Discussion Topics

Throughout our different activities, we would engage in meaningful discussion topics related to key aspects of Knowledge Kapamilya. One of the first topics we discussed were museums and their relation to the collection of cultural belongings. As the program takes place in the Burke Museum, it was important for us to build a foundational understanding of the role that museums play in preserving cultural identities and histories. We tackled many difficult questions such as, can museums ever be fully decolonized? How can we encourage more Filipino artists to donate their work to museums? Who are the types of people that typically donate to museums? Are there common threads? Why is this the case? We realized that museums carry many biases, whether it be from the person who donated the item or the museum curator who wrote the description of the item, and wondered if there was a way to remove these biases. We would spend many sessions breaking down these questions and providing our own insights in an attempt to come to a conclusion. However, we were often left with more questions and thoughts than we began with.

Another major theme we focused on in our first quarter of Knowledge Kapamilya was identity. We began with an easier question: What do we know about ourselves? As our group is on the smaller side and consists of only seven people, we were able to go one by one and share our stories. We liked to call this, “sharing our lore.” We went beyond the typical introduction where we shared our name, pronouns, and major. We dug a little deeper and shared what we knew about our family histories, migration stories, where we grew up, our high school experiences, and many other aspects that make us who we are today. Although this was a simpler discussion, it was interesting to see how our individual stories were unique yet also shared commonalities, such as the reasons why our families immigrated from the Philippines to the US. The answer was often to find work and build a better life for their families. This was a great way to make connections between one another and build stronger bonds so that our group felt closer. We were able to go beyond surface-level information and better understand the core pieces of our identities.

After we unpacked what we knew about ourselves, we started to connect it back to our discussion on museums and cultural belongings. One question that we asked was, What can objects tell us about Filipino identity and how others, namely the US, perceived Filipinos? A key point during this discussion was the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AYPE) which was held in Seattle on the UW campus. AYPE was claimed to be “an opportunity for Seattleites to display pride in their heritage and their patriotism.”^[1] However, many displays were created from the perspective of white Americans on various cultures and made to be viewed by a white-dominated audience. For instance, the “Philippine Exhibit” that was displayed was of an Igorrote (today usually spelled Igorot) village. It showcased “traditional dwellings, daily activities like dances, meal preparation, and weaving, and the agricultural operations of the Igorrote, a people indigenous to the Philippine Islands of Luzon.”^[2] However, when a group of Filipino sailors came to view the exhibit, they asserted that “the Igorrote is not representative of the Filipino native.”^[3] This is just one illustration of how white Americans perceived Filipinos and their intentions to portray the people and the culture as “less developed,” “exotic,” or “primitive” in comparison to the US.