Honoring Filipino Indigenous Traditions: The First International Babaylan Conference

Reclaiming the Now: The Babaylan Is Us
Come and be part of this historic gathering where we can reclaim Filipino
Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices and Babaylan Traditions.
Together, let us offer them as gifts of Beauty, Healing, Creativity. Here is
a unique opportunity, a time and place, where the loom of memories
weaves a path to sacred wholeness deep from our ancestral roots.
Come. Learn. Remember. Honor.

April 17-18, 2010. Sonoma State University.
April 17, 2010
WELCOME TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL

BABAYLAN CONFERENCE!
On behalf of the women and men volunteers of the Center for

Babaylan Studies, I thank you for hearing the call to come to this
conference/gathering. This present gathering is a small link in the
very long unbroken chain of Filipino indigenous spiritual and cultural
practices that transcend time and space.
When we began to unearth and rediscover the Filipino indigenous
knowledge and practices during our process of decolonizing, the story
of the Babaylan called out to us. One by one, story by story, book by
book, from listserves to blogs, we listened to one another’s yearning to
get to know this tradition. Who are the past and present Babaylans?
What is a Babaylan in indigenous communities and what is a
Babaylan in the diaspora? All of our questions and yearnings brought
us to this moment of gathering with you.
“Please, allow us to express our Beauty!” this is the voice of an
indigenous woman leader from Mindanao during a dialogue at
Ateneo de Davao University two years ago. Her voice has never left
me and I have, since then, repeated her plea and all its pregnant
meanings to others. We want to express our Beauty.
If you have been to the smaller CFBS events this past year, you may
have experienced the Babaylan spirit that inspires and sparks the
creative energy that leads to a sense of Pagbabalikloob/Coming
Home. Home is where our Kapwa is. Home is where we embrace our
Wholeness.
These two days will offer up these gifts of Beauty, Wholeness, and
Healing. I am grateful to the artists, scholars, poets and writers,
activists, and healers who have come forward to share their
Babaylan-inspired work. I am grateful to the community of volunteers
whose dreams and visions moved them one day to say: “Our
ancestors are calling; they want to help us; they want to heal us. Let’s
do something.” Now here we are together.
…Home. Tuloy Po, Kayo!
Leny Mendoza Strobel, Ed.D.,

Project Director
Center for Babaylan Studies
About The Center for Babaylan Studies was created
CFBS to continue the exploration and illumination of
Babaylan indigenous wisdom and spirit as it
facilitates our ongoing process of decolonization
and indigenization – towards Pagbabalikloob
(Turning Towards Home) and PagkaPilipino
(Being Filipino). This year’s conference is the
Center’s first project. After many years of research and conversation, we offer the
global community a glimpse of the sweet nectar of the Babaylan spirit that this
growing community has experienced in a connection with each other over the
years.
The Center for Babaylan Studies is supported completely by volunteers. We are
excited to present the 1st International Babaylan Conference and need your help
to make the conference a success. For a list of volunteer opportunities, please
visit our website www.babaylan.net.
The Center for Babaylan Studies is an activity of the IHCenter, a nonprofit
public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of the
International Revenue Code.
Visit www.babaylan.net for more information.

Filipinos have a very rich spiritual and cultural heritage carried forward by
babaylans, culture-bearers, and artists. To honor those who continue the
rich legacy of Filipino indigenous knowledge systems and practices, the
Center for Babaylan Studies (CfBS) hosts the First International Babaylan
Conference on April 17 and 18 at Sonoma State University.
Key speakers Grace Nono, Katrin de Guia, and Virgil Apostol will present
aspects of the Filipino indigenous culture seldom taught outside the
Philippines.
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 ritual, ceremony, dance, poetry, film, academic panels,
conversations, and workshops.
Leny Strobel believes it is timely and relevant. “There is a growing realization
in mainstream society,” Strobel explains, “that indigenous knowledge and
practices carry the ancient wisdom that enabled people to survive the
genocide and holocausts brought by modern civilizations.”
Stories of physical, spiritual, and emotional healing by a babaylan run strong
in Filipino and Filipino American families and communities. Also known as
an arbularyo, hilot, mombaki, bailan/beliyan/babaylan, catalonan, dawac,
or ma-aram, these women and men received
knowledge passed down by ancestors about
healing herbs and massage techniques, while About
the First
others were respected for their ability to speak
with spirits and ask for the release of the soul of
a loved one.
These women and men provide advice and
International
healing for the community. Their practices
are part of the Filipino Babaylan Tradition and
Babaylan
incorporate Filipino indigenous knowledge
systems that continue to be followed today both
Conference
in the Philippines and in the diaspora. 2010
Many Thanks to
Our Conference Partners
North Bay International

Studies Project
SSU Office of the President
SSU School of Arts &Humanities

~~~
April 17, 2010
7:00- 9:00
Keynote Speakers
GRACE NONO
Born and raised in Agusan, Northeastern Mindanao,
Southern Philippines, Grace is a Philippine music
performance artist, Philippine studies researcher/author,
and community organizer/cultural administrator. A product
of the Philippine High School for the Arts and the University
of the Philippines where she earned her bachelor’s
degree in Humanities and master’s degree in Philippine
Studies, Grace has further received training as an Asia-
Pacific Performance Exchange fellow at the University of
California at Los Angeles (UCLA), and as an Asian Cultural
Council fellow in New York and various parts of the United
States.
For the past fifteen years, Grace has studied sung oral traditions from Philippine
elders. Infusing these with her own contemporary spirit, she has used oral chant
to advance the contemporary issues of living identity, environmentalism, women’s
rights, and inter-faith dialogue. She has been a featured artist at the House of World
Cultures in Berlin, Mercat de les Flors in Barcelona, Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid,
the Music Village Festival in London, concerts in Paris and Monte Carlo, WOMAD in
Yokohama, the Exposition on Nature’s Wisdom in Aichi, the Asian Fantasy Orchestra
tours of New Delhi, Bombay, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka, Miyazaki, Bangkok, Vientiane,
Yangon, Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh, the Hong Kong Asian Arts Festival, the Singapore
Arts Festival, performances and conferences in Huairou, Bangkok, Jakarta, Nanning,
Shanghai, Seoul, Penang, Taipei, New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego,
Chicago, as well as many different parts of the Philippines.
In 2008, Grace’s book ��
The Shared Voice: ��
Chanted and Spoken Narratives from
the Philippines ��
was launched by ANVIL Publishing and Fundacion Santiago at the
Philippine National Museum. She is working on a second volume on the music of
Philippine babaylans and other ritualists. Together with composer and fellow record
producer Bob Aves, she has also published a series of CDs and monographs on
Philippine music and oral traditions used in the study of Philippine music, arts and
culture. She has further taught Philippine Traditional Arts at the University of the
Philippines-Diliman, and Philippine Oral History at Miriam College.
As a community organizer and cultural administrator, Grace serves as Founding
Director for the Tao Foundation for Culture and Arts, a non-government organization
engaged in cultural regeneration and holistic development initiatives, for which she
has been granted support by the Toyota Foundation, the Ford Foundation, UNESCO,
the British Council, the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the National Commission for
Culture and Arts, Advocates of Philippine Fair Trade, AusAid, and other institutions.
To date, Grace has won over 40 awards, including TOYM or Ten Outstanding Young
Men, TOWNS or The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service, numerous Catholic
Mass Media, Katha, Awit, National Press Club, and other awards for her artistic and
cultural contributions.

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2114 Trudie Drive

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Tel and Fax (310) 514-9139
www.philippineexpressionsbookshop.com
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promoting Philippine books in America.
