Muni-Muni: Kapwa Nilalang Reflections

January 2025 January 2025

Muni Muni Muni Muni

Kapwa Nilalang Reflections Kapwa Nilalang Reflections

Center for Babaylan Studies

Muni-Muni: January 2025 ROUND-UP:

06 Hope Summons: Meditations on An-Other-World Seeing

Ate S. Lily Mendoza 07

Decolonisation as Re-membering

Interview with Ate Leny Strobel

A Love Note: The Balikbayan Artist

Ate Leny Strobel

Biyahe ng Bayani: Posttraumatic Growth and Finding Indigenous Wisdom

Eliza Jade Brown 10

Justine Villanueva Talks About Her Inspiration for Sawaga River Press

Justine Villanueva talks with Colors of Influence

Cultivating a Kapwa Consciousness: Decoloniality in Equity Work

Maileen Hamto

ROUND UP:

Kapwa-Centered

The Center for Babaylan Studies is grateful for the wisdom of esteemed elders who continue to guide the spirit of kinship and respect for all beings.

Discourse

The following is a collection of recent writings and interviews centering on Indigenous worldviews and how kapwa in the diaspora are integrating evolving paradigms of interconnectedness. The excerpts offer important insights that we hope will pique your interest in learning more.

Center for Babaylan Studies

Hope Summons: Meditations on An-Other-World Seeing

By S. Lily Mendoza, in “Re-Vision, A Journal of Consciousness and Transformation”

“I have studied and written extensively about indigeneity ever since the start of my decolonization journey, but not until recently have I allowed my body to be part of that process of knowing in any significant way… The crisis of our time—whether of climate change, species extinction, dying oceans, or disappearing forests and marshlands is rooted finally in our civilized world’s insistence on separating itself from the Earth womb whence we all come from.

The slow cooking required by that Earth life in crafting lives of ritual subtlety, beauty, and nuance brooks no shortcuts, and no time-saving gadgets and other lords of efficiency; rather what it calls for is a kind of diligent tending befitting a courtship relationship with the Divine Life-Giver.”

Decolonisation as Re-membering

Interview with Leny Strobel in Advaya

“If we have a long view, if we have this thinking of seven generations down the road, if we have the view that we are not totally in control, that if we open ourselves up to those energies, to the mythic stories, to the dream world, they will speak to us of the spaces where we can create cultures and create communities and do something totally different.

And, to me, that has been a comforting place to be, but it’s also a very lonely place to be… The space includes not just the space in your intellect, but includes the space of your heart. It includes the space of your ancestors, it includes the space of everything that is outside the purview of what we have come to create around this modern framework.”

A Love Note: The Balikbayan Artist

By Leny Strobel in Medium

“What is different in Tabios’ writing is the background context of Kapwa as mythic consciousness. Kapwa is about everything and everyone. In expanding the landscape of the novel, she adds an autofiction element and inserts herself as a minor but consequential character in the novel.

I think that Eileen always finds a way to transgress the rules of novel writing. She creates instead what she calls ‘a narrative collage’ that hints of an alternate universein-the making in the present moment.”

Biyahe ng Bayani: Posttraumatic

Growth and Finding Indigenous Wisdom

By Eliza Jade Brown, in Kasamahan Mental Health Blog

“True psychological ease comes from deeper relationships that embrace, borrowing more words from Ate Lily, “multidimensional spectrums” and complexity, perhaps creating a home where we can “just be ourselves…” I have witnessed this “returning home” for myself and others through the way of more long-term, trauma-informed, depth-oriented therapies, which I advocate for my therapist colleagues to consider studying and providing, in addition to more short-term, behavioral, solution-focused therapies.

Once returning home, I’ve found healthy progress or the non-colonizing kind may take place. We may start to find more human—authentic and creative ways to participate with life outside of our conditioning, and go beyond ourselves and into generativity or contributing with the future in mind.”

