of Tagalog, who is a holistic healer fusing the Babaylan techniques of Inner Dance with surgical lyrical barrages of Spoken Word Poetry. He summons the spirits of all humans living or dead, all creatures and plants, the Earth, and the Universe to flow through him to reawaken humanity to the collective power found within themselves as individual co-creators of our reality. He considers his art movement as Multi-Media Holistic Arts Activism designed to raise consciousness and awareness of the interconnectedness of all things and the Love that binds us all as One.
Submitted by Leny Strobel
Links accessed June 3, 2009
Monday, June 08, 2009
In The News: Bay Area Artists Revive Old Filipino Writing
Bay Area Artists Revive Old Filipino Writing
Sharon Chin reporting for CBS5, San Francisco
Some Bay Area residents are trying to revive an ancient writing system from The Philippines they say hasn't been used in centuries. It's a forgotten script that many in the Filipino community are only just discovering.
The language is called Baybayin, and Filipino-American artists are trying to keep it alive, to connect with their heritage. Babybayin migrated from the island of Java from a script called Kavi. But the script was replaced by the Western alphabet soon after the Spanish colonized The Philippines.
Our video report has more. Features artists Christian Cabuay and Christine Balza.
Submitted by Leny Strobel
Link accessed 6/8/09. Note that the feed was slow.
Sharon Chin reporting for CBS5, San Francisco
Some Bay Area residents are trying to revive an ancient writing system from The Philippines they say hasn't been used in centuries. It's a forgotten script that many in the Filipino community are only just discovering.
The language is called Baybayin, and Filipino-American artists are trying to keep it alive, to connect with their heritage. Babybayin migrated from the island of Java from a script called Kavi. But the script was replaced by the Western alphabet soon after the Spanish colonized The Philippines.
Our video report has more. Features artists Christian Cabuay and Christine Balza.
Submitted by Leny Strobel
Link accessed 6/8/09. Note that the feed was slow.
Friday, June 05, 2009
Kapwa Conference 09
Kapwa Conference 09
San Francisco State University
*** SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2009 ***
WHAT IS KAPWA? Kapwa is a Filipin@ word that describes oneness, interconnectedness, holism, and symbiosis among living beings and the broader environment.
Kapwa Conference 09, organized by Pin@y Educational Partnerships and Fulbright-Hays Philippines Study Tour 2008, will focus on the work of educators to better serve the diverse nature of today’s student population – Filipin@ youth, people of color, and similarly marginalized persons to transcend the effects of colonization and go beyond the basics of identity politics, to develop survival strategies, foster healing, and to build bridges and nurture community.
Through lectures, panels, roundtables, symposia, workshops, exhibits and performances, we will specifically explore roles and perspectives at the intersections of the Global, Local, and Personal levels. Please visit the Presenters’ pages for Global, Local, and Personal to see the full range of topics, including critical pedagogy, arts integration, history, activism, gender and sexuality, and equity in education.
San Francisco State University
*** SATURDAY, JUNE 27, 2009 ***
WHAT IS KAPWA? Kapwa is a Filipin@ word that describes oneness, interconnectedness, holism, and symbiosis among living beings and the broader environment.
Kapwa Conference 09, organized by Pin@y Educational Partnerships and Fulbright-Hays Philippines Study Tour 2008, will focus on the work of educators to better serve the diverse nature of today’s student population – Filipin@ youth, people of color, and similarly marginalized persons to transcend the effects of colonization and go beyond the basics of identity politics, to develop survival strategies, foster healing, and to build bridges and nurture community.
Through lectures, panels, roundtables, symposia, workshops, exhibits and performances, we will specifically explore roles and perspectives at the intersections of the Global, Local, and Personal levels. Please visit the Presenters’ pages for Global, Local, and Personal to see the full range of topics, including critical pedagogy, arts integration, history, activism, gender and sexuality, and equity in education.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Features: Back from the Goddess Gathering - Part 1
Over the weekend of May 15, Letecia Layson attended the RCG-I Gathering of Priestesses and Goddess Women in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin. There Letecia presented a workshop titled workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future". The Center asked Letecia to share her experiences there. Part 1 of this article is her open letter to the Babaylan Yahoo group. Part 2 sets the context of her presentation. Part 3 is the resources she provided to workshop participants.
Dear all,
I think the workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future" went well. The women seemed to get a lot out of it, some taking notes, tears, laughter, big ah-ha's The workshop was about 1.5 hrs Out of the 15 women in the workshop, five women (including me) who do not identify with European Roots/History - a woman from Mexican heritage, Korean - mixed blood, Native American - mixed blood and a woman from Puerto Rico. All women at the gathering are in agreement with The Affirmation of Women's Spirituality, are woman honoring, woman identified and generally focused on Goddess Centered, but not all from the same religions our spiritual traditions (meaning there were women who identified as witches, pagans, native american traditions, Mayan, buddhist, hindu, etc).
Before the gathering there was a Goddess Symposium which I was able to attend. The participants are part of the RCGI community. Kathryn Henderson presented a talk on "Working with Living Traditions with Respect". She interviewed Buddhist, Hindu, Voodoo, Yoruba and Native American spiritual leaders. She had a lovely one page handout with guidelines developed from the interviews, which was simple and direct. I referenced her work at the beginning of my workshop to remind women that there are unbroken lineages of babaylans in the Philippines. As a FilAM woman, I too must approach these lineages/teachings/ people with the proper respect, though my roots are also from similar cultures.
[In Part 2 of this post] the reference materials sent to the women of the workshop [appear] - and of course [I] invited them to come to the Babaylan Conference in 2010!
I had a simple 1 pg outline that I worked from, starting out with a welcome and a check-in. Women were asked to say three things, their name, the ethic or culture they identified with and their religion/spirituali ty. Once the check-ins were complete I spoke to the elements and the elementals, the ancestors the women just spoke of, the ancestors of the local land and invited them to be with us, to support us in the work we were about to begin.
I had a simple altar that included two pictures, one of my two sisters, mom and me, the other one was taken at the FAWN2005 gathering with some of you in it. I introduced you to the group and let them know this virtual circle has supported me on so many levels stepping forward in knowing more about the Babaylan. And then I read a poem from Leny's A Book Of Her Own, "Recipe for Cooking Fear." At the end I held up the garlic that was near me on the altar.
I quoted Jose Rizal "Without looking back at the past, one can not go forward into the future." In order for the women to appreciate who the babaylans are/were, I needed to set a context in her/history, language, the georgraphy of thought, tacit knowledge, oral and literate ways of transmitting, sharing and recording information by way of poems, images, crafts, dance, music, song, etc. I talked about the challenges that Filipina/o authors have writing in English about our culture and wondering where the audience is for the writing - yet still writers write and books are created.
I talked about decolonization and felt hearts breaking - open. Paraphrasing Grace Nono by telling them "there is not a single one of us in this circle who has not be touched by colonization, either by being colonized or as a colonizer," it is time to work together now to move forward for all the children. The women of color were relieved I spoke of these issues, especially the woman from Puerto Rico who shared briefly what it was like politically - how Puerto Rico not too long ago was able to have a sense of self government, but are still a colonial holding. She cried and I think felt relieved that she could share the difference and the frustration. She also shared how she was pained knowing her ancestors had almost killed an entire race, some of her other ancestors - having difficulty finding a place to speak about the internalized pain and confusion. She is the one who asked about Hooponopono (see links at the end of the post). A Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and healing. But I digress...
I told my story, of how I first came to know about babaylans - 18 years ago in my first classes on Dianic Witchcraft and read from The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama
While the outline I was working from had a progression, the items were presented based on the energetic in the room. How the women responded to what was being said and what else needed to be clarified, processed or referenced before moving on. So even now I am not clear on which went topic followed/flowed one after the other. I am pretty sure the unfolding into Babaylan was easy from here out....the past and the present linking in the readings from Perla's Babaylan.com website article on Leadership, to Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace", touching on creation stories, Filipino Psychology and Kapwa. I read from Agnes' Babaylan:She Dances to Wholeness' noting the intersecting realities of political and sacred, the dance of life and creation.