2010 marks our 26th year of service

to the Filipino American community.
Mabuhay.
KATRIN M. DE GUIA, PhD
Katrin is the founder/President of Heritage and Arts
Academies of the Philippines, Inc.. The founding of
HAPI is one moment in 25 years continuity of cultural
work that began in the early 80s when Kidlat Tahimik
and Katrin de Guia opened up their Baguio residence
to the community as an art-space and a temporary
home for Filipino artists whose orientation, interests
and creative style were rooted in indigenous Filipino
Knowledge Systems and Practices.
Her achievements include:The organization of a
pioneering two day international conference at the
University of the Philippines (2004) which put indigenous knowledge on par
with academic knowledge, while popularizing Asian kapwa psychology and
Virgilio Enriquez’ Filipino personality theory (2004); followed by a symposium
that brought together the leaders of 12 Schools of Living Traditions / Heritage
Centers; a work-shop series on indigenous arts and crafts; a lecture series/film
showings by/on Filipino culture-bearers; as well as two art-exhibits showcasing
Filipino culture-bearer art. The event–series closed on 9/11 (2004) with another
symposium on traditional forms of healing.
She followed up with the organization of a second international Kapwa
Conference at the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (Iloilo) in 2008.
Katrin has a PhD in Filipino Psychology and was mentored by the founder of
Sikolohiyang Filipino, the late Dr. Virgilio Enriquez. Her dissertation discussed
indigenous world-views and lifestyles of Filipino artists within the framework
of Enriquez’ Filipino personality theory, in order to come up with a profile of
contemporary Filipino culture-bearers. In collaboration with the Akademiya ng
Sikolohiyang Pilipino, the Philippine Academy of Culture and Psychology, headed
by Felipe de Leon Jr., Dr. Katrin de Guia received several grants from the Toyota
Foundation (1999 – 2003) which resulted in the writing of a book on Asian
psychology and the worldviews of Filipinos, ��
Kapwa: The
��
Self in the Other.
Katrin was born in Germany, and has been a German Permanent Philippine
Resident since 1979. She is married to Kidlat Tahimik, known as the father of
Philippine independent filmmaking, and they have three sons who are all culture-
bearer/artists – Kidlat, Kawayan, and Kabunian.

Mabuhay!
More Power To
The Wisdom of
Indigenous
Culture.
Greetings from:
Clotilde Valdes,
Filipino Elder
& Culture-Bearer
Virgil J. Mayor Apostol
Virgil has dedicated himself to the research,
development, and promotion of Filipino cultural and
healing traditions. He descends from a paternal and
maternal bloodline of healers and from the teachings of
respected elders. Through clinical practice, he continues
to refine Ablon as a science and spiritual practice. His
background in the Filipino martial arts also enhances his
intuitive knowledge as a healer.
Apostol is a certified Holistic Health Practitioner and
co-author of the book, The Healing Hands of Hilot. He
has completed a three-volume manuscript, the first volume to be published. His
association with the Chopra Center for Well Being, where he refined, systemized,
and discreetly incorporated the intricacies of Filipino Ablon along with the Indian
Ayurvedic therapies offered, earned him a favorable reputation as a highly
in-demand therapist and healer. This inspired Deepak Chopra and the center’s
medical director, David Simon, to encourage Apostol to promote his teachings
through workshops.
Wanting to pursue the clinical application of his practice, Apostol joined
Neurologist Norman Narchi, MD, founder of Radiance Health and Wellbeing, in
Westlake Village CA. His solo stint led him to open a clinic where he collaborated
with Brett Davis Nutrition, Inc. in Chula Vista, CA. Eventually, Apostol held
practice with the Integrative Health Care Center in Grand Terrace, CA.
He also collaborated with Lobsang Dhondup, physician of traditional Tibetan
medicine, at the Tibetan Healing Center, increasing the affectivity of Tibetan
herbal medicines to their patients through the introduction of Ablon. Apostol is
associated with Jeff Cohen and his Hilot Therapy Clinic in the Bay Area where,
on occasion, he is invited to provide Ablon to members of the San Francisco
Ballet for injuries sustained in the course of their practice.
Apostol was personally encouraged by Alfonso T. Lagaya, MD, MDM, who
was then the Executive Director of the Philippine Institute of Traditional and
Alternative Health Care (PITAHC – Philippine Department of Health) to promote
Ablon and other Filipino healing practices in the United States. He has been a
featured speaker at the Hawai’i Healing Garden, a statewide festival held on
Kaua’i, Maui, O’ahu, and Hawai’i, which is sponsored by Hawai’i Health Guide
and the Hawai’i Tourism Authority.
Please see more about Virgil and his work at his website: www.rumsua.org

Saturday, April 17, 2010
7:30-8:30 Cooperage/Plenary Hall
• Coffee and Registration
8:30 - 8:45 Cooperage/Plenary Hall
Opening Ritual, Virgil Apostol
8:45 - 9:00 Cooperage

• Welcome from the University
• Introduction by Leny Strobel, Project Director, CFBS
9:00-10:00 Cooperage
Keynote Plenary 1
• Grace Nono, Chant, Spirit, and Healing among Philippine Babaylans and other
Ritualists
10:00-10:15 Break - proceed to Salazar Building
10:15-11:45 Salazar and Stevenson Buildings
Break Out Session One
Break Out Session 1.1 Salazar Building, Room 2020, Saturday, April 17, 2010
Filipino Indigenous Knowledge Systems and Practices
• Nenita Pambid Domingo, "Anting-anting: Animism and Catholicism in
Philippine Bronze Amulets"
• Michael Gonzalez, "Singing Praises to God, Country, and Rizal"
• Lane Wilcken, "Filipino Tattoos: Sacred Symbols and their Spiritual
Connection"
• Anting-anting: Animism and Catholicism in Philippine Bronze Amulets,
Nenita Pambid Domingo
Using semiotics, 150 samples of medallion-amulets sold outside the Quiapo
Catholic Church in Manila were studied. Extensive fieldwork was conducted in
Manila, and in the Southern Tagalog regions of Mount Banahaw, San Pablo,
Laguna, Rizal, and Cavite provinces among the healers, millenarians, vendors and
manufacturers of the anting-anting.
Nenita Pambid Domingo teaches Introductory, Intermediate and Advanced Filipino
courses at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She was educated at
the University of the Philippines, Diliman (Quezon City), where she received a Ph.D.
in Philippine Studies.
• Singing Praises to God, Country, and Rizal, Michael Gonzalez

In the minds of many educated Filipinos, the Rizalistas are thought to have been
deluded either due to poverty or lack of education. In actuality, the Rizalistas had
a different vision and narrative of what constituted a ‘nation’ and the notion of a
national ‘soul’. This vision and narrative is what constitutes the ‘Rizalista religion’.
This presentation will explore examples of singing and music in these communities
of healing and faith.
Michael Gonzalez is a former instructor in History and in Community Development
at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. He earned a Master’s degree in Social
Anthropology from Sydney University (Australia). Currently, he lectures at the
University of California at Santa Cruz.
10
Program Schedule
• Filipino Tattoos: Sacred Symbols and their Spiritual Connection,

Lane Wilcken
Tattooing was once so abundant in the Philippines that the Spanish first called the
islands Las Islas de Pintados, The Islands of the Painted People. The meanings
of individual motifs go beyond the superficial Western interpretations of decoration
or emblems of status. Motifs will be traced back to their true cultural context as a
means to facilitate communication with the spirit world.
