You have everything you need to create change
Dear young Filipino,
All you need to be, to make a mark in this world, is Filipino.
Being a Filipino is understanding we come from an archipelago full of sun-loving people who foster their creativity through the environments they treat as their chapel, celebrating life on any and every occasion. We are hardworking and will do anything for our family, for our community.
It is built within our bones to bend and curve like the water that allows us to live with so much spirit and soul.
More often than not, your culture is the answer to your life’s purpose. We believe that culture begins the revolution, started by our ancestors and now continued by our generation, challenging the broken systems built before us. Following through our archipelagic culture, we are connected by water to the other cultures around us that bear the solutions to the multitude of issues we currently face. We must get rid of boundaries and silos, and honor that nature everywhere on every island is a web of energy crucial for survival.
Years of colonial rule are still deeply internalized by so many of us that destroy the culture that was. You must be the source of remembering all that is not yet lost. Read your history, ask questions about indigenous culture, and dig deeper into what it means to be Filipino beyond Rizal’s generation. It is never too late to learn more about the country’s history and culture in pursuit of a deeper understanding of your identity. You were born a Filipino for a reason; you were always meant to find it. Filipino is not a subject in school, it is who you are. It should excite you. Through your blood runs the wisdom of a thousand generations before you. Do not let them down by submitting to Western rules.
Colonizers created a complex to keep us needing them—they led us to believe that we need one person to look up to lift us out of pain and the poverty cycle and that we need the West to save us. That is not true. They are why so many are suffering and why cultures that keep us thriving are slowly disappearing. We have to stop thinking there is greener grass on the other side when in reality such growth was cultivated by us for them, made through their over-exploitation. It’s time we nourish our own soil.
What we must champion is our archipelagic culture of community. We must embody kapwa beyond just friends and family. Kapwa recognizes that there is no "othering." A cultural crisis is what we ultimately face: one where we are slowly forgetting indigenous wisdom and archipelagic solutions. Learn the stories behind the tapestries, the weaving, our baskets and pottery, and the instruments that create songs or dances. Before buying into them, the stories they hold matter most. Understand the culture you represent. These things are not to be seen as tokens; our archipelago and everything created from its nature is a gift.
Generations before us gifted us this archipelago to pass on to the next young ones. We need to be good ancestors. There is no age too young to start imagining the legacy you are creating. When we were 15 and 13, after years of visiting frontline communities and hearing stories from distraught girls and women since we were 7 and 9, we saw how blessed we were to be healthy and alive. Such blessings are meant to be shared, for an overflowing cup generates more mess, but one that is poured equally amongst others starts a celebration.
So we started to create fiestas because that’s what Filipinos do best, gathering young people to build a movement. It has been 10 years of reminding young people of the goodness and passion possible even when growing older. Filipino children are creative geniuses when you allow them to be kids—the biodiversity of our archipelago is infinite, show it to them. A beautiful environment is a human right. The brilliance of young people is in their passion when given a chance to show it, because they know deep in their hearts not just what the world is, but what it could be. And so 100 years from now, what did you leave behind for them? Is the land you walked in fertile enough for them to plant their seeds? This is your legacy.
We need to be good ancestors. There is no age too young to start imagining the legacy you are creating.
This legacy you create can be embodied in so many ways, but where to begin consciously creating is by listening to and learning from our indigenous people and frontline communities most affected by the climate crisis. Listen and learn from the mothers and daughters who weave stories and the fathers who sail and fish following the stars and knowing our waters. The solutions to the betterment of our country lie within them. Reach out. Do not create a whole ocean of your own. Read the tide and find within it a space where you feel most at home.
In whatever work you may find yourself in—an artist, a musician, a doctor, a teacher, a lawyer, a politician—never view your path in life as singular. We can love our culture so much that if we learn enough about it, every life path can find purpose in it. From nature-based art practices to the medicinal healing powers of plants and spiritual policies grounded in nature and community, every single reason why we are living should always be attributed to the earth that reflects our very being. Do not create a distance between yourself and the environment around you because the elements that make up our flesh and bones are the same elements in our universe that birthed every mountain, ocean, river, and stone. That should be enough to prove we have a divine purpose to live out because we have the ability to create with our minds, hearts, and hands.
We believe these are the things the world needs to remember. This is how we begin our legacy, which will echo in the earth forever. For our archipelago and beyond, we invite everyone to join us.