Examples of present rising of the Babaylan Spirit as in Babaylan UP, Denmark and Europe. Of Ann's work, Evelie's work, Geejay's work and the work of your circle.
I encouraged the women to reconnect with their own roots and make a commitment to step forward as herstory makers, women of spirit and women who work to ensure that all children are cared for in a good way. We did not have time do dance...though I closed with a second poem from Leny "We Are Born With Gifts."
They clapped, hugged me, thanked me and I was especially touched by the connection with the women of color. Lol, they were warned at the beginning of the workshop, they might not remember much of what was said....but they would leave here feeling better....and they did. Each woman seemed to have a sense of relatedness to each other and to the notion of Babaylan.
Hope this makes a bit of sense to you....
Thanks to Bec and Leny for encouraging me to share with the list. And thank everyone here. Your contributions to the list found their way in part of the weave of the magic I shared at the RCGI gathering. I excited about the upcoming conference. It is really amazing to see how the notion and spirit of the babaylan and babaylanism is touching people in a good way.
Love, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/5/09.
Dear all,
I think the workshop "Babaylan - Past, Present and Future" went well. The women seemed to get a lot out of it, some taking notes, tears, laughter, big ah-ha's The workshop was about 1.5 hrs Out of the 15 women in the workshop, five women (including me) who do not identify with European Roots/History - a woman from Mexican heritage, Korean - mixed blood, Native American - mixed blood and a woman from Puerto Rico. All women at the gathering are in agreement with The Affirmation of Women's Spirituality, are woman honoring, woman identified and generally focused on Goddess Centered, but not all from the same religions our spiritual traditions (meaning there were women who identified as witches, pagans, native american traditions, Mayan, buddhist, hindu, etc).
Before the gathering there was a Goddess Symposium which I was able to attend. The participants are part of the RCGI community. Kathryn Henderson presented a talk on "Working with Living Traditions with Respect". She interviewed Buddhist, Hindu, Voodoo, Yoruba and Native American spiritual leaders. She had a lovely one page handout with guidelines developed from the interviews, which was simple and direct. I referenced her work at the beginning of my workshop to remind women that there are unbroken lineages of babaylans in the Philippines. As a FilAM woman, I too must approach these lineages/teachings/ people with the proper respect, though my roots are also from similar cultures.
[In Part 2 of this post] the reference materials sent to the women of the workshop [appear] - and of course [I] invited them to come to the Babaylan Conference in 2010!
I had a simple 1 pg outline that I worked from, starting out with a welcome and a check-in. Women were asked to say three things, their name, the ethic or culture they identified with and their religion/spirituali ty. Once the check-ins were complete I spoke to the elements and the elementals, the ancestors the women just spoke of, the ancestors of the local land and invited them to be with us, to support us in the work we were about to begin.
I had a simple altar that included two pictures, one of my two sisters, mom and me, the other one was taken at the FAWN2005 gathering with some of you in it. I introduced you to the group and let them know this virtual circle has supported me on so many levels stepping forward in knowing more about the Babaylan. And then I read a poem from Leny's A Book Of Her Own, "Recipe for Cooking Fear." At the end I held up the garlic that was near me on the altar.
I quoted Jose Rizal "Without looking back at the past, one can not go forward into the future." In order for the women to appreciate who the babaylans are/were, I needed to set a context in her/history, language, the georgraphy of thought, tacit knowledge, oral and literate ways of transmitting, sharing and recording information by way of poems, images, crafts, dance, music, song, etc. I talked about the challenges that Filipina/o authors have writing in English about our culture and wondering where the audience is for the writing - yet still writers write and books are created.
I talked about decolonization and felt hearts breaking - open. Paraphrasing Grace Nono by telling them "there is not a single one of us in this circle who has not be touched by colonization, either by being colonized or as a colonizer," it is time to work together now to move forward for all the children. The women of color were relieved I spoke of these issues, especially the woman from Puerto Rico who shared briefly what it was like politically - how Puerto Rico not too long ago was able to have a sense of self government, but are still a colonial holding. She cried and I think felt relieved that she could share the difference and the frustration. She also shared how she was pained knowing her ancestors had almost killed an entire race, some of her other ancestors - having difficulty finding a place to speak about the internalized pain and confusion. She is the one who asked about Hooponopono (see links at the end of the post). A Hawaiian practice of forgiveness and healing. But I digress...
I told my story, of how I first came to know about babaylans - 18 years ago in my first classes on Dianic Witchcraft and read from The Coulorful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental by Ursula Cinc Valderrama
While the outline I was working from had a progression, the items were presented based on the energetic in the room. How the women responded to what was being said and what else needed to be clarified, processed or referenced before moving on. So even now I am not clear on which went topic followed/flowed one after the other. I am pretty sure the unfolding into Babaylan was easy from here out....the past and the present linking in the readings from Perla's Babaylan.com website article on Leadership, to Marianita (Girlie) Villariba's article "Babaylan Women as Guide to a Life of Justice and Peace", touching on creation stories, Filipino Psychology and Kapwa. I read from Agnes' Babaylan:She Dances to Wholeness' noting the intersecting realities of political and sacred, the dance of life and creation.
Examples of present rising of the Babaylan Spirit as in Babaylan UP, Denmark and Europe. Of Ann's work, Evelie's work, Geejay's work and the work of your circle.
I encouraged the women to reconnect with their own roots and make a commitment to step forward as herstory makers, women of spirit and women who work to ensure that all children are cared for in a good way. We did not have time do dance...though I closed with a second poem from Leny "We Are Born With Gifts."
They clapped, hugged me, thanked me and I was especially touched by the connection with the women of color. Lol, they were warned at the beginning of the workshop, they might not remember much of what was said....but they would leave here feeling better....and they did. Each woman seemed to have a sense of relatedness to each other and to the notion of Babaylan.
Hope this makes a bit of sense to you....
Thanks to Bec and Leny for encouraging me to share with the list. And thank everyone here. Your contributions to the list found their way in part of the weave of the magic I shared at the RCGI gathering. I excited about the upcoming conference. It is really amazing to see how the notion and spirit of the babaylan and babaylanism is touching people in a good way.
Love, Letecia
Republished with permission and gratitude. Links accessed 6/5/09.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
Performances: MEBUYAN/The Mebuyan Peace Project
Mebuyan, a women-led music group based in Davao City, Philippines, is composed of Geejay Arriola (artistic director, percussionist), Gauss Obenza (music director, guitarist), Maree Contai (percussionist), Maan Chua (guitarist), Paolo Sisi (bassist), Chico Zambrano (drummer, percussionist), and Lolong Gonzaga (keyboardist), is a child of the Mebuyan Peace Project.
The group has released its first album entitled Mga Kuwentong Bata
The album features compositions by Geejay Arriola, Bayang Barrios, Gauss Obenza, Maree Contaoi, Maan Chua, Maia Tampoy, and Sheila Labos.
Mebuyan Peace Project is a group of 18 women arts and development workers based in Mindanao, Philippines. These women have worked individually or as members of other organizations in various peacemaking and theatremaking projects for at least 10 years.
On May 18 2001, the women of these music and theater groups gathered and gave birth to Mebuyan Peace Project—a theatre and musical storytelling group. The idea is to produce artistic performances that will respond to women's and children's concerns in relation to the issues of personal, domestic, community, regional, and global peace.
We also aim to help develop artists and peacebuilders through trainings and workshops in:
—creative writing
—child rights
—children's theatre
—improvisational theatre
—cultural action
—dance and movement
—environmental awareness
—gender in development
—global education
—music and voice
—music writing
—organizational development
—peacemaking
—storytelling
—theatre (acting, directing, playwriting, production design, lights design)
—theatre in education
—visual arts
We also hope to encourage and popularize women's arts and theatre through storytelling, music, and theater performances, and to popularize women's and children's issues through workshops and performances.