Lane Wilcken’s maternal grandmother was a well-known mangilot (midwife
and healer) in Tarlac, Philippines. His interest in cultural tattooing was borne out
of a desire to strengthen cultural pride among Filipinos and to reunite Filipinos
symbolically and spiritually with their estranged ancestors. His book Filipino Tattoos:
Ancient to Modern is due for release Fall 2010.
Literature
• Eileen Tabios, "Babaylan Poetics"
• Marie Therese Sulit, “Merlinda Bobis: Between the Postcolonial Exotic and
the Babaylan/Catalonan"
• Evelina Galang, "Lola's House: Learning About the Babaylan Spirit from
Comfort Women"
• Aimee Suzara, "A History of the Body: Against Erasure"
• Babaylan Poetics, Eileen Tabios
The role of a poet is different for each practitioner. But if a poet chooses to practice
Babaylan Poetics, then the poet’s path becomes more than just the writing of
verse; it becomes one of promoting community. Topics discussed will range from
the effect of Babaylan philosophy on poetic forms, to the creation of anthologies
as intervention into canonized literature, to the use of blogs as poetry-performance
vehicles.
Eileen Tabios was a recipient of the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry
for her first poetry book Beyond Life Sentences. In poetry, Ms. Tabios has crafted a
body of work that is unique for melding ekphrasis with transcolonialism. Her poems
have been translated into Spanish, Italian, Tagalog, Japanese, Portuguese, Polish,
and Greek.
• Merlinda Bobis: Between the Postcolonial Exotic and the Babaylan/Catalonan,

Marie-Therese Sulit, Ph.D
The Babaylan is a figure that embodies four aspects of the Filipina feminine: the
warrior, the teacher, the healer, and the visionary. This presentation applies these
aspects to the publication history and works of literature by Merlinda Bobis and
offers two main points: first, by reflecting these four aspects of the Babaylan, Bobis
updates this archetype for contemporary times; and second, her writings illuminate
the imperial and colonial enterprises of the United States throughout the world
nowadays.
Marie-Therese Sulit is an Assistant Professor of English at Mount Saint Mary
College, located in the Mid Hudson Valley of New York.
11
• Lola’s House: Learning About the Babaylan Spirit from Comfort Women,
Evelina Galang
The women of Liga ng mga Lolang Pilipina (LILA Pilipina), the Lolas, survivors
of the Japanese Imperial Army’s WWII rape camps, are fighting for justice not for
themselves, but for all of us: for our daughters and our grandchildren, for our global
healing. This presentation focuses on a unique calling, a connecting with other
healers/activists/spirits and then the action that comes with it.
Evelina Galang is the Director of Creative Writing and an Associate Professor in
the English department of the University of Miami, located in Coral Gables, Florida.
She has authored several books, and is currently writing Lolas’ House: Women
Living with War, Stories of Surviving Filipina Comfort Women of World War II.
• A History of the Body: Against Erasure, Aimee Suzara

This poetry and performance project examines representations of Filipinos
in America from the Imperialist era through contemporary times, illuminating
connections to ideas of self. The body is the nexus for the creation and expression
of culture as well as the site of oppression, trauma, and control. Through art, we
can not only reverse the negative impacts of stereotyping and cultural loss, but also
forge new identities and cultural forms.
Aimee Suzara is a writer/performer, cultural worker, and educator who creates work
that builds community, fosters healing, and provokes important questions through
poetry, song, movement, and theater. She confronts racism, sexism, homophobia,
and other forms of oppression through writing, performance, and workshops for
youth and adults.
Returning to the Motherland
• Linking Children to the Motherland: Coming into our Babaylan Spirit, Lorial
Crowder, Mathilda de Dios, Marie Obaña and Riya Ortiz (members of Ugnayan)
Seven young Filipina American women were fatefully brought together in
the summer of 2003, with the goal of launching a national democratic and
comprehensive grassroots organization that would serve the Fil/Fil-Am community
by educating, organizing and mobilizing. Thus, Ugnayan ng mga Anak ng Bayan
(Linking Children to the Motherland) was born. This workshop will look at tools
for effective organizing with/as Filipinas, drawing from the ideology of the Modern
Babaylan in America. Examples include nurturing the individual while nurturing the
community you serve, and building trust through theatre of the oppressed exercise.
Lorial Crowder earned a Master’s degree in Social Work, specializing in
Community Organizing and Planning. She has embraced her fate as an adopted
person, which ultimately fueled her desire to learn every aspect of her Filipino roots.
In 2005 she co-founded the Filipino Adoptees Network to ensure that fellow adopted
people have an appreciation of their mother culture and heritage of the Philippines.
Mathilda Minerva de Dios has been nurtured by her kapatid in the collective
struggle for justice and self-determination, and by learning and living by the true
meaning of Makibaka! Huwag Ma Takot! Mathilda is honored to raise her little one
in an international community of cultural workers, and is blessed to be around
purposeful and passionate people as we build the paths to liberation.
Marie Obaña spent nearly a decade of her early adulthood in New York City,
where she obtained a Master’s degree in Social Work at New York University, but
more importantly, from and through the community organizing work of UGNAYAN,
obtained lifelong tools that have sharpened her understanding of self, the true
meaning of a kasama, and the need to continue to “SERVE THE PEOPLE”.
12
Program Schedule
Riya Ortiz served as the Founding Chairperson of Gabriela Youth in 1996, the
youth arm of Gabriela Philippines, one of the largest and most militant women’s
alliances in that country. She was transplanted to New York City in 2001, and since
then she has organized youth, young women, domestic workers and allies around
issues that directly affect Filipinos here and in the Philippines. She currently serves
as the Mass Campaigns Officer of UGNAYAN.
PERSONAL NARRATIVES: IN SEARCH OF THE BABAYLAN
• Felicia Perez, "Filipino Indigenous Mind and Dream Work"
• Bing Aradanas, "My Journey Towards Philippine Indigenous Spirituality"
• Cynthia Arias, "Living in my Own Truth: Invoking the Babaylan Spirit"
• Filipino Indigenous Mind and Dream Work, Felicia Perez
Dream work from the Filipino indigenous mind perspective encompasses ancestral
guidance and healing, spirits and nature, prophesy and divination, out-of-body flight,
the déjà vu experience and kapwa dreaming. The Babaylan inspired dream worker
is grounded in the three Filipino indigenous core values: kapwa, pakiramdam, and
kagandahangloob.
Felicia Perez earned a Master of Arts degree in Psychology with an emphasis in
Holistic Studies. Her most profound spiritual revelations, ancestral wisdom and
deep connection with the natural world come from her dreams. Felicia has created
a professional genealogy business, and is a Babaylan-inspired dream worker.
• My Journey Towards Philippine Indigenous Spirituality, Bing Aradanas

An oral and visual presentation of encounters and interviews with shamans,
sorcerers, herbalists, massage healers and warriors in the remote corners of the
Philippines, during the 21st century.
Bing Aradanas is an activist, and the U.S.-born son of an Ilocano father from
Pangasinan (who came to America in 1925) and a Boholana-Mandaya-Spanish-
Scottish mother from Surigao del Sur (who came to America in 1958). He earned
a graduate degree in Ethnic Studies from UC San Diego, and currently works as a
government anthropologist in Alaska.
• Living in My Own Truth: Invoking the Babaylan Spirit, Cynthia Arias

An exploration, from a cross-cultural perspective, of the pathways Babaylan have
used to discover, connect to, and integrate Babaylan traits into an identity based on
a Western perspective.
Cynthia Arias is profoundly grateful to have been born to parents and a long
line of ancestors from the Philippines. One of the greatest gifts of our Filipino
heritage is loving life, and showing it. As a parent of three, Cynthia engages the
next generation of the Arias family in identifying with, accepting, and heralding the
newest phase in Filipino-American culture.
