Saturday, November 26, 2011

Still in Love with Mountain Peaks


Today's morning adventure guided me to Twin Peaks for a moment of praise. I was greeted by Cloud Woman, whose venture south was triumphant, she looked like the Statue of Liberty, only serene and tranquil, floating towards the southlands, where the Sun resides this time of year. The Wind, a constant at our Peaks, cleansed me and each direction was beautiful and clear. To my east, Mount Diablo ever grows, San Bruno Mountains to my south was bathed in sunshine and wispy clouds, the Farallon Islands clear in the vast Pacific to my west, and Mt. Tamalpais to my north ever so beautiful. Soft songs came again. The birds catching the wind--one held still in the sky by the wind, with its wings outstretched ~ a moment of pure joy ~ thankful for a blessed moment on this day where I live. Today's travels -- here at home, in San Francisco.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

#Occupy CAL


HONORING MY DAD ~ RIP ~ CAL graduate ~ by attending #Occupy CAL's General Assembly today ~ It was a special moment under the starlit night surrounded by thousands of students, faculty and staff that endorsed free speech and the right to a free public education for all ~ it was also great to spend an evening with the Grad students who shared their experience with me ~ a great homecoming to my birthplace ~ Berkeley, CALI ~ Special thanks to the 3 awardees of the night ~ your work is inspiring & i was happy to hear the last poem recognizing the role of the woman ~ YOU GO!!!

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

More notes on my 2011 Journeys & the Occupy Movement

Notes from water journeys to OCCUPied OAKLAND ~ GENERAL STRIKE ~

There's been mostly travels in the Bay & some ventures out of state. Most notable were my adventures on the Canoe Journey to Swinomish... I was TOTALLY excited about the CALI canoes of Chumash (I think) pullers with their double-sided paddles ~ I was running down the beach yelling & screaming "CALI!!!" when they arrived in Swinomish ~ Later that week we joined several of them at the Storytelling Circle & I was honored to meet some of the pullers, even one young girl, whose mother is Kalinga.


Above, the different canoe families arriving at Swinomish, awaiting for permission to come ashore...
(CALI representin' with their families above.)
Shelly & Leng Leng ~ we had just arrived in time for the arrival to Samish ~ what a fantastic meal we had later ~ loads of Salmon & shell fish & deer ~ YUMMY!!!


&&& then the Pacific Voyagers visit to California...here I am with my friend, the cook from the Cook Islands vaca ~ Lorna ~ I had so much fun hanging out with her every day in San Francisco... I love my Cook Island PEEPS!!! MISS YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!

...CHECK OUT BROWN, one of the Cook Island Voyagers, carrying this famous scientist out to the vaca for our ride in Monterey... Dieter, funder of Pacific Voyagers, had a beautiful experience with a whale... his video is online & quite fantastic... on their trip south they experienced their own time with the whale ~ you can read about it online at their website...

then later ~

the Women's Retreat and work on the land, Water Blessings, Sacred Land Prayers & Meditations, and ending with Maori Healing Sessions, which was an internal journey... since I haven't really fully processed all this journeying I won't write about it. Also quick visits to Occupy Wall Street movement @ the downtown Occupy SF, a hub for the big banking institutions, where I feel supportive when I donate food & met up with friends who came down to help prevent the violence that occurred in Oakland. I confronted John Avalos during his interview with KTVU & he said he would stand with the Occupiers and has met his word by passing legislation to keep the police from breaking up the camp. He has earned my vote.

I was amazed at participating in the General Strike in Oakland. It was announced that there were 50,000 people, but another video showed perhaps 100,000 people participating in the two marches held at 4pm and 5pm... I stood @ the bridge for perhaps 45 minutes & the stream of people never ended. It's true that Occupy Oakland is peaceful and highly diverse. Everyone is supportive of each other, regardless of race, age, ability, gender, etc... I loved seeing the grandma being wheeled by her family & the Paiute/African American family that came over to be saged down with their beautiful children...

