From Travels to Work to Travels: A Circle

Trying to work on curriculum after my US states tour of the last six months...but I always return in my mind to the Philippines & that's how I spent the last week--planning for the "Indigenizing the Curriculum" workshop I'll be presenting with Titania Buchholdt & Luanda Wesley at the Kapwa Conference 2009 at San Francisco State University.....

&&& now my dilemma--being computer illiterate, I can't seem to get this Wordle.net app to work for my presentation...I think it's a Java thing, but nothing seems to work, so here I'm testing to imbed it in this blog.... HERE GOES.... WILL IT WORK OR NOT.... WE'LL SEE....if you click below, you'll see excerpts of what Datu Vic taught me in Iloilo...in poster form (credit for the word bubble= http://www.wordle.net)

title="Wordle: Sacred_Bridge1"> src="http://www.wordle.net/thumb/wrdl/971880/Sacred_Bridge1"
alt="Wordle: Sacred_Bridge1"
style="padding:4px;border:1px solid #ddd">

...SO AS YOU CAN SEE, THE EMBEDDING WORKS (kind of--would rather have seen the actual word bubble in this blog) &&& IF YOU WANT TO TRY IT & TELL ME HOW TO CAPTURE IT FOR POSTER HARDCOPY OR POWERPOINT PRESENTATION, then cool....

Springtime Sabbatical, 2009

Being on the road & visiting friends and family hasn't given me much time to post to a blog. I've spent time in the following states: New Mexico, Hawaii, Tennessee & Indiana & of course, my home state of California. It's been an adventure discovering the United States, which often don't seem so united, especially among its people. Californians take diversity for granted--something not so typical when visiting my sister to celebrate her graduation from Indiana University Northwest in Gary, Indiana. A friend of hers commented that her graduation party was diverse--not only in colors, but by size. This was something I realized while traveling in Tennessee & Indiana. It's almost like the norm is for there to be lots of obese people. The American diet sucks & I learned a lot reading, "In Defense of Food," while flying to Nashville, Tennessee.

My experience? I lost weight in Hawaii & California only to regain in it Tennessee & Indiana. The American Diet sucks! In any case, that was one of the things I learned about on my adventure in the states-- HEALTH COUNTS!!! In June I go to DC & NYC with Sandino, Shy, Angie, Adrian & Aja--the others are working... that trip will add to my "US" trips.

What's Important

Although this sunset was taken in Hawaii, the photo symbolizes the beauty of a day. That beauty stays in our memory even after the day is over and night has fallen.

Just like day & night, so is life & death.

This image is dedicated to the families of Shy's Grandmother and Tio Diego. May the beauty of the lives they shared stay forever imprinted in our minds and hearts.

Travel & Taxes....2009

I really am on sabbatical... When I went to Hawaii for a month, I decided to really give myself a break, to really get the R & R I needed... Congolese Dance Camp was off the hook, visiting Mary in Oahu was so nice-- a mehnina treat!!! hanging in Kuai with Renee, Rick, Sulema & Mary was the ultimate rest in paradise, visiting the Ponce's in Ewa Beach was a fun family gathering, twin babies the main highlight! & catching up with the Taniguchi's & Canions of Hilo, Big Island was a great time to remember & the island vibe there was the one I liked the most!!!!

I guess I'll post a few photos AFTER I GET MY TAXES DONE!!!!


(ugh)

Of Course, another Taos Sunset

Thought I wouldn't put up another sunset shot??? I really enjoyed myself with Cynthia in Taos, but returned to Santa Fe first, then to Albuquerque & the spent last two days driving around in northern New Mexico with my compadre... great to go back to Taos....

My Relatives in Albuquerque

For the past several days I have been visiting with the family members of the Simoy & Naty Lopez clan here in Albuquerque.... It's been great funny talking with the cousins & seeing Auntie Naty, who still looks fabulous. I'm posting pics so my ma can see her relatives & ask me ten million questions about who is who....of the children, four from the family settled in New Mexico...these photos are at Stan's house. I'm lovin' it @ Carlos & Florence's place, where Florence & I are really bonding!!! Hurray, COUSIN BONDING!!!

Checking out the Art of Fritz Scholder, Robert Rivera & Georgia O'Keefe

Cynthia returned to work today, so I hitched a ride to Santa Fe & went walking around looking at art. On the walk to the plaza, there was a Bataan War Memorial with names of the places where WWII veterans came from. You know the Indians were fighting! Down the block there's another memorial for the Indian fighters at the plaza....you know that sucks & it makes me think of the massacre at Taos Pueblo. It sucks how the land was taken...okay, back to art.