13
Break Out Session 1.5 Stevenson Building, Room 3082, Saturday, April 17, 2010
A multimedia documentary
Kababaihan: Conversations with Women Community Leaders by Diana Diroy and
Aisha Heredia
With over 80% of the country living off of less than US$2 a day, and with a
government that has been complacent with over 1000 extrajudicial killings, being a
critical, outspoken community organizer in the Philippines is a lifestyle of struggle
— a life of poverty and impending peril.
Kababaihan, meaning amongst the women, is a conversation that ventures to
illuminate the spirit of bold women in marginalized Pilipino communities. The
narratives presented rise from three areas: the ignored urban shanty-towns of
Baseco in Metro Manila, the indigenous mining communities of the Cordillera
Mountain Region in Northern Luzon, and the war-ravaged, highly militarized zone
of Sulu, in Mindanao. Celebrate how indigenous women community leaders hold it
up when it all comes down! They are educators, miners, daughters, wives, mothers
– pillars of support for their families while fighting to progress their communities.
In order to go forward, one must know their past. Diana Diroy is a freelance
photographer and multi-media producer with a solidarity with Pilipino social justice
issues. She will continue her love for visual storytelling as she pursues her Masters
Degree in Media Studies at The New School in New York this upcoming Fall.
Aisha Heredia stands on the backs of her foremothers! Born in Quezon City, raised
California, and currently intertwined with the San Francisco Bay Area, everything
Aisha creates reflects her passion for narrative and solidarity with diasporic
communities. With a BA in Development Studies from the University of California
at Berkeley, with an emphasis on Philippine sustainable development, Aisha now
works as an Education Research Analyst for SRI International.
Lunch

Keynote Plenary 2
• Katrin de Guia, KAPWA Psychology and the Babaylan Tradition
1:45-2:00 Break - proceed to Salazar Building
2:00 - 3:30
BREAK OUT SESSION TWO
DECOLONIZING THE BODY
• Tera Maxwell, "Implications of the Babaylan Movement on Decolonization"
• Lily Mendoza, "Babaylan Body Memory and Neo-liberal Savagery: Whence the
Diaspora?"
• Joi Barrios, "The Persistent Activist Body: Women Channeling the Babaylan
Spirit Amidst Militarization and Militarism in the Philippines"
• Implications of the Babaylan Movement on Decolonization, Tera Maxwell
It is not so much what happens to us that matters, but the stories we tell about
what happened. Such stories become truth, to be manifested in reality. Words,
language, and stories have the power to shift energy, and literally, to shift reality. As
14
Program Schedule
the babaylan movement grows and energy healing evolves in the West, the very
rhetoric of colonial trauma and decolonization may lose its venom.
Tera Maxwell is a Ph.D. candidate at the English department, University of Texas at
Austin.
• Babaylan Body Memory and Neo-liberal Savagery: Whence the Diaspora?,

S. Lily Mendoza
This narration tells of a journey out of patriarchal and colonial subjection, and
the long and arduous trek back toward healing, wholeness, and (still longed-for)
homecoming. The way through is marked by entry into the sacred wounding of
intimate betrayal, bodily resistance, and the recovery of community and indigenous
wisdom. The Filipino babaylan, as her archetype in other cultures also suggests, is
invariably a Wounded Healer.
S. Lily Mendoza is Associate Professor of Culture and Communication at Oakland
University in Rochester, Michigan. Her interests include cultural politics in national,
post- and trans- national contexts, and discourses of indigenization, race, and
ethnicity. She is the author of Between the Homeland and the Diaspora: The Politics
of Theorizing Filipino and Filipino American Identities.
• The Persistent Activist Body: Women Channeling the Babaylan Spirit Amidst
Militarization and Militarism in the Philippines, Joi Barrios
Activists’ bodies are disciplined through violation of the body, humiliation, forced
servitude, and the threat to life, yet a “persistent activist” chooses to continue
her involvement in the national democratic movement. How is the performance
of activism ritualized? How is the body transformed as it persists? What links
the contemporary Filipina woman activist to the babaylan rather than the radical
feminist of the West?
Joi Barrios is a poet and an activist. She earned a Ph.D. in Filipino and Philippine
Literature at the University of the Philippines, where she subsequently held a
position as Associate Professor. She has also taught at the University of Michigan,
UCLA, UC-Irvine, and UC-Berkeley.
BAYBAYIN in the DIASPORA
• Baybayin Revival in the U.S., Mary Ann Ubaldo, Christian Cabuay, Perla Daly,
Christine Balza. Moderator: Letecia Layson.
Baybayin is the pre-colonial writing system of the Philippines, and was used for
short messages – similar to text messaging. Its usage dwindled when the Filipino
intellectuals during Rizal’s time started using the Western alphabet to write down
Tagalog. In this roundtable discussion, explore baybayin through the contexts of
history, Filipino identity, artistic expression, and spirituality.
Mary Ann Ubaldo is a photographer, musician, and community activist based
in New York City. She named her jewelry business Urduja after the mythical
Philippine princess whom she identifies as the first Filipina feminist. She frequently
uses nature and indigenous motifs in her customized babayin jewelry. For more
information, see Urduja.com.
15
Christian Cabuay has been writing babayin off and on for several years, beginning
in high school. After he received a tattoo which featured babayin, he posted photos
on his webpage, and now his site is very popular. He now has several sites:
PinoyTattoos.com, Baybayin.com, SickmanofAsia.com, and more!
Perla Daly is a mother and artist. She’s explored Filipino identity through designing
baybayin jewelry with Ubaldo, web publishing, online communities, meditations,
and through art and writings. She shares her findings of the 5 archetypes of the
babaylan at Babaylan.com. Among her recent works: the Baybayin Alive blog and
the Babaylan Mandala. Other sites:NewFilipina.com, Pakikipagkapwa.net, & more.
Christine Balza lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and four
kids. She finds Inner Balance as she expresses herself through clay, precious metal
and mixed media. Adding baybayin script to her work has given it a life of its own.
Her pendants can be found online at www.suku-art.com, as well as in local Bay
Area stores.
Letecia Layson is a Filipina, Feminist, Futurist, and Priestess. She was the
recipient of the 2003 Catherine Wright Award for Equality and Justice in Alternative
Spiritual Awareness by Feas2t. She is a Co-Director of the Center for Babaylan
Studies.
HIP-HOP AS TRICKSTER: LINKS TO BABAYLAN TRADITION
• Ellen Rae Cachola and Lorenzo Perillo, "Decolonizing the Record: Articulation
of Knowledge in Militarized Asia-Pacific"
• James Perkinson, "DJ Qbert as Cyber-Maniac Shaman: What does Hip-hop
Tricksterism Have to do with Traditional Babaylanism?"
• Decolonizing the Record: Articulation of Knowledge in Militarized Asia-
Pacific, Ellen-Rae Cachola and Lorenzo Perillo
Although the “official” history of archiving in the Pacific is grounded in the U.S.
and European colonialist projects, what are the ways that demilitarization and
decolonization movements in these islands document their histories and current
actions? Wielding the tools of hip-hop cultural production, particularly choreographic
movement and spoken word, the presenters seek to address the political issues
inherent in the dominant archives of the Pacific Rim. The presentation will open and
close with spoken word storytelling on the praxis of designing information systems
with women’s movements in Hawaii, Guam and the Philippines.