Our mat is a world
where arts is the norm rather than a specialty.
where there are no sounds of war and greed, only sounds of music and laughter.
where men and women are given equal opportunities.
where every woman and child knows no hate nor fear.
where every home is the safest and most peaceful place on earth.
where arguments end in songs, not in fistfights.
where cultural diversity is celebrated, not wiped out.
Submitted by: Geejay Arriola
All links accessed date of this post.
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
Conversations: Land and Women - The Matrilineal Factor
Land and Women: The Matrilineal Factor
The cases of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
by Kristina E. Stege, Ruth Maetala, Anna Naupa & Joel Simo. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Elise Huffer, Editor (2008)
Introduction
“The women here are so sure of themselves… maybe it’s that we know for sure that we have land…Even if I don’t get land from my husband, I still have it from my mother and nothing can change that…”— (Palauan woman [no name given], cited in Margold and Bellorado, 197?)
This report brings together three studies on matrilineal land tenure carried out in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The respective authors, Kristina Stege, Anna Naupa and Joel Simo, and Ruth Maetala, conducted their research in at least two areas in each country – including one urban and one rural – with the overall objective of providing a better understanding of the current status of women in relation to land tenure, land management and
access to land in matrilineal areas.
This work is aimed at contributing a gendered perspective to the current regional focus on land issues and reform, particularly initiatives such as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s Land Management and Conflict Minimization for Peace, Prosperity and Sustainable Development project (LMCM) and AusAID’s Pacific Land Program. It is also designed to provide updated, accessible
and locally derived information and recommendations for national land policy and legislative changes currently taking place in the three focal countries.
Submitted by Letecia Layson
Full text accessed 5/31/2009
The cases of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu
by Kristina E. Stege, Ruth Maetala, Anna Naupa & Joel Simo. Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat, Elise Huffer, Editor (2008)
Introduction
“The women here are so sure of themselves… maybe it’s that we know for sure that we have land…Even if I don’t get land from my husband, I still have it from my mother and nothing can change that…”— (Palauan woman [no name given], cited in Margold and Bellorado, 197?)
This report brings together three studies on matrilineal land tenure carried out in the Republic of Marshall Islands (RMI), Vanuatu and Solomon Islands. The respective authors, Kristina Stege, Anna Naupa and Joel Simo, and Ruth Maetala, conducted their research in at least two areas in each country – including one urban and one rural – with the overall objective of providing a better understanding of the current status of women in relation to land tenure, land management and
access to land in matrilineal areas.
This work is aimed at contributing a gendered perspective to the current regional focus on land issues and reform, particularly initiatives such as the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat’s Land Management and Conflict Minimization for Peace, Prosperity and Sustainable Development project (LMCM) and AusAID’s Pacific Land Program. It is also designed to provide updated, accessible
and locally derived information and recommendations for national land policy and legislative changes currently taking place in the three focal countries.
Submitted by Letecia Layson
Full text accessed 5/31/2009
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Conversations: Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess
Reclaiming the Southeast Asian Goddess: Examples from Contemporary Art by Women
By Flaudette May V. Datuin
Image & Gender, vol. 6, 2006, pp.105-119
ABSTRACT
In this essay, I will invoke – as a form of strategic essentialism - the figure of the Southeast Asian goddess and the babaylan, the ancient priestess as theme, metaphor and signifier for women’s life-giving, nurturing and healing powers. By reclaiming the legacy of the Southeast Asian goddess, I will present the emerging outlines of a Southeast Asian feminist framework revolving around embodied spirituality – a concept where the body is construed as an anatomical, spiritual, social and psychic space grounded on fluidity and wholeness, instead of hierarchy and dualities. In the process, I will argue that while most women artists in Southeast Asia are not consciously and overtly “feminist,” they nonetheless point to the contours of emerging feminisms in Southeast Asia, and perhaps, in Asia. These “feminisms” cannot be defined solely on the basis of individual autonomy, hinged on sexual and body-centered liberation (as in radical feminism); or on “equal rights” in an untransformed social structure (as in liberal feminism).Drawing from my ongoing study and engagement with women artists in the visual arts of Southeast Asia, I will present examples of how selected Philippine, Indonesian and Thai women artists articulate and embody the Southeast Asian goddess figure through their lives and their works.
Submitted by: Mary Ann Ubaldo and Lorial Crowder
Full text accessed 5/31/2009
By Flaudette May V. Datuin
Image & Gender, vol. 6, 2006, pp.105-119
ABSTRACT
In this essay, I will invoke – as a form of strategic essentialism - the figure of the Southeast Asian goddess and the babaylan, the ancient priestess as theme, metaphor and signifier for women’s life-giving, nurturing and healing powers. By reclaiming the legacy of the Southeast Asian goddess, I will present the emerging outlines of a Southeast Asian feminist framework revolving around embodied spirituality – a concept where the body is construed as an anatomical, spiritual, social and psychic space grounded on fluidity and wholeness, instead of hierarchy and dualities. In the process, I will argue that while most women artists in Southeast Asia are not consciously and overtly “feminist,” they nonetheless point to the contours of emerging feminisms in Southeast Asia, and perhaps, in Asia. These “feminisms” cannot be defined solely on the basis of individual autonomy, hinged on sexual and body-centered liberation (as in radical feminism); or on “equal rights” in an untransformed social structure (as in liberal feminism).Drawing from my ongoing study and engagement with women artists in the visual arts of Southeast Asia, I will present examples of how selected Philippine, Indonesian and Thai women artists articulate and embody the Southeast Asian goddess figure through their lives and their works.
Submitted by: Mary Ann Ubaldo and Lorial Crowder
Full text accessed 5/31/2009
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Bahala Meditations: Renewal of Filipino Spiritual Practice
Perla Ramos Paredes Daly writes:
In the Jewish Tradition it is Yahweh. In English it is God. In Spanish it is Dios. In Islam it is Allah. In Christian tradition it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In pagan traditions it is Goddess or Great Mother. For the American Natives it is wording that translates to Great Spirit. Left-brainer, atheists may not believe in any god but they may believe in a Cosmic Intelligence that underlies the laws of physics and atomic existence in space and time.
And for the Filipino the Great Divine is called Bathala or Bahala. Even before the coming of the West the natives of the Philippine islands have had a spirituality and awareness of the Nameless-Many-Named-I-Am. By coming to rediscover the use of Bahala, so many more Filipinos today, cut-off and unaware of their spiritual roots, can come to discover and know that ancient traditions of the Philippine Islands have always carried Universal Wisdom...
Perla provides the meditations and contemplations online, noting:
There are three sets of exercises here.
1) Contemplation over the baybayin symbols that form the word Bahala.
2) Finding renewed meaning in saying Bahala Na
3) Saying Bahala or Bahala Na as a prayer/meditation entry point or as a spiritual chant.
Sites accessed 5/28/09
In the Jewish Tradition it is Yahweh. In English it is God. In Spanish it is Dios. In Islam it is Allah. In Christian tradition it is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the mystery of the Holy Trinity. In pagan traditions it is Goddess or Great Mother. For the American Natives it is wording that translates to Great Spirit. Left-brainer, atheists may not believe in any god but they may believe in a Cosmic Intelligence that underlies the laws of physics and atomic existence in space and time.
And for the Filipino the Great Divine is called Bathala or Bahala. Even before the coming of the West the natives of the Philippine islands have had a spirituality and awareness of the Nameless-Many-Named-I-Am. By coming to rediscover the use of Bahala, so many more Filipinos today, cut-off and unaware of their spiritual roots, can come to discover and know that ancient traditions of the Philippine Islands have always carried Universal Wisdom...