After checking out the indigenous artists from the surrounding pueblos at the Governor's Plaza--another side track--my friend tells me that the Indian artists had to fight to keep their spots at the Plaza. A woman there told me they arrive early at 8 am for a lottery ticket for a spot that's probably only 4' X4' against the one wall... kind of amazing considering all the galleries surrounding it are very upscale...it's like Sausalito in the desert, but bigger... I don't remember it being so big. Santa Fe has changed a lot. It doesn't have the same feel as I remember when I first came out here the first time.

Oh yeah, the ART! Next stop was the Institute of American Indian Arts--lots of contemporary art & I really liked it! The curator had his own show & it's too bad I already ate because they had a huge spread--I only had water, not even a glass of wine. The piece that stood out for me was a beaded mixed media piece with messages like: Drink the water, it's toxic (sorry, my short term memory might have gotten that wrong...) but it was cool to see the Indian beading tradition with messages about how rotten we have treated the earth. I thought it was powerful!

What I loved in the show was: Fritz Scholder: An Intimate Look...here's a link to some of his work below:

http://www.scholder.com/scholder_bio.html

The website is okay, but the show was excellent! I loved his prints & paintings & it made me feel like I really need to start printmaking again... or at least do some more paintings... hey, someone pinch me when I get home so I can get off my FAT...

I next went to the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, which was cool because you can see paintings that are not necessarily published most of the books I've seen. The show there was: Modernists in New Mexico: Works from a Private Collector. Got to see a good John Marin & Stuart Davis, so I guess that was worth it...& best of all--it was a free Friday event...the art patrons started really rolling in after 5pm.

http://www.okeeffemuseum.org/home.aspx


I missed looking closely at the other work I wanted to see which was gourd art work by Robert Rivera & it was astounding... another hit... go to these gallery websites for a peek:

http://www.torresgallery.com/
http://www.toh-atin.com/artist/rivera-robert

Anyways, the area is very developed now, doesn't have the feel it used to, but there's lots of art to see &&& if you miss the native artists at the plaza or at the pueblos, one artist told me they sometimes sell at the gas stations....

Picuris Pueblo

Yesterday Cynthia and I spent an with Grandma Ann of the Picuris Pueblo...loved it. I only intended to walk her down the muddy road to get back to her house from the luncheon the Senior Center served each day for its elders...her knees were obviously really bad as I watched her hold the walls of the building to make her way to the steps to the road. Holding hands, we walked through the mud, wet from the snow that had fallen the day before. Then, at her house she invited us in and we spent some time listening to her wonderful stories of her family, her life, her husband (who she missed afte r8 years) and putting wood into her fire. Great times! She invited us back for their run and dance celebrations in August. Then we lunched in Penasco (I had yummy chile relleno & loved the honey soaked sopapilla--sorry diet!) and went to visit Cynthia's friends at the Penasco Health Clinic... good day!

Out & About in New Mexico

Yesterday I drove back from Garambuio, a small town west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, after spending a few days with Sharon Franklett. Sharon once volunteered for me at the RAP School, when I taught high school students in the Mission District of San Francisco in the mid-80's. Most community people in the Mission worked at RAP, the Real Alternatives Program, which was mobilized around keeping Latino youth out of incarceration, fight police brutality and providing alternatives for the youth.

Sharon, now a biologist, has worked with the US Forestry Service on land management. She has advocated for inclusion of the Native voice in restoration of lands, among a variety of things... She also hosts Native Film events, which I attended on the first night in Villanueva. The movies were excellent, my favorite being, "The Salt Song Trail," in which the Southern Paite reinstitute their traditional trails, but go to the Sherman Institute to send the spirits of the dead Indian children who never made it back home to their ancestral lands. My favorite quote happens when a Paiute man worries about how no one does the songs anymore and the grandma says, "Why don't you sing the song? You know them!"

The movie reminded me so much of the work of Cirilio Bawer, Kalinga, working with the elders, and the youth, practicing their chants in homes and the school building up in the Cordillera Mountains. That's why I hate it when I hear people say tradition cultures are dying. They are not. Althought many languages have been lost, I know of many peoples out there investing their time in revitalizing their language, their songs, their rituals.... It's like Datu Vic, Taalandig leader, saying, "This is LIVING CULTURE...LIVING TRADITIONS...."