Ellen-Rae Cachola is a Doctoral student at the Information Studies department
at UCLA. Her research focuses on the roles that archives played in colonial
developments across Asia-Pacific countries and how they shape present-day
discourses of security. Her ideas are influenced by her experiences as a digital
archivist at the I-Hotel, and Manilatown Center.
Lorenzo “Lozo” Perillo is a second-generation Filipino American born in Honolulu.
Lozo earned his M.A. in American Studies and International Cultural Studies at the
University of Hawai‘i, Manoa in 2007. Lozo currently pursues a doctorate in Culture
and Performance with a concentration in both Dance Studies and Asian American
Studies at UCLA.
• DJ Qbert as Cyber-Maniac Shaman: What does Hip-Hop Tricksterism have to

do with Traditional Babaylanism?, James Perkinson
Filipino-American DJ Qbert emerged in the early 1990s as hip-hop’s premier
turntablist. To the degree oppression yields a daily round of violent compression-
-too much energy in too constrained a body locked into too small a space without
the requisite words for release—scratching becomes a code of contestation and
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Program Schedule
ecstasy allowing glimpse of another world. Transcoded for a changed historical

situation, scratch innovation is postcolonial babaylanism.
James W. Perkinson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Systematic Theology
at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of
White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity and Shamanism, Racism, and
Hip-Hop Culture: Essays on White Supremacy and Black Subversion.
FOOD, RITUAL AND HEALING
• Sarap sa Puso: Nurturing the Spirit: An Exploration of Food, Ritual, and

Healing, Kay Barrett, Margarita Garcia, Karen Villanueva
Our nourishment is a means of individual and collective cultural survival and
in essence, our very healing. In this ritual performance dinner, the meal will be
comprised of courses that navigate through the Pilipino palette of bitter, sour, hot,
salty, sweet, and link each one with our history and heritage. Ritual, performance,
poetry and song will be integrated into each course of the meal.
Kay Ulanday Barrett is a poet, performer, educator, and martial artist navigating
life with struggle, resistance, and laughter as a pin@y-amerikan trans/queer in the
U.S. Currently based in NY/NJ, with hometown roots in Chicago, her work is the
perfect mix of gritty city flex and Midwest open sky grounded in homeland soil and
ancestor stories. See www.kaybarrett.net.
Margarita Garcia is a Babaylan-inspired artist from the south side of Chicago,
who majored in the history of liberation at Brown University. She won a Fulbright in
Fine Arts to the Philippines, and spent a year immersing in indigenous practice and
art in Batanes, Palawan and Mindanao with the Ivatan, Tagbanua and Tala-andig
communities. She is currently based in New York City.
Karen Muktayani Villanueva graduated from Humboldt State University with a
major in Nursing and a minor in Studio Art. She is a skilled nurse and healer, and
her current studies include language, anthroposophy, sikolohiyang Pilipino, homa
therapy, and reiki. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Transformative
Change, based in Oakland, California.
3:30-3:45 Break
3:45 - 5:15 Salazar Building
BREAK OUT SESSION THREE
• Venus Herbito, "Re-igniting The Soul Light of The Ancestors: Healing, Video &
The Whole Mind"
• Frances Santiago, "Indigenous Mind, Sacred Body: Healing through Dance,
Ritual and Story"
• Jana Umipig, "The Journey of a Brown Girl"
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• Re-igniting the Soul Light of the Ancestors: Healing, Video & the Whole Mind,
Venus Herbito
Film, music, and photography will be integrated to tell the presenter’s story of
coming to wholeness as a Bikolana-Sugbuana raised in the United States. Themes
include recovering one’s indigenous mind through reconnecting with the land
and water spirits of the Motherland, and “indige-tech” or the use of modern-day
communication tools to reconnect with one’s ancestors.
Venus Cerdon Herbito earned a Master’s degree in Indigenous Mind from Naropa
University. She is a researcher and videographer for the Worldwide Indigenous
Science Network, a non-profit based in Hawai’i dedicated to the revitalization and
exchange of traditional knowledge globally. She researches Bikol and Cebuano
healing traditions, and teaches digital storytelling at Wisdom University.
• Indigenous Mind, Sacred Body: Healing through Dance, Ritual, and Story,
Frances Santiago
Stories are not just stories. They are markers of compassion for healing the
disconnect, the rift of soul from its Knowingness. Scattered like seed in time and
space by the Ancient Ones, we are meant to seek them out and find them, to our
nourishment and healing. This particular story being shared is the presenter’s return
home to her indigenous mind and sacred body, spurred on by a dance, a ritual, a
ceremonial fire, and a tribe.
Frances Iyagan Santiago, born and raised in the Philippines, is a poet and dancer
inspired by tribal cultures of her homeland. She is pursuing her Master’s degree in
Indigenous Mind through Alaska Pacific University, and currently trains in Hawai’i
with the Worldwide Indigenous Science Network.
• The Journey of a Brown Girl, Jana Umipig

This performance piece is a look at the Pinay and her impact on the Pilipino
community as a Teacher, a Healer, a Warrior, a Sage and High Priestess,
recognizing the great importance that womyn play in creating and sustaining
strength in our community and culture. This work of art is intended to beautify,
glorify and dignify Pinays of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Jana Lynne Umipig is a graduate of UC Irvine with a degree in Theatre and Asian
American Studies. She is completing her graduate studies at New York University,
Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development, Educational
Theatre in Colleges and Communities.
THE ROLE OF EXPRESSIVE ARTS
• Mila Anguluan Coger, "The Babaylan Spirit in Diaspora: Indigenous
Empowerment through Expressive Arts"
• Lizae Reyes, "Playing the Harp, Connecting with the Babaylan Spirit"
• The Babaylan Spirit in Diaspora: Indigenous Empowerment through
Expressive Arts, Mila Anguluan Coger
There is a growing need among Filipino Americans and fellow indigenes
(indigenous persons) in the U.S. for an expression of distinctive indigene identity,
inspired by the babaylan legacy. The goal of this presentation is to come up with
an empowered imaginative collective or kapwa response through the use of the
expressive arts. This response will reaffirm the babaylan-inspired group’s integral
role in diaspora history, and bring about healing to the indigenous self.
Mila Anguluan Coger is Program Director at Silver Lake Adult Day Health Care
Center in Los Angeles, and a doctoral student in the Expressive Arts Therapies
Program at Lesley University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. This presentation
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Program Schedule
springs from her experience as a drama therapist, social worker and expressive
arts therapist among minorities and people of color, especially among Filipino
Americans.
• Playing the Harp, Connecting with the Babaylan Spirit, Lizae Reyes
In her music healing practice, this presenter engages in ritual, invoking Ancestral
spirits and chanting, before playing the harp at the bedside of the ill, the injured,
and the dying. Reclaiming her Filipino, indigenous shamanic healing work has
transformed the core of her practice in present modern-day Western society. In
addition to discussing the major music elements of music healing, “entrainment” will
be discussed as a basis for communication, restoration and harmony.
Lizae Reyes is a performer, an early childhood educator, and a certified Sound &
Music Healing Practitioner based in Oakland, California. Her passage into the world
of music and healing started at a very young age in the Philippines, witnessing
her father’s gift of music as a doctor in a medical setting. She is a graduate of the
Sound Healing Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
STORY AS MEDICINE
• Meldy Hernandez, Mylene Cahambing, "Tell, Heal: Storytelling for your
Health"
• Isabelita Papa, "From the Sacred Cave of Palawan: On Becoming a Qi Gong
Healer"
• Marcella Pabros, "Healing Mars: My Journey to Body-Mind-Spirit Wholeness"
• Potri Ranka Manis, "Magbubulong: Journey of a Healer and Culture Bearer"
• Tell, Heal: Storytelling for your Health, Meldy Hernandez and Mylene
Cahambing
Sharing health stories (any event related to our body, mind, and soul) can be an
effective way to find meaning and achieve positive health. We all have a health
story to share. This joyful, active workshop led by two passionate Filipina nurses will
use movement and storytelling to facilitate healing within our community – because
it is good for everybody’s health.
