PRESS RELEASE
Second International Babaylan Conference in September
Occidental, CA – May 1, 2013 --
The Center for Babaylan Studies (CfBS) will host the Second International
Babaylan Conference in September 27-29, 2013 at Westminster Woods, in
Occidental, Northern California. Kidlat Tahimik, Datu Victorino Saway, Bai Liza
Saway, Mamerto Tindongan, and Lane Wilcken, and others will present aspects of
Filipino indigenous cultures seldom taught outside the Philippines. The
conference will gather to honor those who continue to carry the rich legacy of
Filipino indigenous knowledge systems and practices. This year’s conference
theme is “Katutubong Binhi/Native Seeds: Myths and Stories that Feed our Indigenous
Soul.”
The Babaylan in Filipino culture
represents the figure of the indigenous healer. This sacred gathering of
healers, artists, scholars, activists, performers, and other culture-bearers
will share Babaylan-inspired work through story-telling, ritual, ceremony, dance, poetry,
film, academic panels, conversations, and workshops.
Filipinos have a very rich spiritual and
cultural heritage that is embedded in mythic stories and is carried forward by epic
chanters, storytellers, babaylans, culture-bearers, and artists. The Babaylan
conference will present a few of these stories through the sharing of Kidlat
Tahimik, best known as the Father of Filipino “Indio-genius” filmmaking, Datu
Vic and Bai Liza Saway of the Talaandig School of Living Tradition. Lane
Wilcken, will share his extensive research on indigenous myths of the Philippines
and the Pacific with the launching of his book, The Forgotten Children of Maui, at the conference. Mamerto
Tindongan, a mumbaki from Ifugao, now living in Ohio, as a healer/artist, will
share how his reclaiming of his people’s mythic roots have led him to do the
healing work he is doing now in the diaspora. There will be small group workshops and talking circles that will address the conference theme.
Leny Strobel, Project
Director and Professor of American Multicultural Studies at Sonoma
State University, states that the second Babaylan conference’s focus on mythic
stories is timely and relevant. “There is a growing realization in mainstream
society,” Strobel explains, “that mythic stories carry the functional cosmology
of our ancestors that enables their descendants to maintain and sustain core
identities, provide a compass for navigating their connection to the Land, Sky,
and Sea, and sustain their interconnectedness to all of creation, and all
beings - human and non-human.” The
conference aims to renew an interest in the power of Filipino mythic stories
and storytelling as a means of Wayfinding in these often difficult and
confusing times.
These mythic stories are part of the
Filipino Babaylan Tradition and incorporate Filipino indigenous knowledge
systems and practices that continue to be followed today both in the homeland
and in the diaspora. Conference information and registration can be found
online at http://www.babaylan.net/events.
The Center for Babaylan Studies was
created after many years of research and conversations to continue the
exploration and illumination of Babaylan indigenous wisdom and spirit as it
facilitates our ongoing process of decolonization and indigenization – towards
our Pagbabalikloob and PagkaPilipino (Turning Towards Home). This
will be the second international conference offered by the Center.
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