Justine Villanueva Talks About Her Inspiration for Sawaga River Press

Featured in Book Talks with Colors of Influence

“It is important for adults and children born in a diaspora because they are separate many layers from the homeland, and from the ancestors…We must know where we come from to know or get to where we want to go. These stories are the seeds of our Filipino culture and they teach us about our ancestors’ Indigenous ways of being. How are they helpful when we are no longer in the homeland, when we are here settlers and visitors.

I’ve learned that to be Indigenous to a place means to belong to the land. Indigeneity is defined by our belonging and relationship to the land. There are lessons in our Indigenous Filipino stories that still apply to where we are now in the diaspora.”

View the video

Cultivating a Kapwa Consciousness: Decoloniality in Equity Work

By Maileen Hamto, in Inclusion Solution

“The future of diversity management incorporates an Indigenous consciousness, a way of knowing and being distinct from the normative Western approach. For organizational leaders and change agents, there is a benefit in moving away from thinking about constraints and imagining possibilities of creativity and abundance. As a diversity educator and researcher, understanding decolonization has given me the vocabulary and cognitive framework to recognize exploitative extraction and examine power imbalances.

I realize that the decolonial lens is appropriate for workplaces making strides in changing systems. A decolonial approach is inherently equitable because it takes power back for underrepresented and marginalized people in decision-making.”

Reflections post Kapwa

Nilalang

Center for Babaylan Studies

Courting Prayer

By Alixa Lacerna

Boozhoo, ako diay si Alixa. I come from places where the sea and land meet and I reside at the confluence of muddy waters, Winipek–the traditional lands of the Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene, and the National Homeland of the Red River Métis. I want to greet you all in this new year with a story about my Anishinaabe elder, who recently passed, and my courtship of prayer. His name was Mishoomswapik (Grandfather Rock) in Anishinaabemowin. He was from the Loon and Bear clans and was as gichi-anishinaabe (mature person or elder) as they could get.

I have always been oriented to a spiritual practice, in part because of the Christian and Catholic conditioning that is prevalent in the schools in Cebu, where I had my early education. However, at some point in my early twenties, I stopped praying in the Catholic way. The connection or significance of its purpose fizzled out, faded. Prayer and praying weren’t revived for me until after I worked on my design thesis that explored the relationships between architecture and the Babaylan.

Shortly after Mishoomswapik’s Faculty Elder-in-Residence appointment, I passed tobacco to him to request if we could do a project together. We did the project and it had to end, but our friendship was just

beginning. He’d start teasing me and we’d end up giggling together. We would giggle together for the next two years, up until a week before he passed in December 2024. I had to leave for the Philippines not long after making friends with him, but before I left I introduced the Filipino ‘mano-po’ to him. I wanted to reciprocate by showing him a way of expressing our respect for our elders. He responded by saying a deep Miigwetch or thank you.

The second time I passed tobacco to Mishoomswapik, it was to ask for a teaching on prayer and grief. Nursing grief was the catalyst to praying again. It’s safe to imagine that I was heavily leaning on that request for a teaching. Because I passed a sizable pack

of tobacco and had a good relationship with him, I was hoping he would give me a teaching pretty quickly. As if it was a transaction! I shake my head to myself now and consider myself lucky I had enough sense not to ask for the teaching outright. It wasn’t until two or three weeks before his passing that he told me how to pray. He said that the way we [the Anishinaabe] pray is to give thanks to the four directions. The prayer is in our gratitude.

I’m on a quest now to translate that prayer’s meaning into my Visayan background while honouring the language and land from where this teaching on prayer came from. I hope to be familiar in conversing with the varying dimensions of kin and to wear that familiarity like second skin.

I hope I become excellent at practicing gratitude. I hope it honours my elder as an ancestor, as the bonus lolo that he was to me. And I’m happy that you’ll be witnessing this, too, because it’s good to have accountability. I hope that in whatever way prayer might nourish me, it might empower you, too. So, please wish us luck and good winds!

Chi-miigwetch. Daghang salamat!

