The Maleta arrives, yet again, at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche art exhibit
Toronto, ON – Enthusiasm and excitement within the Filipino Canadian community elevates as their own “Maleta (Suitcase) Stories” resonate freely on October 1st, from sunset-to-sunrise, at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche, an annual contemporary art event in Toronto. As the first-ever Filipino Canadian community-based art project to be included in such a prestigious event, "Maleta Stories" will, once again, reclaim art and culture as an avenue to showcase the Filipino Canadian community’s history of migration and its struggle for a just and genuine settlement and integration in Canada. Along with Filipino Canadian artist, educator and PhD candidate, Marissa Largo, the Magkaisa Centre, a progressive Filipino Canadian community centre, will interactively have visitors of “Maleta Stories” unpack their own stories of migration to weave a collective history of Canada as home to transnational communities. “Maleta Stories” will make visible the web of migration that has been weaved by Canada’s economic needs as a first-world nation. As each Maleta story hangs on strings attached to the Centre for International Experience, a British colonial-style building, it will take participants inside the Filipino [...]
DisOrientation Film Screening: The Struggle for Genuine Women’s Liberation in Canada
Screening tomorrow at 313 Student Centre, York University from 2:30 - 4:30 PM. See you there!
NAPWC Executive Director to present at globalization and migration conference
Globalization and Migrant Labour Conference Focus on South Asia November 25-November 27 SFU Harbour Centre, 515 West Hastings Street, Vancouver, BC Coast Salish Territory Globalization is a complex phenomenon grounded in the flow of capital, mainly from the North to the South, and the flow of labour, mainly in the counter direction. Within the global “South” there is a differential in development, with flows of capital within developing nations, and a flow of labour from the less developed to the more. Globalization is thus marked by an unprecedented migration of labour that is further distinguished from previous historical migrations by its largely temporary character. Migrant labour in the period of globalization is characterized by its total subservience to the needs of capital: its flow, its temporary character, and its conditions of existence are governed by the nation states to purely serve the interests of capital. While Canada as one of the most developed nations of the global North exports capital both through direct investment abroad and the hiring out of services that can be performed abroad, it also [...]
Progressive Filipino Canadians break ground at Toronto’s Nuit Blanche
Toronto, ON – On October 1, 2011, witness the Filipino Canadian community's histories unfold as the “Maleta” (Suitcase) Art Exhibit arrives at the internationally-renowned Nuit Blanche, a contemporary art event that will “transform the City of Toronto from, sunset-to-sunrise” into a night-long ephemera of artistic expression. In partnership with distinguished community artist, educator and PhD candidate Marissa Largo, the Magkaisa Centre will showcase “Maleta Stories,” a multi-media art installation that will feature pieces from the groundbreaking Maleta Project. Participatory in style and content, “Maleta Stories” will provide a venue for all participants to share their stories of migration to Canada and evoke a sense of historical inclusion. The installation will weave into unison the vast array of narratives and histories of all peoples who have come to Canada in order to create a family tree of migration. Unlike any typical art installation, each "Maleta" piece to be displayed will depict the migration, realities, struggles and resistance of the Filipino Canadian community against the intensifying social, economic and political exclusion they face in Canadian society. “As Toronto has the [...]
MKC is looking for volunteers for “Maleta Stories, an Independent Project for Scotiabank Nuit Blanche”
Time: Saturday, October 1 at 7:00pm - October 2 at 7:00am Location: The Centre for International Experience, University of Toronto 33 St. George St. (and College) Toronto, ON A collaboration between Marissa Largo and the Magkaisa Centre for Nuit Blanche 2011. With the Centre for International Experience as its backdrop, a projected stop-motion animation of a woman kneeling before a closed suitcase, or maleta, is seen. Slowly, the maleta begins to unzip itself by a force still unknown. What emerges, wrapped in Filipino newspapers, is the embodiment of the histories and narratives of people who have come to this land. Facilitated by the Magkaisa Centre, participants are invited to share their "maleta stories" of how they came to be in Canada on baggage tags, which then become apart of the web-like installation affixed to the British colonial architecture of the Cumberland House, constructing a collective family tree of migration.A gallery of community-based artworks created by members of the Magkaisa Centre resides inside. Get involved in this exciting project! We are looking for: From Oct. 1st, 7pm to Oct. [...]
Taking root and building a home: Filipino Canadians gathered in Vancouver for the 2nd Counterspin conference
Taking root and building a home: Filipino Canadians gathered in Vancouver for the 2nd Counterspin conference Conference Communique July 20, 2011 The weekend of June 18th to 19th marked a monumental point in the history of Filipino Canadian community, as over 60 Filipino Canadians asserted their right to take root and build a home here in Canada. Sponsored by the University of British Columbia’s Liu Institute for Global Issues and in collaboration with the Philippine Studies Series, the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC) made their impact in the West Coast through the weekend conference titled “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” As Filipinos have been entering Canada for over 50 years since the 1960s, emergence of a new path towards genuine settlement and integration is both urgent and timely. Counterspin was originally launched in Montreal in May last year and the CPFC was formed as a result of the conference. Counterspin is a historical landmark for Filipino Canadians as it represents a national movement towards the community’s full [...]