Perla provides the meditations and contemplations online, noting:
There are three sets of exercises here.
1) Contemplation over the baybayin symbols that form the word Bahala.
2) Finding renewed meaning in saying Bahala Na
3) Saying Bahala or Bahala Na as a prayer/meditation entry point or as a spiritual chant.
Sites accessed 5/28/09
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
The Bathala Project
Finally after years in raising consciousness about our Filipino Spirituality, Bathala enters into the Fil-Am hip hop generation through the inspired Bathala Meditations. The magikal connection of Baybayin, our Ancient Philippine Script, and Bathala is finally understood!
bathala nawa!
For more information, go to The Bathala Project
Submitted by: Mary Ann Ubaldo
bathala nawa!
For more information, go to The Bathala Project
Submitted by: Mary Ann Ubaldo
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Book and CD Review: The Shared Voice by Grace Nono
The Shared Voice: Chanted and Spoken Narratives from the Philippines by Grace Nono
Anvil Publishing. ISSN:97127-20437 (2008)
Leny asked: Letecia - Can you please write a review of the book from your perspective as a second generation, daughter of Manong?
Letecia responded: I am so use to just having my own epiphany in the wee early morning hours. Often words don't form in my brain, much less sentences. I just sense something is different inside of me...an energy release, a veil lifted, a 'knowing' revealed. The odd thing is that the 'knowing' is not just mine, Letecia's, it seems to an echo of what simply is, has been, always was and never was not. The 'knowing' is not something that was 'spoken' to me in a literal sense, perhaps only hinted at, or l observed it (whatever it is) and it lived in my presence. You know when you are looking at a picture and suddenly you see the white space between the pixels of colored dots...I feel myself sort of 'shake it off' and zoom out again to see the picture ever more clearly. Sometimes words are spoken in my head, phrases or a story takes shape as images flash by.
I felt something had shifted in me after reading 'The Shared Voice,’ it happened in my sleep....Like Magic! Really I am not sure what happened, or why, but I have a sense of 'rightness' in the world. LOL and perhaps if we were in a room sharing stories and thoughts about the book, more words would flow freely in the dialogue which allows for the connectedness, reflection, warm smiles and laughter. Writing is essentially a monologue and I am not so sure what I have to say is interesting or important, or will even make sense to someone else. And if I fix my thoughts into print (either on paper or on a screen) it feels a bit rigid....the words reflect a moment in time....not what is happening as my fingers are tying the letters to this sentence.... they are reflections of the past.....always trying to catch up to the present moment.
And even with all that being said....I wonder if 'tacit knowledge' is asserting itself rising from ancestral waters and has me qualifying my words as 'not very important' to deflect anyone from noticing 'the words of power that I speak' I learned of a concept called Buyag when I was in PAWWA (Philippine American Women Writers and Artists accessed 5/26/09)
"Buyag" or "Pwera/Purya Buyag" is an expression that is meant to ward off "Evil Eye" when you praise or take notice aloud of someone, especially a baby. Old folks believe so and there is no harm if the younger generation say it too... " Yahoo Answers (accessed 5/26/09)
I realized then and even today, how Buyag or Pwera/Purya Buyag whispers in my blood. I don't even really know how to pronounce the words, so I look forward to someone calling me up and speaking it into a voice mail for me (smile), or send me a video message on Seesmic.
See what I mean...the deflect away from my own shared thoughts...for now, I have quieted the voice some by getting a piece of garlic and setting it on my altar (if I had a pocket in what I am wearing, the garlic would be in it!)...
For those of you who want the short version 'TWO THUMBS UP', 5 out of 5 stars. 'The Shared Voice: chanted and spoken narratives from the Philippines' by Grace Nono is a Divine Find.
I am listening to the CD as I type to you. Nono's book provides a bridge from the past to the future of a Filipino Spirituality that lives - a living tradition. One that is represented not only by the primary oralist, but also by the secondary oralists and each of us who identify as Filipino and Spiritual - beyond organized religion and inclusive.
Grace is a good storyteller. As I read, I felt the conversational tone of her writing open my mind and heart - stretching me open to my own paradoxical nature of living in two worlds - the natural world and a constructed world. I read to myself out loud, letting the sounds of the words work like incantations, not holding tightly to my own pre-conceived ideas about what Filipina/os are like, or who I am being....just allowing and listening. I would read some and then listen to the CD.
Even the academic models, the history and statistics flowed like nectar. If you asked me now what was said I would have to pull out the book to quote it....and I am not sure if there was anything specific that touched me other than the wholeness of the presentation. Hmm, I guess if I looked at it like a faceted jewel, one of the facets that etched in my brain is Table 1. Oralist and Literate: A Comparison on page 22. I am making a copy of it and posting it on my wall as a reminder of my own dynamic flow between these two systems and ways of being.
I am not one or the other, I am an AND/AND, a both, not an either or. Even now I laugh at myself knowing that in future days I will use this table to support my desire to 'not write' to continue to 'be-speak the world into being.'
I felt properly introduced to these 10 elders, to know their place, their families, their people and I realize how limited the introductions are here in the USA - your name, what you do, where you live. Here in the USA, it is your intimates that you share the information about your ancestral place, your people, etc. What rich and vital traditions each of these 10 elders come from. For the secondary oralists, those that bridge the ancient/future lineages, they are my She-ros and He-ros. They find ways to live a continuum... NOW, NOW, NOW the past is now, the future is now, the present is now, if this is making any sense.
Almost 20 years ago when I started my training in the Dianic Tradition, we were asked to research a goddess from our ethnic background. During the next 5 weeks, I was to spend time with Her, using whatever written information I could find and if there was not much - to meditate with Her, Her symbols or any means to listen to what She might have to share with me personally and if there was something She wanted to share with the women of the class. In the last class I invoked Her, using the skill set we learned in class and to aspect Her (let Her speak through me) so that the women in the circle might be able to meet Her. It was through this process, the invocation of Gamaogamao* and time spent with her that stepping forward on my spiritual path of service as a Dianic is forever entwined with my ancestral spirituality.
Grace's book provided a deeper context from which I could understand my own spiritual calling - from the ancestors and the elements. As a daughter of a Manong and a Filipina war bride, I was not raised speaking either language of my parents or Tagalog - only English. I think the ancestors had to speak to me elementally - through nature and through many other earth-based traditions that are rooted in the lands they originated from. It is only now, and in the last 20 years, that FilAm's like me have had access to information about our culture and traditions in English. I used to think my experience was unique, and as my mother use to remind me, to keep quiet about it (she was after all a good Catholic). I feel fortunate to be living in a time where information is shared and I can see that I am not unique, but one of the many displaced Filipinas who have managed to stay steady and listen.
I have honed my lens/worldview as a feminist - radical at that. The good news is the mentors and teachers encouraged me to do my own research, be in the center of my own life and comfortable in my own skin as a woman. The Shared Voice has added to the context of who I am in the world - how I am in service to my communities and has me questioning, if I was raised in the Philippines and had access to elders of these living traditions would I have made my way to their mountain tops or to their remote villages in the same way I have found elders here in the USA?
I’d like to think so, but I will never know what could have been. I only know what is and what might be...I feel fortunate to have found this virtual circle - each of you who are on this list has contributed to the bridging and integration of my spirit calling and how it out-pictured itself in me as a Priestess in European-based Goddess Traditions. On this list our conversations, book suggestions, gatherings, etc., have helped me to own the gifts that are from my/our ancestral pool of wisdom. All the formal training, reading, references in the Goddess traditions I am ordained in are from other lands, not even from the land from which I was born (USA). They are from the lands of the colonizers, reaching back into their roots, to their ancestors, to the roots of their religions, consciousness, medicine, philosophy, science, literature, art - all the way back to the neolithic.