Pinakbet & Me

By Danielle Daguio

Pinakbet — The word is the contracted form of the Ilokano word pinakebbet, meaning “shrunk” or “shriveled. This is a dish that I grew up with on constant rotation, and often cooked by my grandma on my dad’s side. This year I focused a lot on crops and dishes that are both indigenous to the Philippines AND could be grown in Detroit. Growing my connection to pinakbet I found out that it is not only indigenous to Ilokanos, the region and dialect of my family, but also that all of the vegetables could be grown in Detroit! This realization further shows me that my tropical blood, my connection to my ancestors, can truly take root and flourish in a place so far away from the motherland.

Below are some musings that inspired the class that I taught this October with Keep Growing Detroit called, “Seed to Table Indigenous Filipino Foods w/ Danielle,” in celebration of Filipino American History Month and as a capstone project for my fellowship with the Asian Pacific American Women in Leadership Institute. In this class I utilized all produce grown at KGD Farm, including ampalaya, sitaw, and okra grown from seeds saved from my dad. The only exception to this was ginger, and it’s only because it wasn’t in season yet!

I encourage you to check out the versions of pinakbet described below from my dad and me. More importantly, I encourage you to talk to your family about the recipes that grew you, and continue to grow your relationship with our plant ancestors that continually nourish our connections.

Mahal & Mahalo

Danielle

P.S. Don’t forget to make an atang, Ilokano for a small food offering given to ancestors !

Inspiration

1. March 16, 1521 (Felice Prudente

Sta. Maria, “Pigafetta’s Philippine Picnic: Culinary Encounters During the First Circumnavigation, 1519-1522” ):

Magellan’s ships arrive in Samar, Visayas, Philippines

2. 1760’s: Leaders of the Spanish revolt, Gabriela Silang would cook this dish for her husband when he would come home. When he was shot in his own home, she took over the revolt. Both Ilokano.

3. October 18, 1587 ( Amanda L. Andrei, Guest Writer for VINTA Gallery, Morro Bay, 1587: Rethinking Origins of Filipino American History): For a month, two oak trees had been on fire. Two plumes of smoke billowed into the sky, drawing the attention of the strangers.

4. October 21, 1995: Coleman Park in Morro Bay, a coastal city in Central California.

1. Two days later, a boat with nine men approached the crew. They were from another island called Zuluan, southeast of the big Samar Island. Waray, the mother tongue of Samara … Their elderly leader immediately went to Magellan, “giving signs of joy” for their arrival. The Captain-general ordered a meal for the “reasonable men” and gifted them with red caps, mirrors, combs, bells, ivory, bocasine fabric, and others. These were the first Filipino ancestors whom the Spaniards met. In response to the courtesy, the natives presented an initial sampling of Philippine savors: fish, two coconuts, a jar of palm wine called uraca (also arrack), and bananas. Some of the bananas were more than 1 palmo long (about 21.7 centimeters.) Others were smaller and more delicate. Food was the first Filipino gift to the first Europeans in Philippine territory.

3. As the oaks burned, several foreign scouts circled the area, looking for signs of other people. They noted the flowers, the terrain, and an abandoned settlement before leaving. The oaks burned. Sight of these smoldering trees was part of the record of Pedro de Unamuno (also referred to as Unamunu or Unamuño), a Spanish soldier and explorer who brought his expedition from Macau to modern day Central California on October 18, 1587.

Sailing on his galleon Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza (Our Lady of Hope), he was one of many sailors whose goal was to find safe ports between Asia and Acapulco, Mexico and claim land along the way for the King of Spain. Joining the expedition was a Spanish Jesuit priest, a Portuguese Franciscan priest, several soldiers, and “Yndios Luçones,” also known as “Luzon Indians,” whom today we might call “Filipinos.”

4. Dedicated on October 21, 1995 by the Filipino American National Historical Society, its summary of the encounter includes the information, “A landing party was sent to shore which included Luzon Indios, marking the first landing of Filipinos in the continental United States.”

Cooking Pinakbet

Version told to Danielle from her Dad

I learned from my grandparents on both sides. I watched them how they’re cooking, and how/where they get it from. As I grew up, most of the people in the barrio used to cook that, so it’s easier for me to make it. Until now, we’re trying to pass it to your generation. I could eat this every day, it’s not so fatty.

