CULTURAL EXCHANGES: Traditional Pinacbet to Pinacbet Pizza—The Role of Food in Cultural Preservation, Transforming Objects into Cultural Icons, Beauty Pageants—A tool for Cultural Preservation, Filipino Tattoos—Ancient to Modern
Indigenous Roots of Tattoos—Ancient to Modern
Lane Wilcken is the author of FILIPINO TATTOOS--Ancient to Modern, a first study of ancient Filipino tattoos -- a cultural practice connected with ancestral and spiritual beliefs. Lane Wilcken comes from a family of eight children of mixed heritage. His mother is a native Ilocana from the Philippines and his American father is of English and Scandinavian descent. He has been researching the indigenous past of the Philippines and the Pacific Islands for nearly two decades. His interest in tattooing was due to his desire to strengthen pride among Filipinos and "to reunite Filipinos symbolically and spiritually with their estranged ancestors.”
Indigenous Healing Practices and Healthy Lifestyles as a Shared Cultural Heritage
Dr. Malia Dominica Wong is a Dominican Sister of the Most Holy Rosary of the Philippines, Molo, Iloilo. She is a Senior Lecturer in the Religious Studies Department of Chaminade University of Honolulu. A long-standing student of Kahuna La'au Lapa'au Levon Ohai of Kaua'i in Hawaiian herbal medicine, she has conducted complementary alternative medicine workshops locally and in the Philippines. Coming from a prominent restaurateur family in Hawai'i, she likes to dabble in preparing food as medicine.
Sharing Filipino Talent in Theater and Dance
Miguel Braganza II is the Co-Founder, Executive Director of IN'ARTES,USA, Inc.
A very talented international performer and original cast of Miss Saigon. Miguel holds a bachelor’s degree in Theatre (Silliman University, Philippines). Miguel was born in Davao, grew up in Zamboanga del Sur and spent most of his youth in Dumaguete. In 1983, Miguel studied dance at Alvin Ailey American Dance Center, and got a scholarship at NAT HORNE Musical Theatre, and received the 1987 Terry Memorial Scholar for Dance at Harvard. Miguel’s association with “Miss Saigon” started in 1989 when he was offered to appear in the original Broadway production in 1991. Although he didn’t open the show on Broadway, he later joined the first National Tour in 1992.
Re-establishing the Culture of Philippine Design in the Contemporary Context: Bangkota—the Philippine Pavilion in Dubai
Royal Pineda completed his architecture degree at Polytechnic University of the Philippines under the Japan-Philippines cooperation university program. He acquired his professional training under noted architect Leandro V. Locsin. As part of Budji Layug + Royal Pineda Design Architects, he is implementing his vision of creating modern and tropical creations that carry the soul of Filipino design, making it tropical and yet global. He recently completed the Bangkota—the Philippine pavilion in the Expo 2020 of Dubai—a spatial form evoking a coral reef, with visual experiences and a sequence of artworks that drive updated science about the Philippines and its people.
Moderator
Dr. Eva Rose B. Washburn-Repollo is an associate professor at Chaminade University and received her undergraduate degree in speech and theater arts and her graduate degree in literature from Silliman University of the Philippines. She moved to Hawaii in 2004 where she earned a doctorate at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Her dissertation focused on the use of cultural interpretation in remedial English classrooms with diverse students from immigrant households, arguing that the discourses from home cultures offer new perspectives that bring into society other ways of being. She recently received the Excellence in Education award from the United Filipino Council of Hawaii, in recognition for the many different community groups she volunteers for.
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