The Shared Voice reminds me....we are all connected to lands, ancestors and nature. Living Traditions need to include the her/history and all the diversity and richness we represent. The Shared Voice helps me to feel even more at home in my own dance - in my own body by giving voice to what I did not know needed to be spoken.
In closing, I add my voice in gratitude and blessings of a work well done. I am changed by the work in subtle ways....which will bubble up through my own words, works, songs, dance and stories....
Thanks Leny for asking. Thanks Baylan for getting a copy of the book to me....and Thanks Grace for writing and sharing your words, images and song.
PS. Do I need to be worried about Buyag or Pwera/Purya Buyag ? (smile)
*From "The Colourful Mandaya: Ethnic Tribe of Davao Oriental" by Ursla Cinco Valderrama, pg 30. The making of a Balyan: "Gamaogamao is believed to be the goddess of water..."
Review submitted by: Letecia Layson.
Editor’s note: This post appeared originally on the Yahoo listserve group “Babaylan” on May 9, 2009 and has been edited slightly to correct spelling/capitalization errors and smooth paragraph transitions. Every effort was made, however, to maintain the conversational quality of the post. The editor apologizes for any subtle changes in meaning as a result.
Monday, May 25, 2009
Mysteries of faith abound in Mt. Banahaw
DOLORES, Quezon – For some people, leaving their comfortable life to take the road to Mount Banahaw is God’s “calling.” A renewal in the mystic mountain, they say, is a product of their greatest challenges.
Banahaw remains a haven for people in search of spirituality. “Whether it’s Catholic, Born Again or whatever group, these are just branches of only one tree that leads to Him,” said Bernard Forbile, 50.
Forbile is a missionary of the Kapatiran ng Sampung Utos, a “brotherhood” of Ten Commandments devotees founded in the 1980s. The other groups are the Tatlong Persona sa Kinabuhayan, Rosa Mystica and the Rizalistas.
“You will not be saved by your group, but by your faith,” Forbile says.
Shrines
During the Lenten season, over a thousand devotees from Manila, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon flock to Banahaw as early as Biyernes de Dolores (Friday before Palm Sunday).
Many caves or stations have become shrines or dalanginan based on the local belief that these natural rock formations are sacred because of “unexplainable” markings.
For instance, a shrine called Jerusalem has a child’s footprint, believed to be that of the Sto. Niño. In the “Presentahan” (Presentation), an apparent open book resembling a bible is found.
A footprint of Mary is said to be seen at the De la Paz Shrine, that of Jesus in the Kinabuhayan Shrine, and a Marian image in the cave ceiling of what is now called the Ina ng Awa (Mother of Mercy) shrine.
Popular destinations are the Durungawan, Tres Marias and Labindalawang Sakit, and streams called the Santo Jacob, Sta. Lucia and Tatlong Klaseng Tubig, which are all said to heal people of illnesses.
Markings
The belief in the markings, the devotees say, originated from the Katipuneros in the 1890s, who hid from the Spaniards in Banahaw and became hermits.
Similarly, amulets, locally called “kabal,” such as medallions are emblems of faith in Banahaw.
According to Forbile, elders believe that the kabal is “given its soul” by burying it under the roots of citric trees, such as “kamias” or “sampaloc,” in May.
Elders offer prayers to it for one whole year before they dig up the medallion.
Bernard was a wealthy businessman in Baguio City before his vegetable delivery business flopped in 1994 and criminal charges of estafa were filed against him.
His adopted son also fell sick and no doctor could cure him.
“I lost hope. But I was told that whatever was taken away from me would come back double,” he says.
Desperate, he joined different religions until he read about Banahaw. He decided to visit the place one Holy Wednesday.
“One station called Sta. Lucia is similar to my wife’s name and beside it is San Bernardo, similar to mine,” he relates his bewilderment.
After the visit, a friend informed him by phone that their business was revived.
In 1997, Forbile moved his family to Banahaw where they put up a small sari-sari store. He manned the Kapatiran chapel where devotees hold their functions.
Forbile remembers seeing a ray of bright horizontal light passing through a wooden cross while he was on a nine-day mission up the mountain.
On another occasion, he saw bright lights in the sky changing into multiple colors.
His son, who was cured when they took him to Banahaw, would speak in different languages they could not understand.
Miracles and apparitions, Forbile says, are hard to prove as “you usually experience them when you are alone. There are no witnesses.”
“If you really believe, you will see,” he says.
For Forbile, his faith is not restricted to the Kapatiran.
“I am still searching for the truth. Ang kabal ko ay si Ama (The Father is my amulet),” he says, adding that the only mission he has is “to do what is right, without expecting anything in return.”
Divine government
Forbile’s transformation was nearly similar to those of other missionaries. One, who refused to identify himself, said his calling was to “discover Banahaw’s mysteries.”
He had a “prophetic dream” of the mountain, he said, when he was young boy. He proved that the dream was real only years later, he said, when he actually came to the mountain.
He says he had been dreaming of silhouettes in very bright light, which he believes to be God, and hearing voices telling him “someday you will live in Banahaw.”
“It was a painful transition,” he says of the collapse of his automotive business and his shift to rural life, farming and growing chickens for a living.
He began his “spiritual penetration” in Banahaw in 1999.
“My life changed. I disobeyed before, I would not dare disobey Him again,” he says.
Through 10 years of studying religious tenets in Banahaw, he rediscovered the prophecy of the “divine government.”
The prophecy – that the country’s economy would crumble under the government of a female leader – was heard way back in the ‘70s, he says.
Moreover, he says, a war between Filipinos would ensue and following that would come the divine government.
“Mula sa labong na kawayan, sisibol ang gintong watawat na matatanaw sa buong daigdig (at) magiging hangganan ng lahat ng pananampalataya (From the bamboo shoot will rise a gold flag that can be seen all over the world and eternally to believers),” he recites the prophecy.
He says it alluded to the Apocalypse written in the Book of Revelations.
“It would begin here in the Philippines, here in Banahaw,” says 70-year-old Avelina Responde, a devotee of Ina ng Awa. “It is not written on paper. We need no lawyers or senators.”
She says the divine government “is the consciousness of the people with divine hearts. When the Ten Commandments govern us all, only then can we have unity and let God live in our hearts.”
By Maricar Cinco
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 01:29:00 04/16/2009, accessed 4/24/2009
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo
Banahaw remains a haven for people in search of spirituality. “Whether it’s Catholic, Born Again or whatever group, these are just branches of only one tree that leads to Him,” said Bernard Forbile, 50.
Forbile is a missionary of the Kapatiran ng Sampung Utos, a “brotherhood” of Ten Commandments devotees founded in the 1980s. The other groups are the Tatlong Persona sa Kinabuhayan, Rosa Mystica and the Rizalistas.
“You will not be saved by your group, but by your faith,” Forbile says.
Shrines
During the Lenten season, over a thousand devotees from Manila, Laguna, Batangas and Quezon flock to Banahaw as early as Biyernes de Dolores (Friday before Palm Sunday).
Many caves or stations have become shrines or dalanginan based on the local belief that these natural rock formations are sacred because of “unexplainable” markings.
For instance, a shrine called Jerusalem has a child’s footprint, believed to be that of the Sto. Niño. In the “Presentahan” (Presentation), an apparent open book resembling a bible is found.
A footprint of Mary is said to be seen at the De la Paz Shrine, that of Jesus in the Kinabuhayan Shrine, and a Marian image in the cave ceiling of what is now called the Ina ng Awa (Mother of Mercy) shrine.
Popular destinations are the Durungawan, Tres Marias and Labindalawang Sakit, and streams called the Santo Jacob, Sta. Lucia and Tatlong Klaseng Tubig, which are all said to heal people of illnesses.
Markings
The belief in the markings, the devotees say, originated from the Katipuneros in the 1890s, who hid from the Spaniards in Banahaw and became hermits.
Similarly, amulets, locally called “kabal,” such as medallions are emblems of faith in Banahaw.
