Bisaya Banter Vivien and Keziah

In this special episode, we commemorate Philippine Independence Day by delving into our complex colonial history. Join us as we reflect on a poignant quote by national hero Jose Rizal about losing our culture during Spanish colonisation. We also take you to the Philippine Independence Day event in Auckland, where we conducted a lively vox pop. Listen in as attendees share what this celebration means to them and test their knowledge with some fun questions about Philippine history. Celebrate with us, in hopes this helps deepen your understanding of this significant day in Filipino heritage.

Get to know your hosts, Vivien and Keziah, better.

Chachie Abara, founder of KasamahanCo community, talks about her journey of decolonization. We also talk more about toxic Filipino culture, setting boundaries and rest.

I had such a great conversation with my friend, Hera Nalam. She is an interdisciplinary artist based in Canada. This means she writes music, sings and dance, and acts in theatre in film. We talk about her own journey of decolonization and what it's like to navigate Filipino representation in a mostly-white media industry. If there's one common denominator in all my private and podcast conversations about decolonizing, it's about how white beauty is upheld in mainstream media. This has influenced our desires to attain and adhere to white beauty. The lack of BIPOC representation meant that we have always felt our skin and beauty as inferior. This is why the an episode about representation is really important.

Esther is Ilokano on her father's side and Igorot on her mother's side. Her family moved to Aotearoa (New Zealand) when she was only 11 years old. She talks about her first racist memory in Year (Grade) 7. That moment started her cultural identity crisis. How she wished she was born White Kiwi, and not Filipino. We talked about the sacrifices of immigrant parents, her rich Igorot (Indigenous) Ancestry, how the Maori culture has helped us journey our own cultural identity and how fully embracing being Filipino helped her embrace being Kiwi, too. 

Marc shares his story about growing up in the apartheid regime in South Africa, his own experience in racism and his thoughts on how we can all move forward.