Ok, so you need:

• Talong

• Kamatis

• Pariya

• Sitaw or beans whatever

• Bawang

• Sibuyas

• Luya/laya ginger

• Salt or your bagoong

• A little bit water

That’s really simple right? Just like bahay kubo. This is how you make it:

1. Chop the vegetables, like big chunks, half half, all of them

2. And then it’s up to you if you want to saute it or not. If not, just put them all together with your vegetables with your bagoong. If you want to saute all the spices - garlic onion tomato and ginger, then you put your vegetables, a little bit water then your bagoong and boil it until it’s cooked

3. That’s it. It’s a simple cook on the farm

Photos by Danielle Daguio

Danielle’s version with more details

Ingredients:

• Bawang/garlic 1 head, minced

• Sibuyas/onions 1 large, minced

• Luya/ginger 1 knob, minced

• Kamatis/tomatoes 3-4 large,chopped

• Kalabasa/kabocha squash 1 peeled, chopped into bite sized pieces

• Talong/Asian eggplant 2, chopped into bite-sized pieces

• Pariya/smooth bitter melon 1, chopped into bite-sized pieces

• Sitaw/yardlong beans 1 cup, sliced into bite-sized pieces

• Okra/okra 1 cup, sliced into bite-sized pieces

• Salt or bagoong, fermented fish paste (bonus points if you make it vegan) - to taste

• A little bit of water

• Optional: pork, shrimp, chicken, fish, etc.

Directions:

1. Saute all the spices — garlic, onion, tomato, and ginger. Note: If you’d like to add a meat or seafood to your pinakbet, add it at this point

2. Layer the vegetables according to what needs to cook longer — squash, eggplant, bitter melon, beans, okra

3. Add water and bagoong

4. Boil until the veggies are shriveled, stir slowly to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn

5. Eat over rice

Meditations On An Empty Nest

By Drew Pineda

It’s the heart of winter here in Waawiyaatanong. When I walk my dog, Chai, snow falls in the glow cast by streetlights. It feels like our time convening for Kapwa Nilalang was a lifetime ago: 90 degree weather and sunshine a distant remembrance. Tiny insects buzzing, chipmunks foraging and feasting, full belly laughs — the ecology of August warmth.

For many, our current wintry season is one of grief. Indeed, the personal grief we may carry feels compounded by our collective grief. The genocide in Gaza continues, massive oil spills destroy our sacred waterways, and political extremism continues to harm the most vulnerable of oppressed people across the world. How do we reconcile the moment with our indigenous worldview – especially the one that we cultivated during Kapwa Nilalang?

I have been looking to our other-thanhuman kin, the “little things” that Kuya Jim spoke about. In October, our Detroit crew hosted an indigenous cooking workshop paired with a storytelling event

featuring Kenneth Tan, who makes intergenerational watercolor art. We honored each of the ingredients — which were grown locally — in the dishes we cooked, and shared ancestral memories. When the meal was prepared, we set aside our atang. In this way, we turned the act of cooking and storytelling into a feast to honor the Ninuno. As I ate, I recalled Manong Lane’s discussion on our collective consciousness, how — whether through food or through color pigments and art — we preserve memory and deepen our kinship with one another. This act of cultural seed-keeping only happens in community.

On my daily dog walks I have been contemplating the mystery of an empty wasp nest that has fallen on the sidewalk. Despite the rain and snow, it has somehow survived on the ground. When I told fellow CfBS core member Kurt about this mystery, he told me that it could be a sign of a house or a home. Its emptiness concerned me. But Kurt also reminded me of the prospect of new beginnings made possible by the community. In research, I learned that wasp colonies may collectively abandon old nests and start anew if the previous nest was damaged. Our otherthan-human kin have so much to offer us if we are willing to notice and listen to them.

These wasps do not imagine project deadlines, but they dance to a divine rhythm. In our indigenous worldview I remember that time is not linear. While our Kapwa Nilalang conference may feel like a long time ago, I feel it continues to echo in my heart. I imagine the ice that surrounds me thawing, becoming waves pulling me into the embrace of our kapwa nilalang.