Meldy Hernandez, MPH, is a public health nurse/artist. Born in the Philippines and
raised in Long Beach, California, she uses her experience in international maternal/
child nursing along with her passion for dance, theater, and poetry to create and
elevate the role of creative arts in public health. Find out more at
http://meldyhernandez.sfsu.efolioworld.com/
Mylene Amoguis Cahambing, BSN, MPH, PHN (Public Health Nurse) is a music
lover described by choreographer friends as a “health performer”. Mylene co-
conducted “The Spirit of Dance, Coping with Loss” mini-training for SFSU MPH
health educators. She graduated from SFSU’s Nursing and Masters in Public
Health Program. Check out http://mylenecahambing.sfsu.efolioworld.com/
• From the Sacred Cave of Palawan: On Becoming a Qi Gong Healer,

Isabelita Papa
There is a powerful presence of nature and life force energy which permeates the
Philippines, and this presenter will speak of the beauty, sacredness, and authentic
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spiritual experience that is possible and still exists in the Philippines. As an
indigenous healer and experienced Qigong instructor, she will demonstrate some
Qigong movements (self healing) to expel unwanted, stagnant energy, and will
demonstrate hands-on healing touch with prayers.
Isabelita Papa is a healer, a health coach, and a Qi Gong instructor. She received
Qi Gong Teacher’s Certification training in 1977, and has 35 years of experience in
the integration of mind, body, and spirit. She has conducted classes and workshops
throughout the greater Bay Area, and leads healing circles, Qigong workshops, and
classes throughout Northern California and Hawai’i.
• Healing Mars: My Journey to Body-Mind-Spirit Wholeness, Marcella Pabros-

Clark
A multi-media odyssey, blended with human drama and spiced with dance and
tongue-in-cheek comic bits, Healing Mars is underscored by the presenter’s battle
with RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis). It is a literal testament to the healing powers of
artistic/physiological expression and provides an opportunity for each viewer to
discover the healing power of his/her own voice.
Marcella Pabros-Clark is an American woman of Philippine descent, a daughter of
immigrant parents, born and raised in Oakland, California. She is also an uninsured
autoimmune disease sufferer using her art to expressively heal herself and to help
others. See www.healingmars.com
• Magbubulong: Journey of a Healer and Culture Bearer, Potri Ranka Manis

This is the autobiographical story of the journey and training, beginning at age five,
of the next Magbubulong (healer) of her tribe. Discussion will include scenarios
of healing in the local area and how this healing evolved and was performed in
foreign soil, particularly in diaspora. Also, there will be a discussion of how “colonial
mentality” has impeded self-healing.
Potri Ranka Manis, RN is the Founder and Artistic Director of Kinding Sindaw
Melayu Heritage dance theater, based in New York City. She is a Maranao tradition
and culture bearer from Borocot village, Maging, Mindanao, Philippines, which is
the 15th Pillar of the Pat Pangempong Ko Ranao.
QUEST FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE
• Annaliza Enrile, Ivy Quicho, Tracing Our Roots: Filipina Activism, Women
Who Dare to Struggle
• Tracing Our Roots: Filipina Activism, Women Who Dare to Struggle, Annaliza
Enrile, Ivy Quicho
This workshop will examine the roots of Filipina Empowerment starting with
Babaylanism, and further analyze how it was morphed, changed, and persisted
into the present day. The workshop will cover three main areas: Filipina heroine
archetypes; the “soul” of Filipina activism (what drives women into an activist
paradigm?); and finally, the expression of women as a form of activism.
Dr. Annalisa Enrile is an associate professor at the University of Southern
California School of Social Work. The focus of her research is women’s
empowerment. Dr. Enrile was National Chairperson of the Gabriela Network from
1999 to 2009, and is now working to establish the first Women of Color Resource
Center in Los Angeles, The Mariposa Center for Change.
Ivy Quicho, MSW is a first generation Filipina American, born in Canada. She is
the National Organizing Director for AF3IRM (Association of Filipinas, Feminists,
Fighting Imperialism, Refeudalization, and Marginalization)/Gabnet. Ivy is also a
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Program Schedule
co-founder of the Mariposa Center for Change in Los Angeles. She works as a
union organizer, and as a youth organizer.
5:15-6:45 Supper
• Return to Cooperage Plenary Hall and go to supper together
7:00-9:00 Warren Auditorium
Philippine Chanted Prayers and Intimations/Grace Nono
Sunday, April 18, 2010

• Coffee and Registration
Opening. talaandig Ritual

• Invitation to Reflect
• Introduction by Perla Daly, Co-Director, CFBS
Keynote Plenary 3
• Virgil Apostol, Healing, Shamanism, and Spirituality in the Amianan Tradi-
tions
10:00-10:15 Break - proceed to Salazar and Stevenson Buildings
10:15-11:45
Break Out Session Four, Sunday, April 18, 2010
Break Out Session 4.1 Salazar Building, Room 2020

• Jose Vergara, "Mary Magdalene and the Descendants of Pre-Christian
Priestesses in the Philippines"
• Jean Gier and Lama Choyin Rangdrol, "Babaylan and Buddhism: A
Conversation"
• James Perkinson, "Babaylanism as Post-Colonial Shamanism: Whence the
Diaspora?"
• Mary Magdalene and the Descendants of Pre-Christian Priestesses in the
Philippines, Jose Vergara
This presentation uncovers Mary Magdalene from an Asian-Filipino perspective.
Mr. Vergara has investigated the possible connections between the image of Mary
Magdalene and the preservation or revival of leadership among the descendants of
pre-Christian priestesses in the Philippines.
José Mág-isá Vergara migrated to Australia in 1975 from Bulacan, Philippines.
By profession he has taught math, information technology, science, and English.
21
He is a student of Theology, with a concentration on Biblical Studies and women
in the Bible, and he is working towards a Ph.D. at Australian Catholic University in
Melbourne.
• Babaylan and Buddhism: A Conversation, Jean Gier and Lama Choyin

Rangdrol
The presence and knowledge of the Babaylans and Buddhism in the Philippines
raises questions, desires, curiosity, excitement, and fears. How can the Babaylan
tradition be respected and protected in the course of dialogue with Christians,
Buddhists, Muslims, and the “big” religious traditions in general? How can Babaylan
values and practices enrich my experience as a Buddhist meditator? To what
extent are Buddhist values and practices (Vajrayana, for example) compatible with
Babaylan values and practices? What role can the artist play in creating a dialogue
between spiritual traditions? Between diasporic and homeland populations?
Jean Vengua Gier was born in the United States to parents who were born in the
Philippines. She was raised in Santa Cruz, and continues to live in the Monterey
Bay area. She is a poet, writer, editor, teacher, and social critic. A practicing
Buddhist, Jean offers questions and seeks answers on the intersection between the
babaylan practice, and Buddhism.
Lama Choyin Rangdrol is the only African American teacher of Buddhism
recognized by the First Conference of Tibetan Buddhist Centers in North and South
America. He studied under Khempo Yurmed Tinly Rinpoche. His earlier career
was as a licensed psychiatric technician and Drama Therapist. He maintains
international headquarters in Hawai’i.