According to Forbile, elders believe that the kabal is “given its soul” by burying it under the roots of citric trees, such as “kamias” or “sampaloc,” in May.
Elders offer prayers to it for one whole year before they dig up the medallion.
Bernard was a wealthy businessman in Baguio City before his vegetable delivery business flopped in 1994 and criminal charges of estafa were filed against him.
His adopted son also fell sick and no doctor could cure him.
“I lost hope. But I was told that whatever was taken away from me would come back double,” he says.
Desperate, he joined different religions until he read about Banahaw. He decided to visit the place one Holy Wednesday.
“One station called Sta. Lucia is similar to my wife’s name and beside it is San Bernardo, similar to mine,” he relates his bewilderment.
After the visit, a friend informed him by phone that their business was revived.
In 1997, Forbile moved his family to Banahaw where they put up a small sari-sari store. He manned the Kapatiran chapel where devotees hold their functions.
Forbile remembers seeing a ray of bright horizontal light passing through a wooden cross while he was on a nine-day mission up the mountain.
On another occasion, he saw bright lights in the sky changing into multiple colors.
His son, who was cured when they took him to Banahaw, would speak in different languages they could not understand.
Miracles and apparitions, Forbile says, are hard to prove as “you usually experience them when you are alone. There are no witnesses.”
“If you really believe, you will see,” he says.
For Forbile, his faith is not restricted to the Kapatiran.
“I am still searching for the truth. Ang kabal ko ay si Ama (The Father is my amulet),” he says, adding that the only mission he has is “to do what is right, without expecting anything in return.”
Divine government
Forbile’s transformation was nearly similar to those of other missionaries. One, who refused to identify himself, said his calling was to “discover Banahaw’s mysteries.”
He had a “prophetic dream” of the mountain, he said, when he was young boy. He proved that the dream was real only years later, he said, when he actually came to the mountain.
He says he had been dreaming of silhouettes in very bright light, which he believes to be God, and hearing voices telling him “someday you will live in Banahaw.”
“It was a painful transition,” he says of the collapse of his automotive business and his shift to rural life, farming and growing chickens for a living.
He began his “spiritual penetration” in Banahaw in 1999.
“My life changed. I disobeyed before, I would not dare disobey Him again,” he says.
Through 10 years of studying religious tenets in Banahaw, he rediscovered the prophecy of the “divine government.”
The prophecy – that the country’s economy would crumble under the government of a female leader – was heard way back in the ‘70s, he says.
Moreover, he says, a war between Filipinos would ensue and following that would come the divine government.
“Mula sa labong na kawayan, sisibol ang gintong watawat na matatanaw sa buong daigdig (at) magiging hangganan ng lahat ng pananampalataya (From the bamboo shoot will rise a gold flag that can be seen all over the world and eternally to believers),” he recites the prophecy.
He says it alluded to the Apocalypse written in the Book of Revelations.
“It would begin here in the Philippines, here in Banahaw,” says 70-year-old Avelina Responde, a devotee of Ina ng Awa. “It is not written on paper. We need no lawyers or senators.”
She says the divine government “is the consciousness of the people with divine hearts. When the Ten Commandments govern us all, only then can we have unity and let God live in our hearts.”
By Maricar Cinco
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 01:29:00 04/16/2009, accessed 4/24/2009
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo
Sunday, May 24, 2009
Conversations: Misuse of Semantics, Key to Miscues in Philippine Studies
Conversations highlight papers written about indigenous thought, babaylans, and/or include babaylan concepts.
In this essay Azurin, an anthropologist, looks at the language games and their uses/misuses in academic theorizing.
MISUSE OF SEMANTICS, KEY TO MISCUES IN PHILIPPINE STUDIES
by Arnold Molina Azurin
Research Fellow, Center for Integrative and Development Studies
University of the Philippines System
Introduction
The master semantic artist William Shakespeare mesmerized his theater patrons and audience with such unforgettable witticisms like “A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” and “If to say is as easy as to do, chapels would have been churches…” In all probability his drama actors must have delivered such enticing quips in a more vibrant manner, or my memory may have skipped a word or two. But either possibility is irrelevant to the point I wish to raise with a sense of alarm. Which is the fact that quite a few Filipino researchers engaged in cultural studies have been too mesmerized by their
semantic gambits even without the evocative profundity of Shakespeare’s style and cultural savvy.
To sharpen this point, let me underscore that this indulgence in semantic mumbojumbo is being given an aura of authenticity because it deploys native words from Philippine languages, as well as a gloss of scientific veracity by citing as one of its props
“comparative linguistics”. And nobody is expected to raise the question or the ticklish issue if it were truly comparative linguistics being harnessed when a litany of cognates found among Philippine languages – idy(ang) in Batanes, ili among Ilocanos and a portion of Igorot areas, ilihan in Bicol, iligan in north Mindanao, and ilihan in Agusan
which commonly refer to an old prime settlement or a fortified sanctuary is supposedly the basic evidence for the existence of an “estadong etniko” (a prehistoric ethnic state) across this archipelago.
Complete text found at: 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006) Organized by the Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines . Accessed May 21, 2009
In this essay Azurin, an anthropologist, looks at the language games and their uses/misuses in academic theorizing.
MISUSE OF SEMANTICS, KEY TO MISCUES IN PHILIPPINE STUDIES
by Arnold Molina Azurin
Research Fellow, Center for Integrative and Development Studies
University of the Philippines System
Introduction
The master semantic artist William Shakespeare mesmerized his theater patrons and audience with such unforgettable witticisms like “A rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet” and “If to say is as easy as to do, chapels would have been churches…” In all probability his drama actors must have delivered such enticing quips in a more vibrant manner, or my memory may have skipped a word or two. But either possibility is irrelevant to the point I wish to raise with a sense of alarm. Which is the fact that quite a few Filipino researchers engaged in cultural studies have been too mesmerized by their
semantic gambits even without the evocative profundity of Shakespeare’s style and cultural savvy.
To sharpen this point, let me underscore that this indulgence in semantic mumbojumbo is being given an aura of authenticity because it deploys native words from Philippine languages, as well as a gloss of scientific veracity by citing as one of its props
“comparative linguistics”. And nobody is expected to raise the question or the ticklish issue if it were truly comparative linguistics being harnessed when a litany of cognates found among Philippine languages – idy(ang) in Batanes, ili among Ilocanos and a portion of Igorot areas, ilihan in Bicol, iligan in north Mindanao, and ilihan in Agusan
which commonly refer to an old prime settlement or a fortified sanctuary is supposedly the basic evidence for the existence of an “estadong etniko” (a prehistoric ethnic state) across this archipelago.
Complete text found at: 9th Philippine Linguistics Congress (25-27 January 2006) Organized by the Department of Linguistics, University of the Philippines . Accessed May 21, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Babaylan Conference 2010 Trailer
Babaylan Conference of 2010
April 17 – 18, 2010 at the
Sonoma State University, CA
For more information please visit our website:
http://www.babaylan.net/index.html
The fiscal agent for Center for babaylan Studies Conference 2010 is:
International Humanities Center
http://ihcenter.org/groups/babaylancenter
Organizers of 2010 Conference:
Leny Strobel, Project Director
Perla Daly, Letecia Layson, Baylan Megino, Project Co-Directors.
April 17 – 18, 2010 at the
Sonoma State University, CA
For more information please visit our website:
http://www.babaylan.net/index.html
The fiscal agent for Center for babaylan Studies Conference 2010 is:
International Humanities Center
http://ihcenter.org/groups/babaylancenter
Organizers of 2010 Conference:
Leny Strobel, Project Director
Perla Daly, Letecia Layson, Baylan Megino, Project Co-Directors.
Friday, May 22, 2009
Center for Babaylan Studies Facebook Group Launched
The Center for Babaylan Studies has opened a group on Facebook, the popular social networking website.