Internationally-acclaimed novelist and feminist revolutionary Ninotchka Rosca to speak at a national conference hosted by progressive Filipino Canadians
Vancouver, BC – Progressive Filipino Canadians from all over Canada resolutely await an upcoming national conference titled “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” To be held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia from June 18th - 19th, this conference will once again galvanize the unity and the unrelenting will of progressive Filipino Canadians to be at the forefront of advancing the struggles of the Filipino Canadian community towards full participation and entitlement in Canada. In deepening the understanding of a just and genuine settlement and integration, internationally-acclaimed writer and feminist revolutionary Ninotchka Rosca honours progressive Filipino Canadians with her unwavering support and solidarity as a guest speaker at this historic conference. Rosca, who spoke at the 1st Counterspin conference held in Montreal a year ago, will further elucidate her analysis of the concept of ‘transnationalism’ as pertinent to the current realities and struggles of the transnational Filipino community in Canada and beyond. Smashing imperialism’s dominant narrative of ‘circular migration,’ Rosca will challenge [...]
National conference to strengthen Filipino Canadians towards firmly taking root and fully participating in Canadian society
Vancouver, BC – June 6, 2011 – The anticipation fervently grows within the progressive and militant Filipino Canadian community as the 2-day conference titled “Counterspin: Taking roots, building a home, deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration” draws much attention from workers, women, youth and academics across Canada as it will lead the new path towards community empowerment and genuine liberation. The weekend conference, taking place from June 18th to 9th at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia, will particularize the Filipino Canadian community’s issues through the call of genuine recognition as integral members and full partakers in the Canadian “cultural mosaic.” With that aim, sharings and presentations from community organizers, members and researchers will challengingly pose perspectives that expose the interconnectedness of transnationalism and neoliberal globalization to the struggle of community building. Organized by the National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” seeks to lay down the foundation necessary to transform and reconceptualize dominant traditions of community [...]
Progressive Filipino Canadians in Vancouver to host national conference
“Counterspin: Taking root and building a home: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration” For immediate release June 3, 2011 Vancouver, B.C. – June 18th and 19th will mark a momentous occasion for the Filipino Canadian community in Vancouver as it hosts “Counterspin: Taking root and building a home. Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration.” This two-day national conference will, once again, heighten the unity of progressive Filipino Canadians to advance the struggle towards the community’s full participation and entitlement in Canada. To be held at the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia (UBC), this conference will further solidify the call for the community’s just and genuine settlement and integration and will be a declaration of an ongoing commitment to continue a legacy of resistance. For over 50 years, the Filipino Canadian community has been struggling for a just and genuine settlement and integration. Since Canada opened its immigration doors to people from Third World countries, such as the Philippines, immigration policies like the Live-In Caregiver Program (LCP) and the [...]
Progressive Filipino Canadian women once again denounce the Live-in Caregiver Program
Progressive Filipino Canadian women once again denounce the Live-in Caregiver Program PWC-ON supports caregivers’ wage theft campaign Toronto, ON – June 2, 2011 – The Philippine Women Centre of Ontario (PWC-ON) offers its support to Vivian de Jesus and Lilliane Namukasa’s struggles as overworked and underpaid workers under the modern-day slavery Live-in Caregiver Program (LCP). PWC-ON and its’ sister organizations under the Magkaisa Centre assert that genuine change can only be brought about by challenging the very foundations that the Live-in Caregiver Program is built on, rather than reforming the inherently oppressive, exploitative and violent employment program. The two women are suing their former employers and are demanding compensation for years worth of unpaid wages, overtime and holiday pay, and for being wrongfully dismissed. De Jesus was abruptly laid-off and was given only 20 minutes to pack her belongings after living with and caring for an elderly woman and her two adult children with disabilities for more than 10 years. She worked approximately 132 hours per week for the last four years, overly exceeding the statutory 48-hour workweek, [...]
Taking root and building a home: Progressive Filipino Canadians boldly continue to pave and lead the path to genuine settlement and integration at a national conference
May 24, 2011 Conference Announcement The National Alliance of Philippine Women in Canada (NAPWC) welcomes and encourages all to partake in “Counterspin: Deepening our understanding of genuine settlement and integration” – a nation-wide conference taking place from June 18th to 19th, 2011 in the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia. Under the auspices of the Congress of Progressive Filipino Canadians (CPFC), “Counterspin” will embark upon the momentous task of reconceptualizing and building the movement to counter and transform the social reality of the Filipino Canadian community – a transnational community caught in a cyclical state of permanent impermanence, induced by the ever-intensifying threats of neoliberal globalization and imperialism. As a continuation of the first Counterspin titled “Towards a just and genuine settlement and integration: Link arms and unite for freedom,” held in the City of Montreal on April 30th until May 1st of 2010, women, workers, and youth, from the Filipino Canadian community, will once again gather to deepen and strengthen their resolve to realize our community’s entitlements of fully participating in the [...]