• Babaylanism as Post-Colonial Shamanism: Whence the Diaspora?, James

Perkinson
This discussion will probe the usefulness of the contemporary fascination with
shamanism as spiritual remedy for what ails Western culture and religion, by
focusing on retrievals of an indigenously Filipino form of shamanic healing called
“babaylanism” by diasporic Filipinos and Filipino-Americans.
James W. Perkinson is an Associate Professor of Ethics and Systematic Theology
at the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He is the author of
White Theology: Outing Supremacy in Modernity and Shamanism, Racism, and
Hip-Hop Culture: Essays on White Supremacy and Black Subversion.
Break Out Session 4.2 Salazar Building, Room 2022, Sunday, April 18, 2010
Babaylan Practices in Our Schools
• "Babaylan-Babay-Pinayism: Creating Conterstorytelling, Counterteaching and
Counterspaces in Pin@y Educational Partnerships"
Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales and PEP Teachers
• Babaylan-Babay-Pinayism: Creating Counterstorytelling, Counterteaching
and Counterspaces in Pin@y Educational Partnerships, Allyson Tintiangco-
Cubales and PEP Teachers
This non-traditional panel/workshop that will share how Pin@y Educational
Partnerships (PEP) explores the historical, social, spiritual, and political worlds of
and intersections between Babaylans, Babaes, and Pinayism.
Dr. Allyson Tintiangco-Cubales is an associate professor of Asian American
Studies at SFSU’s College of Ethnic Studies, and a consultant with the SF Unified
School District. She is the founder and director of Pin@y Educational Partnerships.
PEP is a service learning program that has created a “partnership triangle” between
the university, public schools, and the community to develop a counter-pipeline
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Program Schedule
that produces critical educators and curriculum at all levels of education and in the
community. PEP’s partnership triangle includes: San Francisco State University’s
(SFSU) Asian American Studies (AAS), San Francisco public schools, the Filipino
Community Center (FCC), and the Filipino American Development Foundation
(FADF). Uniquely, our counter-pipeline implements a transformative decolonizing
curriculum and pedagogy with all grade levels including primary, middle, secondary,
and post-secondary students. As volunteer teachers of the program, graduate and
undergraduate SFSU students receive a unique opportunity to teach critical Filipina/
o American studies. They gain skills in the practice of critical pedagogy, curriculum
development, lesson planning, and teaching.
PEP presenters include
Arlene Daus-Magbual, PEP Associate Director of Program Development
Jocyl Sacramento, PEP Coordinator and Teacher at City College of San Francisco
Liza Gesuden, PEP Coodinator and Teacher at Burton High School
Grace Burns, PEP Teacher at Balboa High School
Angelica Posadas, PEP Coordinator and Teacher at Balboa High School
Katrina Evasco, PEP Teacher at Balboa High School
Edeline DeGuzman, PEP Coordinator and Teacher at Longfellow Elementary
Aileen Pagtakhan, PEP Storybook Illustrator
Mahalaya Tintiangco-Cubales, PEP Kindergarten Student and Babaylan Doll
Maker
Mandala Workshop
• "Centering Yourself Through Art: A Babaylan-Inspired Mandala Workshop."
By Ingrid Gonzales, Melissa Canlas, Jamie Manuel
• Centering Yourself Through Art: A Babaylan-Inspired Mandala Workshop,
Ingrid Gonzales, Melissa Canlas, Jamie Manuel
Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to create their own mandalas. A
mandala is a sacred symbol depicting the order of the universe and is a defined
sacred space. Mandalas are seen in the natural world — in flower petal patterns,
in the nautilus shell, and the crystal patterns of a snowflake. The objective of the
mandala art project is to give Filipino Americans and other conference attendees
the opportunity to use art and explore the concepts of completion and self-unity by
placing themselves in the center of our discourse and out from the margins.
Jamie Lou Manuel is an up-and-coming artist who came to San Francisco,
California from Laguna, Philippines at the age of eight. She has been drawing
cartoon and imaginative characters ever since she can remember. She trained at
the Academy of Art University of San Francisco, and has been influenced by City
College Asian American Women’s Studies classes.
23
Ingrid Gonzales-Padilla, Ed.D. is the founding instructor for SFSU’s Gaining Early
Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs (GEAR UP). Her research
and professional interests include Pilipino American student retention in higher
education, college readiness, education equity issues in urban schools, and school
and community partnership development.
Melissa Canlas, M.A. is a professor at City College of San Francisco, in the Asian
American Studies and Women’s Studies departments. Melissa’s work experience
reflects her commitment to social justice through education. She has worked in San
Francisco for over a decade as an advocate for underserved, first-generation bound
college students.
Break Out Session 4.4 Stevenson Building, Room 3082, Sunday, April 18, 2010
Kulintang Music Workshop
• "Learning Dance and Music from the Maguindanao, Maranao and Tausug
Cultures of Mindanao, Southern Philippines." DIWA Kulintang Workshop.
Plus a brief introduction to the music of the Kalinga people of the Cordillera
of the Northern Philippines.
• Kulintang Workshop: Learning Dance and Music from the Maguindanao,
Maranao and Tausug Cultures of Mindanao, Southern Philippines, members of
DIWA
This performance and interactive music and dance workshop will focus on the
traditional dances of the Maguindanao, Maranao, and Tausug cultures of Mindanao
Island. If time permits, the workshop will end with an introduction to the indigenous
music and dance of the Kalinga people of the Pasil region, Kalinga province,
Northern Philippines.
DIWA is a San Francisco-based music and dance ensemble which specializes in
traditional and indigenous music of the Philippines.
Jocelyne A. Ampón is a perpetual student of several art forms but finds peace
within music. She was a teaching assistant in kulintang music and dance for
several years at San Francisco State University, where she studied Journalism and
Psychology. Jocelyne is an eco-conscious floral design artist in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
Patricia Aquino is a doctoral candidate in Clinical Psychology, and also an intern at
Santa Clara University Counseling and Psychological Services where she provides
therapy and training with an emphasis on theoretical integration, narrative therapy
and social justice. An accomplished musician, she is pleased to be a member of
Diwa.
Titania Buchholdt is an experienced student, teacher, traveler, and performer.
She has worked with the Kalinga of the northern Philippines, and the Maguindanao
of the southern Philippines. She is a senior member of the Palabuniyan Kulintang
Ensemble and the Glide Ensemble, and of Diwa, all based in San Francisco.
Caroline Cabading is a professional musician, dancer, and arts educator, and has
conducted music and dance workshops throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. In
addition to directing Diwa, she performs in the San Francisco-based Palabuniyan
Kulintang Ensemble. She has also performed with the Jaipongan dance group
Harsanari.
Holly Calica is a visual artist, art teacher, dancer, music student, cultural worker,
mother and grandmother. A recipient of the Fulbright-Hays and Fund for Teachers
Fellowships, Holly has conducted arts and cultural research in the Philippines. She
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Program Schedule
salutes her teachers, especially Master Danongan Kalanduyan and Mestre Carlos
Aceituno.
Sarita Ocón is a professional actor, artist, and educator. Theatrical credits include
performances with Bindlestiff Studio, Hybrid Performance Experiment collective
(HyPE), Playwrights Foundation, ShadowLight Productions Teatro Visión, Stanford
Summer Theater, and the Institute for Diversity in the Arts at Stanford University.
Fleurdeliza Rabara enjoys all traditional music and dance of her parents’ province
of Kalinga, in the Cordillera Region of Luzon. Her interest in kulintang began with
lessons at the Pusod Center in Berkeley. Fleurdeliza participated in the 2008
Pistahan Parade in San Francisco, on the award winning float of the Palabuniyan
Kulintang Ensemble.