Nearly 200 Facebook members have joined to date, with more adding every day. Members are informed of developments of the 2010 Babaylan Conference on April 17 – 18, 2010 at Sonoma State University, CA and share their experiences with babaylans and babaylan studies.
Description:
We are passionate about the significance of the babaylan in our communities and world today and would like you to join us in bringing about this very unique and special gathering through your efforts and presence.
We believe in the power of the Indigenous Soul and the Indigenous World View, as embodied by primary/land-based babaylans in the Philippines and contemporary babaylan/culture-bearers in the Philippines and in the diaspora, to provide a narrative that restores a sense of wholeness, beauty, and integrity to our pagka-Pilipino.
In a world that aches for peace, justice, and healing from the violent effects of colonial and imperial histories, our Babaylan and our indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) offer a path to re-membering and remembering the sacredness, strength, beauty, and the creativity of our Filipino Loob.
Facebook users can find the group under Organizations - Community Organizations.
Nearly 200 Facebook members have joined to date, with more adding every day. Members are informed of developments of the 2010 Babaylan Conference on April 17 – 18, 2010 at Sonoma State University, CA and share their experiences with babaylans and babaylan studies.
Description:
We are passionate about the significance of the babaylan in our communities and world today and would like you to join us in bringing about this very unique and special gathering through your efforts and presence.
We believe in the power of the Indigenous Soul and the Indigenous World View, as embodied by primary/land-based babaylans in the Philippines and contemporary babaylan/culture-bearers in the Philippines and in the diaspora, to provide a narrative that restores a sense of wholeness, beauty, and integrity to our pagka-Pilipino.
In a world that aches for peace, justice, and healing from the violent effects of colonial and imperial histories, our Babaylan and our indigenous knowledge systems and practices (IKSP) offer a path to re-membering and remembering the sacredness, strength, beauty, and the creativity of our Filipino Loob.
Facebook users can find the group under Organizations - Community Organizations.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Conversations: The Concept of Power Among the Lumad
Conversations highlight papers written about indigenous thought, babaylans, and/or include babaylan concepts.
The Concept of Power Among the Lumad: Mindanao's Largest Indigenous Community
by Elena Clariza
Introduction
While most studies on the conflict in Mindanao have been framed within the Muslim-Christian dichotomy, few studies have been done on the Lumad, the largest grouping of indigenous Filipinos. This paper is not about the causes of the Mindanao conflict. Several scholars such as Thomas Mckenna and Patricio N. Abinales have already produced such works. Instead, I deal with the Lumad’s perception of power. I argue that their concept of power is formed by their intimate relationship with a violent and harsh physical environment.
My purpose in writing this paper is to provide more information about the Lumad as a collective group. By using their idea of power, I hope to answer the following question: Will the Lumad ever form a united armed resistance against the Philippine government?
This paper is divided into two sections. The first section will introduce the Lumad. It will cover the origin of their name, composition, and traditional domains. The second section will discuss power while incorporating ideas from Benedict Anderson’s Idea of Power in Javanese Culture, Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution, and Tony Day’s, Fluid Iron, among others.
Complete Text found at: Professor Vina Lanzona, History 656 (May 12, 2005). Accessed online May 21, 2009.
The Concept of Power Among the Lumad: Mindanao's Largest Indigenous Community
by Elena Clariza
Introduction
While most studies on the conflict in Mindanao have been framed within the Muslim-Christian dichotomy, few studies have been done on the Lumad, the largest grouping of indigenous Filipinos. This paper is not about the causes of the Mindanao conflict. Several scholars such as Thomas Mckenna and Patricio N. Abinales have already produced such works. Instead, I deal with the Lumad’s perception of power. I argue that their concept of power is formed by their intimate relationship with a violent and harsh physical environment.
My purpose in writing this paper is to provide more information about the Lumad as a collective group. By using their idea of power, I hope to answer the following question: Will the Lumad ever form a united armed resistance against the Philippine government?
This paper is divided into two sections. The first section will introduce the Lumad. It will cover the origin of their name, composition, and traditional domains. The second section will discuss power while incorporating ideas from Benedict Anderson’s Idea of Power in Javanese Culture, Ileto’s Pasyon and Revolution, and Tony Day’s, Fluid Iron, among others.
Complete Text found at: Professor Vina Lanzona, History 656 (May 12, 2005). Accessed online May 21, 2009.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Laguna's Midwives of the Soul
~~ In the News ~~
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – They call themselves “midwives of the soul.” But while midwives assist women during childbirth, these hospice volunteers “give comfort to the dying.”
“When dying, there is so much pain – physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual. The hospice attends to all those,” said hospice president Monina Mercado.
In 1993, Fermin and Lourdes Adriano, both professors at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), lost their 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, to cancer. Trying to assuage their grief, they attended a hospice seminar of Filipino oncologist Dr. Josefina Magno in Manila.
Magno, who was the pioneer of hospice care in Washington D.C. and Maryland, was then commissioned by the World Health Organization to bring the idea of palliative care to Third World countries.
The Adrianos introduced hospice care to colleagues and to some members of church groups in Los Baños the following year.
The Madre de Amor Hospice was founded and its first president was Antonio Mercado, Monina’s husband.
Since then, the hospice has serviced about 500 dying persons in 15 years and is considered the longest running community-based foundation with its center located in Los Baños Subdivision, formerly the Umali Subdivision, in Barangay Batong Malake.
“The dying usually asks not to be left alone, to be forgiven, to reconcile differences with spouse or children,” Monina said.
Death, she added, comes with the “fear of the unknown and of the end of things.”
The dying fears leaving loved ones behind.
“We do not promise cure to the patients, it is not in our hands,” said Monina. The hospice, instead, offers companionship and friendship to the dying as well as to the family of the dying.
A dying person goes through the denial stage and the hospice helps him/her accept the fact.
“Death is not death. It is a passage to the next life,” Monina said. As the body perishes, the soul remains. She said this is the “healing” the hospice could offer.
Monina remembered Emma, a hospice patient who had cancer of the uterus.
“She could not sleep. She said she could hear children crying in her head and wanted to stop them,” she said.
Emma was a known abortionist in the town for 10 years and only stopped when she was diagnosed of the illness.
The volunteers accompanied Emma to a confession, but it did not stop the crying.
“We told her, you have to forgive yourself,” Monina recalled.
However, the anguish continued. It only ended when Emma opened up about her adopted son Boyet.
Last suffering
According to Monina, there was a young student who wished to get an abortion. Emma refused as the student was already on her ninth month of pregnancy. She instead adopted the boy.
“It was her last suffering. She worried about who would take care of Boyet,” Monina said.
Emma’s sister promised to take care of the boy and shortly after, Emma died in 1997.
As referred to by WHO and insurance companies, hospice workers are often called volunteers.
“It is only here in Laguna that we are called nambibisita,” Monina said. She said the term came from the volunteers’ approach as “nambibisita po kami (we are here to visit).”
Madre de Amor has about 50 volunteers operating in 17 towns of Laguna. They come in pairs when visiting homes of patients usually at Stage 3 or 4 of cancer.
Most of the time, relatives, neighbors or doctors enroll a person to the hospice.
“It’s not easy to see a dying person. Sometimes, the breasts are open and rotting. Most (patients) also take time before they open up,” Monina said.
But she believed the volunteers were mature in age and experience. “They have a certain kind of depth. They are brave because they carry their faith,” she added.
A beginner volunteer undergoes a two-day training at the hospice.
The volunteers regularly meet each month to review and discuss the case of the patient they are handling and to consult with the hospice doctor regarding the patient’s medical needs. They also conduct quarterly spiritual recollections.
“A volunteer is never left alone. He has a support system,” Monina said.
When the patient dies, the volunteer joins the wake and attends to the bereaved family.
For the whole year, the volunteer looks after the family by regularly calling and visiting them.