...right now on our way to Picuris Pueblo to provide elders a workshop on diabetes prevention... more later...

Out & About

The Taos Pueblo was closed so I visited the Millicent Rogers Museum. She had inherited wealth through profits from Standard Oil and her family's partnership with the Rockerfellers. A jewelery maker, she had the most exquisite turquoise necklace I've ever seen--Zuni I believe... her collection of silver, the pottery of Maria Martinez, and old Hispanic silver was impressive...things rich folks can buy. I loved the pottery tradition of San Ildelfonso, revived by Maria & Julian Martinez. She passed on the tradition to her family members. Beautiful work...also, check out the Apache baskets!

Taos Sunsets

Almost missed the sunset while beginning my Pinoy curriculum...check out the sky! Gotta go eat & then back to writing...

Taos Pueblo Peace & Quiet

Finally getting the R&R needed to work on my curriculum. The beautiful skies distract me, wrote a poem this morning when Cynthia took off for her 12 hours shifts providing care to the Pueblos Indians in Santa Fe... the work we do is so vital...

a cold morning
in taos
i sit
watch the sunrise
three clouds peed over the mts.
like apostrophes
then disappear
overwhelmed by the intense
brilliant light
of a new day

on the tree outside
birds flit
back and
forth in the chill winter air as
my
mind
wanders
jumping from
branch to
branch, reviewing
details of my life


...this poem inspired by artist Kublai Millan Ponce of Mindanao, after looking @ photos & reading poems from the gift he gave me of his time, conversations, and good times spent with Kalpna & the other 2008 Fulbrighters at Ponce Suites....he was so right... your words & mine, mingling, are precious & last through eternity.

Update on Kenneth Sula's Recovery

A Special Thanks to everyone who extended their prayers to Kenneth Sula. Your prayers did wonders! He is now at home recovering and I am thankful and appreciative of all of my friends and family that helped him recover by praying for him. You are wonderful! I love you all.

A Tribute to Apo Mendung Sabal

I know traveling is impossible for most of my family, friends and colleagues. It was a huge blessing to have gone back home and spent the precious time I did with Apo Mendung Sabal. I am eternally grateful. I wish I had the video & digital recordings I had of her in June, 2008, so that I could again hear her wonderful voice and listen to her meaningful prayers about the spirit world and her connection to it.
You can read about her and hear her voice by ordering her CD by clicking on the title above or finding the link at:

http://www.skyinet.net/~taomusic/taomusic/mogul.html

I am posting photos of Apo Mendung Sabal taken by Katribu member and Photographer Tan Tan (Jonathan Cena of Davao, Mindanao). He's got great photos of the IPs (indigenous peoples) of Mindanao, including the ones he sent me upon the death of Apo Mendung Sabal. These photos show her dancing and chanting at the Kapwa Conference in Iloilo, Panay and also returning to Mindanao with Sheila (a Katribu member), Maria Todi (T'boli) and being welcomed by Tan Tan's fabulous family.



The post below is what I sent my family members upon hearing the death of this wonderful chanter. We are raising money for her family members and you can write me directly if you want to assist them in covering the expenses of her hospital bills.


I met Grandma Mendung Sabal, a T'boli chanter, in Iloilo, Panay, Philippines at the Kapwa Conference. We shared the vitality of life, a respect for our ancestors, the joy of the present and the dreams of our future--tribal elders, community leaders, cultural bearers, artists, educators and youth. My last memories of her were watching her teach Frances, a dancer from Manila, how to properly wrap the malong in T'boli fashion, and also giving her my Hawaiian sarong.

We joked that she could go back home and tell everyone she had been to Hawaii. She pulled two handmade T'boli bracelets (made for the ankles, but fitting on my wrist instead), and asked me to hang them on the wall to remember her. Two days before she passed I finally printed photos I had of her and with joy, remembered how we both embraced each other & argued over who was more beautiful --her or I... then I won the argument by telling her that she was the more beautiful, because of her wonderful chants that she kept alive...chants of prayers that the spirits use to guide us. Good memories and a wonderful woman to always remember!

As a supporter of tribal people preserving their cultural heritage, protecting ancestral lands and guiding the youth as cultural bearers, I salute her! Praises & thanks to Mendung Sabal.

To read more, check out my friend Leny's blog by going to:

http://kathang-pinay.blogspot.com/

...It's really cool that Mendung even wore my sarong all the way back to Davao, as I saw photos of her from Tan Tan, as they disembarked with the Katribu members.