Patrick Tamayo has performed and studied kulintang music since 1993, with
kulintang master Danongan Kalanduyan as well as with Dr. Usopay Cadar. As a
long-time Sagayan dancer, he hopes to inspire light in one’s life through dance and
music.
Storytelling Workshop
• "Babaylan-Inspired Healing Art: Tracing HER Stories in HIStory"
Sheryl Torres and Lucille Karen Malilong-Isberto
• Babaylan-Inspired Healing Art: Tracing HER Stories in HIStory, Sheryl Torres
and Lucille Karen Malilong-Isberto
• Reclaiming the stories of healing by the babaylan is a monumental project. Her
subjugation by the colonizers translated to her being absent in official history. This
travelling multi-sensory exhibition is an invitation for Filipinos to tell their stories
and the accounts that they have heard from their ancestors as a way to reclaim the
babaylan’s forgotten stories. By gathering seemingly unrelated threads, we might be
able to weave a new collective tapestry and find answers to these questions: Who
was the babaylan? Where was the babaylan across various periods in Philippine
history? Where is the babaylan now? Is the babaylan still relevant today?
Sheryll “Eryl” C. Torres is an art curator, an art director, and an arts instructor
with a background in theater arts and photography. She graduated from UP-Diliman
with a degree in Art Studies, and is now working towards a Masters degree in Art
Studies with an emphasis in Philippine Art History.
Lucille Karen “Kay” Malilong-Isberto is a consulting attorney, a columnist, and
a mother. She is currently working towards a Masters degree in Art History at
UP-Diliman. Her recent publications include Instilling Pride of Place: The Cebu
Heritage Caravan Experience and Romancing the Past: A Review of Laws and
Jurisprudence on Built Heritage in the Philippines.
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Program Schedule
Sunday, April 18, 2010 (LAST PAGE OF SCHEDULE)

11:45-12:00 Break, proceed to Cooperage/Plenary Hall
• Lunch
• Bathala Meditations
BookLaunch
• Babaylan: Filipinos and the Call of the Indigenous
2:00-3:00 Cooperage
Dreamtime Circles: Wisdom from the Deep Well of
Memory Into the Future.
Letecia Layson, Ritual Coordinator, Co-Director, CFBS
3:00-4:00 Cooperage
Synthesis and Closing Ritual
27
Congratulations to the First
International Babaylan Conference.
Greetings from Peng Pinlac & Family
Dana Point, CA
Greetings & Congratulations to the

Center for Babaylan Studies.
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Warmest Greetings & Congratulations
to the 1st International
Babaylan Conference.
From: Christine Ugalde-Pineda, Social Services
Silver Lake Adult Day Health Care Center
In Honor of my Mother, Esperanza Luna Mendoza
Inspiration, Guide, Teacher,

Creative Artist, Gentle Warrior,
Mother of Multitudes Who bear
the mark of her Babaylan Spirit
31
Our best wishes to a
successful Babaylan
International Conference!
In memory of my mother
Milagros Lim Santillan,
our Healer ...
Your daughter Monette Santillan-Rivera
---message from a sponsor
32
Donors ($200+)
Barreras, Marisza and Family
Decena, Agnes - D.M.D.
Helfand, Judy
Megino, Elizabeth
Navarro, Jennifer
North Bay Int’l Studies
Organic Chef Catering
Pennrich, Karen & Randy
Reyes, Lizae
Sonoma State University Office of the President
Sonoma State University School of Arts &Humanities
Temple of Isis/LA
And thank you to all our many

other supporters who lovingly
donated out-of-pocket and
of their time and talents.
33
Many Thanks to
Our Media Sponsors
ABS-CBN
APEX Express, KPFA Radio
Asian Journal Press
Fil-Am Nation
KPFK Radio
KRCB
The North Bay Bohemian
Philippine News
Philippine Planet
Press Democrat
34
35
The Babaylan Mandala I.I
Fine Art Print Series
“The golden mandala has baybayin and other symbols of life, the elements, cosmos and more. Even
the numbers of rings and symbols have meanings. Baybayin symbols helped this mandala come alive
for me as I created it and has given this artwork deep meaning for me as a Filipino. I believe in the
beauty of the Filipino people, and that as we decolonize we reclaim our inner gold.” --- the artist
Order yours at the First International Babaylan Conference 2010.
Or Order Your Fine Art Print Online
www.babaylan.net/babaylanmandala.html
(A fundraising effort for the Center for Babaylan Studies)

$3
For more information, please visit us at www.babaylan.net
Conference Logo courtesy of Margarita Garcia
The Center for Babaylan Studies is an activity of the IHCenter, a nonprofit

public charity exempt from federal income tax under Section 501[c](3) of
the International Revenue Code.

Honoring Filipino Indigenous Traditions: The First International Babaylan Conference

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Reclaiming the Now: The Babaylan Is Us

Come. Learn. Remember. Honor.

WELCOME TO THE FIRST INTERNATIONAL

On behalf of the women and men volunteers of the Center for

Leny Mendoza Strobel, Ed.D.,

Visit www.babaylan.net for more information.

North Bay International

SSU Office of the President

SSU School of Arts &Humanities

2114 Trudie Drive

We have blazed the trail in

2010 marks our 26th year of service

8:45 - 9:00 Cooperage

• Singing Praises to God, Country, and Rizal, Michael Gonzalez

• Filipino Tattoos: Sacred Symbols and their Spiritual Connection,

• Merlinda Bobis: Between the Postcolonial Exotic and the Babaylan/Catalonan,

• A History of the Body: Against Erasure, Aimee Suzara

• My Journey Towards Philippine Indigenous Spirituality, Bing Aradanas

• Living in My Own Truth: Invoking the Babaylan Spirit, Cynthia Arias

12:45 - 1:45 Cooperage

• Babaylan Body Memory and Neo-liberal Savagery: Whence the Diaspora?,

• DJ Qbert as Cyber-Maniac Shaman: What does Hip-Hop Tricksterism have to

ecstasy allowing glimpse of another world. Transcoded for a changed historical

• Sarap sa Puso: Nurturing the Spirit: An Exploration of Food, Ritual, and

• The Journey of a Brown Girl, Jana Umipig

• From the Sacred Cave of Palawan: On Becoming a Qi Gong Healer,

• Healing Mars: My Journey to Body-Mind-Spirit Wholeness, Marcella Pabros-

• Magbubulong: Journey of a Healer and Culture Bearer, Potri Ranka Manis

Sunday, April 18, 2010

8:45 - 9:00 Cooperage

Break Out Session 4.1 Salazar Building, Room 2020

• Babaylan and Buddhism: A Conversation, Jean Gier and Lama Choyin

• Babaylanism as Post-Colonial Shamanism: Whence the Diaspora?, James

Sunday, April 18, 2010 (LAST PAGE OF SCHEDULE)

Greetings & Congratulations to the

4309 White Lane Bakersfield, CA 93309

Receptive Tour & Travel Operator Specialize for

In Honor of my Mother, Esperanza Luna Mendoza

Inspiration, Guide, Teacher,

Your daughter Monette Santillan-Rivera

---message from a sponsor

And thank you to all our many

Order yours at the First International Babaylan Conference 2010.

Or Order Your Fine Art Print Online

(A fundraising effort for the Center for Babaylan Studies)

Conference Logo courtesy of Margarita Garcia

The Center for Babaylan Studies is an activity of the IHCenter, a nonprofit

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