If a relative of the volunteer dies or the patient he was taking care of passes away, the volunteer is not allowed to do hospice work for a year to recover from bereavement. He, however, continues to attend activities at the hospice.
A volunteer gets by “through prayers and friendship” the others offer him, Monina added.
They receive no pay for the service, as the foundation survives through donations and drugs sourced from health organizations.
Passage
Teresita Gonzales, 68, was one of the hospice’s pioneer volunteers. She joined the service believing “it was pay back time.”
Teresita earlier worked at the University of Missouri Medical Center, whose patients were children with terminal illnesses.
In 1986, she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“They gave me six months (to live) and I am alive up to now,” she said, owing her survival to medical doctors and to the “Divine physician.”
She said her faith and the support of loved ones were a big factor to her recovery. “I felt first-hand how to have this kind of disease. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to touch and heal the dying,” she said.
She remembered one hospice patient, Pauline, who had a brain tumor. Hours before the girl died, Pauline talked to her about seeing images of God and angels.
“That is the stage called playing with the angels. Her eyes were stuck on the ceiling,” she recalled.
Teresita lamented that the dying are often ignored in society today.
“What if death sneaks in and you are caught unprepared? Every day, you need to make a difference in the lives of other people,” she believed.
Hospice movement
Hospice care in the Philippines has not gained much support and popularity, said Dr. Rhodora Ocampo, Madre de Amor medical and program director. In Asia, she said, Singapore has so far the most number of hospice centers.
“The need for hospice care could be referred to the millions of people dying unrelieved of pain and suffering,” Ocampo said.
Most hospice patients in the Philippines suffer from breast and lung cancer.
Only 11 percent die in the hospital, while 89 percent die in their homes, mostly without available treatment.
Madre de Amor helped establish the National Hospice Palliative Care Council of the Philippines and in 2003, the umbrella organization Hospice Philippines that now has 20 member hospices.
It has also moved for the declaration of the National Hospice Week celebrated every first week of October.
Laguna’s ‘midwives of the soul’ By Maricar Cinco
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 01:03:00 04/16/2009, accessed 4/24/2009
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo
LOS BAÑOS, Laguna – They call themselves “midwives of the soul.” But while midwives assist women during childbirth, these hospice volunteers “give comfort to the dying.”
“When dying, there is so much pain – physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual. The hospice attends to all those,” said hospice president Monina Mercado.
In 1993, Fermin and Lourdes Adriano, both professors at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB), lost their 14-year-old daughter, Sarah, to cancer. Trying to assuage their grief, they attended a hospice seminar of Filipino oncologist Dr. Josefina Magno in Manila.
Magno, who was the pioneer of hospice care in Washington D.C. and Maryland, was then commissioned by the World Health Organization to bring the idea of palliative care to Third World countries.
The Adrianos introduced hospice care to colleagues and to some members of church groups in Los Baños the following year.
The Madre de Amor Hospice was founded and its first president was Antonio Mercado, Monina’s husband.
Since then, the hospice has serviced about 500 dying persons in 15 years and is considered the longest running community-based foundation with its center located in Los Baños Subdivision, formerly the Umali Subdivision, in Barangay Batong Malake.
“The dying usually asks not to be left alone, to be forgiven, to reconcile differences with spouse or children,” Monina said.
Death, she added, comes with the “fear of the unknown and of the end of things.”
The dying fears leaving loved ones behind.
“We do not promise cure to the patients, it is not in our hands,” said Monina. The hospice, instead, offers companionship and friendship to the dying as well as to the family of the dying.
A dying person goes through the denial stage and the hospice helps him/her accept the fact.
“Death is not death. It is a passage to the next life,” Monina said. As the body perishes, the soul remains. She said this is the “healing” the hospice could offer.
Monina remembered Emma, a hospice patient who had cancer of the uterus.
“She could not sleep. She said she could hear children crying in her head and wanted to stop them,” she said.
Emma was a known abortionist in the town for 10 years and only stopped when she was diagnosed of the illness.
The volunteers accompanied Emma to a confession, but it did not stop the crying.
“We told her, you have to forgive yourself,” Monina recalled.
However, the anguish continued. It only ended when Emma opened up about her adopted son Boyet.
Last suffering
According to Monina, there was a young student who wished to get an abortion. Emma refused as the student was already on her ninth month of pregnancy. She instead adopted the boy.
“It was her last suffering. She worried about who would take care of Boyet,” Monina said.
Emma’s sister promised to take care of the boy and shortly after, Emma died in 1997.
As referred to by WHO and insurance companies, hospice workers are often called volunteers.
“It is only here in Laguna that we are called nambibisita,” Monina said. She said the term came from the volunteers’ approach as “nambibisita po kami (we are here to visit).”
Madre de Amor has about 50 volunteers operating in 17 towns of Laguna. They come in pairs when visiting homes of patients usually at Stage 3 or 4 of cancer.
Most of the time, relatives, neighbors or doctors enroll a person to the hospice.
“It’s not easy to see a dying person. Sometimes, the breasts are open and rotting. Most (patients) also take time before they open up,” Monina said.
But she believed the volunteers were mature in age and experience. “They have a certain kind of depth. They are brave because they carry their faith,” she added.
A beginner volunteer undergoes a two-day training at the hospice.
The volunteers regularly meet each month to review and discuss the case of the patient they are handling and to consult with the hospice doctor regarding the patient’s medical needs. They also conduct quarterly spiritual recollections.
“A volunteer is never left alone. He has a support system,” Monina said.
When the patient dies, the volunteer joins the wake and attends to the bereaved family.
For the whole year, the volunteer looks after the family by regularly calling and visiting them.
If a relative of the volunteer dies or the patient he was taking care of passes away, the volunteer is not allowed to do hospice work for a year to recover from bereavement. He, however, continues to attend activities at the hospice.
A volunteer gets by “through prayers and friendship” the others offer him, Monina added.
They receive no pay for the service, as the foundation survives through donations and drugs sourced from health organizations.
Passage
Teresita Gonzales, 68, was one of the hospice’s pioneer volunteers. She joined the service believing “it was pay back time.”
Teresita earlier worked at the University of Missouri Medical Center, whose patients were children with terminal illnesses.
In 1986, she herself was diagnosed with breast cancer.
“They gave me six months (to live) and I am alive up to now,” she said, owing her survival to medical doctors and to the “Divine physician.”
She said her faith and the support of loved ones were a big factor to her recovery. “I felt first-hand how to have this kind of disease. It is a blessing to have the opportunity to touch and heal the dying,” she said.
She remembered one hospice patient, Pauline, who had a brain tumor. Hours before the girl died, Pauline talked to her about seeing images of God and angels.
“That is the stage called playing with the angels. Her eyes were stuck on the ceiling,” she recalled.
Teresita lamented that the dying are often ignored in society today.
“What if death sneaks in and you are caught unprepared? Every day, you need to make a difference in the lives of other people,” she believed.
Hospice movement
Hospice care in the Philippines has not gained much support and popularity, said Dr. Rhodora Ocampo, Madre de Amor medical and program director. In Asia, she said, Singapore has so far the most number of hospice centers.
“The need for hospice care could be referred to the millions of people dying unrelieved of pain and suffering,” Ocampo said.
Most hospice patients in the Philippines suffer from breast and lung cancer.
Only 11 percent die in the hospital, while 89 percent die in their homes, mostly without available treatment.
Madre de Amor helped establish the National Hospice Palliative Care Council of the Philippines and in 2003, the umbrella organization Hospice Philippines that now has 20 member hospices.
It has also moved for the declaration of the National Hospice Week celebrated every first week of October.
Laguna’s ‘midwives of the soul’ By Maricar Cinco
Inquirer Southern Luzon
First Posted 01:03:00 04/16/2009, accessed 4/24/2009
Contributed by Mary Ann Ubaldo
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