One thought ~ the vibe at these two Occupy sites are very different ~ Oakland seems to be more family oriented & diverse, with a mellow vibe & SF a little more edgy, feeling more transient... @ Occupy SF I joined a meditation circle on the day the police were supposed to evict & that small action brought me back to my center, able to continue with the day's action. The night before OPD and 17 police agencies tear gassed many of my friends at Occupy Oakland. I spent the night feeling terrorized by the Police State of Americas and knew I needed to be in Oakland to retake the plaza. I arrived at the plaza well after it had been retaken and in time to witness the historic General Assembly discussion and vote for a General Strike in Oakland on November 2nd, Dia de Los Muertos, 2011. It was pretty cool to see a former "Los Delicados" poet @ both Occupy Oakland and Occupy SF that day, b/c I took off for Occupy SF and found him there too. His story is unique. He travels a lot and has been to many of the Occupy Wall Street sites & he shared many stories with me. A writer, he shared his poem at Occupy LA & told me of a Solar company that has donated power, but also has taught folks how to make their own solar power. Hopefully, this can be replicated at other sites.

My spirit keeps me moving in different directions, but I am happy to have participated in the ceremonies this year, and in the General Strike in Oakland, one among thousands, working towards a better world. Lets bring our prayers and actions forward into a better world for all...

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Dreaming of Sea Journeys

Click above to go to Pacific Voyagers website ~

11/5/2011 ~ I don't even remember when I began this draft, but will post it today... so much has happened in my water journeys ~ I hadn't realized that my daily water prayers would bring so many blessings... each day I live I am more enamored with the Creator and all our Universe ~ may light, love and pure sacred waters be safe on our beloved Pachamama ~

I sit here in awe at the power of spirit and the simplicity of listening. I am blessed by my relations, those who walk with me in these sacred times and I am honored to know you and be in your presence. This blessing crosses color lines and is truly representative of the medicine wheel, with all the races of the human being, Black, Yellow, Red and White. I give thanks to life itself, which springs from the beyond, our source, and I honor most of all our Creator, our ancestors, the elements of our Mother Earth (Tierra Madre/Pachamama) that we may live well in the beginning of times into the future. May all my relations be well in this time. May they be strong, may they see with new eyes, hear with open ears, speak truth, remember their beauty, and walk a good road.

I honor and respect my Pilipino heritage, and remember the message from Apo Reyna, received in Los Angeles, California, last year, that it was the Brown peoples that would bring peace and unity to the human beings. I am sharing that message now and calling all mixed blood peoples, the Brown peoples, like myself, a Pinay, to heed to this calling as time is very short and we must turn every soul to the light for our transition towards harmony and balance with the universe.

Many know me by different names, and I have yet to announce my true name, but I am pleased to meet so many people who are here to help save our Mother Earth and bring us into alignment with balance, peace and harmony in the universe. Each day we must walk a good path to bring those lost on a road to the good road, the road to life. We must embrace them with the Mabuhay spirit and bring calm to their hearts and peace to their mind that they join us on a good path. We must remember to pray each day with thanks and send our love deep to the land, to our waters, to our air and to the fire deep with our Mother and to our Sun, which brings warmth into our Solar System. Without these things, life as we know it, as human beings, along with all our relations, cannot exist. We must pray each day, each hour, each minute, each second within our hearts and recognized that, as Datu Vic, Talaandig Elder of Mindanao, told me, "All things are Sacred."

I return from the Canoe Journey to Swinomish Reservation in Washington with a message that the Coast Salish peoples are strong in reviving their traditions. I was blessed to travel with my Sistah Leng & witness together the strength, beauty and wisdom of the Elders in Swinomish. My good Sistah Shelly and her mother, Diane, hosted us and brought us into their family and blessed us with the presence of her wonderful sons, some wives and most importantly, the grandchildren. I am honored to witness the children as they represented both their Swinomish traditions and then joined Sistah Leng and I in the Storytelling Circle at Swinomish by presenting themselves, their fathers and then, along with Manang Juliet Cheatle, our Kalinga friend, some gangsa music to everyone. We danced around the beautiful fire in front of many Elders, including our wonderful Elder from California, Daryl Wilson, and a young woman, whose mother, an IndiPina with Kalinga roots, pulled in the canoe of the Chumash people. I am honored to know the sons of Grandpa Daryl Wilson, the sons he endearling called his Aztec princes & then with a twinkle in his eye, saying, "I must be a king!" I was so proud that CALI was represented in this year's Canoe to Swinomish 2011 that I recall after my volunteer shift, running to the point and saluting the pullers, with their double paddles, for representing the Chumash and peoples of my state in this Sacred Journey. I am blessed to witness the saving of a young girl from her troubles in the home of Elder Ray Williams, and honored that the Elders conducting that ceremony allowed my participation. I salute them in their work and I am honored to be in their presence and will always remember them. I am so thankful to see our dear Makah Grandma Dottie, whose guidance has helped me in this journey of life to be strong, be resilient, and to continue my work in bringing harmony, peace, unity and love back into this world. I appreciate her guidance and her prayers and I am honored to know her in this way.