And, I hear laughter and singing, and I see us dancing on the shore.

Our Kin

By Eric Wilson

Layers of human, natural, designed and created worlds combine to a fantastic symphony of color, sound, feeling and emotion through an unplanned yet harmonious celebration.

Acrylic on 150 gsm cotton paper.

• Balete

Several species from genus Ficus

• Bangus

Milkfish

• Buwaya

Philippine freshwater crocodile

• Kalabaw

Carabao

• Kulalaknit

Giant golden-crowned flying fox

• Mawumag

Philippine tarsier

• Pawikan

Several species of sea turtle

• Talusi

Palawan hornbill

• Tuko

Tokay gecko

Center for Babaylan Studies

Haynaku

By Kurt Manuel

Roots remember ancestors, sing through us. Community gathers hope in shared breath. Kapwa unites hearts, earth and sky.

Together, create beauty to honor her.

Spirits whisper gently, “Reclaim sacred ways.”

Stories weave together truth and belonging.

Seeds of love nurture the future.

Center for Babaylan Studies

Words of Love & Gratitude Words of Love & Gratitude

The CfBS core organizing team is grateful for the presence of 100 seekers and kindred spirits during our Kapwa Nilalang Symposium held in Holly, Michigan. We continue to learn from your sharings on the WhatsApp community.

Salamat for sharing your “testimonials” through the post-event survey; here is a short collection of the heartfelt sentiments we have received.

May we continue to nurture the seeds of connection for the year to come. Siyanawa. (May it be so.)

“It was really wonderful and I’m so glad went! Everything was well thought out just a wonderful group of people.”

- Anonymous

“This is a very lovely community changed a lot of people’s lives appreciate the work and intention of the symposium. It created belonging and simply kapwa Maraming salamat po sa lahat sa amin. Madami po kaming mga magagandang kapwa. the core team and the rest Symposium kapwa all the reconnecting in the future decolonizing and reindigenizing

- Josel Angelica

“I really want to learn more and more also loving the gifts of the younger all blended what everyone has to offer so grateful for CfBS and the organizing so blessed that you are here.”

- Anonymous

Gratitude Gratitude glad I out and more from our elders. I am younger generations. You have offer so beautifully. I am organizing core team. We are

“It was a true honor and I had a serene time.”

Lory Molino community symposium that lives including mine. I truly intention put into the organizing created a space filled of inclusion, kapwa love and appreciation. lahat ng ginawa niyo para kaming natutunan at nakilalang kapwa. Wishing you, everyone in rest of the CfBS Kapwa Nilalang best. Looking forward to future as we continue in this reindigenizing journeys together.”

“There was so much love and generosity at the symposium. It was life-affirming to have that be my experience of the world for a whole weekend. I’m still processing and it’s already been such a generative weekend for me. I already know that I’ll continue to feel the ripple effects of this weekend for years to come.”

- Chriselle Raguro

“I’m so grateful for all of the hard work and heart work that went into this gathering. Thank you so much to the CfBS core organizers and presenters for creating such a beautiful and powerful space for us. The vibes at this gathering were truly unmatched. Like the balete tree, may we continue to be powerful portals connecting past, present, and future and staying grounded and rooted amidst the chaos of modern society. I am honored and blessed to be in this collective journey with you all. Maraming salamat po.”

- Leah Ecaruan Center for Babaylan Studies

Visions of Kapwa Nilalang

By you, our beautiful kapwa!

Center for Babaylan Studies

CENTER FOR BABAYLAN STUDIES CORE TEAM

L-to-R

Lily Mendoza, Alixa Lacerna, Cisa Payuyo, Danielle Daguio, Drew Pineda, Eric Wilson, Justine Villanueva, Kurt Manuel, Maileen Hamto

Design/Layout/Photography | Eric Wilson

Memories | CfBS Kapwa

Contributions | Respective Authors

Maraming salamat po to contributors and participants!

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Until next time, kapwatid ��