BABAYLAN: FILIPINOS AND THE CALL OF THE INDIGENOUS, a much awaited anthology about the Babaylan tradition, will be launched at the First International Conference to be held at Sonoma State University on April 17-18, 2010. This book has been years in the making and is the first of its kind to integrate research about primary babaylans in the Philippines; research about Kapwa psychology and the babaylan tradition; and narratives of decolonization and indigenization by Filipinos in the diaspora.
Included in this book are prominent voices who have been researching and writing about the Babaylan tradition like Sister Mary John Mananzan, Katrin de Guia, Agnes Miclat Cacayan and Tess Obusan from the Philippines. Among the writers from the diaspora are Ceres Pioquinto, Tera Maxwell, Venus Herbito, Eileen Tabios, Michelle Bautista, Maiana Minahal, Karen Villanueva, Trisha Agbulos Cabeje, Marjorie Light, Girlie Villariba and Charito Basa.
This book was conceived by its editor, Leny Mendoza Strobel, who has previously published a book on the process of decolonization among post-1965 Filipino Americans (Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans, Giraffe Books, 2001). In 2005 a creative non-fiction book followed — A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan (Tiboli Books). This new Babaylan book is described as an offering of insight and wisdom gleaned from the writers’ engagement with the Babaylan tradition. It is a meditation on the question of how to heal from the psychic and epistemic violence of colonial encounters through the embodiment of the spirit of the Babaylan. It celebrates the many spaces where Filipinos are creating works of Beauty inspired by their reconnection to Filipino indigenous roots. It is a container for transnational conversations that have been going on for decades between Filipinos in the homeland and in the diaspora; the common theme of the conversations have always been about our need to feel whole (Kabuuan ng Loob) and the need to strengthen and deepen our indigenous roots as Filipinos.
(More information HERE.)
Included in this book are prominent voices who have been researching and writing about the Babaylan tradition like Sister Mary John Mananzan, Katrin de Guia, Agnes Miclat Cacayan and Tess Obusan from the Philippines. Among the writers from the diaspora are Ceres Pioquinto, Tera Maxwell, Venus Herbito, Eileen Tabios, Michelle Bautista, Maiana Minahal, Karen Villanueva, Trisha Agbulos Cabeje, Marjorie Light, Girlie Villariba and Charito Basa.
This book was conceived by its editor, Leny Mendoza Strobel, who has previously published a book on the process of decolonization among post-1965 Filipino Americans (Coming Full Circle: The Process of Decolonization Among Post-1965 Filipino Americans, Giraffe Books, 2001). In 2005 a creative non-fiction book followed — A Book of Her Own: Words and Images to Honor the Babaylan (Tiboli Books). This new Babaylan book is described as an offering of insight and wisdom gleaned from the writers’ engagement with the Babaylan tradition. It is a meditation on the question of how to heal from the psychic and epistemic violence of colonial encounters through the embodiment of the spirit of the Babaylan. It celebrates the many spaces where Filipinos are creating works of Beauty inspired by their reconnection to Filipino indigenous roots. It is a container for transnational conversations that have been going on for decades between Filipinos in the homeland and in the diaspora; the common theme of the conversations have always been about our need to feel whole (Kabuuan ng Loob) and the need to strengthen and deepen our indigenous roots as Filipinos.
(More information HERE.)