My journey home from Swinomish was long. It was difficult because what should have been a short drive became almost double from the time we drove to Oregon. Nothing is without purpose. We finally arrived very late to OakTOWN early yesterday morning. Unfortunately, I slept through a midday meeting I had set up with my friend to plan for a healing cooperative we want to start. Next, I missed my own physical therapy appointment for my sprained ankle. Finally, I had forgotten about an evening meeting with my Asian artist friends, to plan our upcoming exhibit at NJAHS. Those meetings were not meant to be. Instead, I had a final meal with my wonderful "Road Perra," Leng Leng, with Joy from HI, and we share our dreams and a meal at No Worries, and met its owner, JR. This meeting was necessary for us to begin our plans for a seaworthy vessel of our own, one created to revive our own sea traditions. Joy then received a message to visit with her friends from the Pacific Voyagers, who just arrived from their own journey. These 6 of 7 vacas, flying flags from the Cook Islands, made their 18 day journey from Hawaii, wading outside at Point Reyes for two days when there was no wind. This voyage made to reconnect with Turtle Island.

I was honored to meet many of the voyagers yesterday, with Papa Koro, taking me on a tour on his vaca, and explaining vaca construction & the vaca fusion of modern & ancient constructions... several days of hanging out with the Pacific Voyagers, Bay Area residents who shared the love of the Pacific Islanders and the Voyagers, the Ohlone Heritary Chief, and my own Pin@y & Latino community ~ who gathered with me for the official welcome at Treasure Island. My life has been so full, blessed by the diversity of the SF Bay Area ~ I was honored to join my Tonga & Native American sisters in song & prayer to welcome the Pacific Voyagers to Turtle Island. There are so many memories of these blessed days, too many to recount ~ but I was to continue on to more water blessings in September, 2011 when I joined my Paiute/Washoe friends for ceremony at Lake Tahoe & traditional Washoe lands in Nevada.

Each day I must give thanks that I have access to clean waters for now and for the generations that follow me. I must pray for all living beings, seen and unseen, that we be in balance, harmony and peace with our home ~ Pachamama.




Friday, July 8, 2011

Protest ~ China to build oil rigs in Spratly Islands

Pin@ys in San Francisco protest the building of deep sea oil rigs by China... our dependence on oil is destroying the earth and our seas... unite to keep our oceans clean... let's learn to live sustainably. Small, but passionate turnout. I was most impressed by our youth from SOMA, the manangs and our Filipino veterans.




Today's protest at the Chinese Embassy in San Francisco.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

Art Travels to Nihonmachi




I guess this summer my travel is limited to local day rides & rides to the past & rides in my mind. I've been working with J-Town Arts since last fall and it's been an inspiration to hang out with Rich Tokeshi, Leland Wong, Pete Yamamoto, Sabrena Taylor and Leon Sun.

My first silkscreen was done in '71 or '72 at Serramonte High School ~ a poster for a school play... I have no idea where that poster is... The first time we cleaned the workshop Rich gave me some of the second poster, pictured above from 1979, "Mother and Child" (below). I had completely forgotten it, but it was done at the old Japantown and Media (JAM) Workshop space before it was torn down... It's me and my eldest, Sandino, unless it's really Mary & Jesus, but anyways I guess most artists do the Mother/Child thing. Sandino is currently 33 years old. The other silkscreen (top) was done for a calendar at JAM in 1985. What's cool about it is that I did this before I actually began really painting. I didn't start painting until the mid-90s, so the kulintang sticks were to predict my love of painting in the future. Another note on this ~ the kid in the print is DarĂ­o, younger son, who is now 27 years old...time flies...

J-Town Arts is geering up for a new show, so digging up these prints have been bring back new memories... speaking of memories, last night's performance by Joe Bataan was off the hook!!! That brought back some pretty cool high school memories - - more on that later...

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Protesters in Tahrir Square break into song



All my travels lately have been via Internet ~ here's one postive scene from Tahir (Liberation) Square in Cairo ~ sending love, prayers & peace to the people of Egypt ~