“Like any community, our kababayans here do not always agree on everything. With events that we organize for our dynamic and growing Filipino-Australian community, we hold meetings and hear each other out”

Where I am, and where an estimated 12 million Filipinos find themselves, is in my second hometown where acquaintances know little about my beloved land of my birth. What they do learn about the Philippines are glimpses, here and there. How hardworking a Filipino colleague is at the workplace, how hospitable and warm our gatherings are, how amazing when everyone comes together to help a member of the community who is going through rough times, and how there is a talented and diligent young Filipino student at their local secondary school. There’s an unwritten task bestowed on every one of us who seeks out foreign lands for varied reasons- to be an ambassador for the Philippines.

I recently attended a “Celebrating Asia” service in one of the vibrant Christian churches here. As Philippine culture was the highlight for the gathering, I arrived wearing an intricately hand painted Filipiniana blouse. My friends and their children performed the Tinikling dance and wore colorful baro’t saya and barong tagalog. I was beaming with pride watching them perform and witnessing the smiles and applause from the audience, most of whom were seeing the Tinikling for the very first time.

Like any community, our kababayans here do not always agree on everything. With events that we organize for our dynamic and growing Filipino-Australian community, we hold meetings and hear each other out. When an issue is divisive, we try to find common ground, a framework for understanding one another, weigh our options and then we put it to a vote. Seems simple enough. Nothing new with this way of doing things. But it’s never that simple. Feathers get ruffled and some want to give up trying altogether. Something prods us though, to persevere. I couldn’t put my finger on what it was until now.

I know that when we leave our meetings and go out into the broader community, no matter how far we may be from our first home, at our unique place and circumstance, we are doing our share in nation building. The best way for the people around us to learn more about the Filipino and the Philippines is by the culture that we share, the disagreements we resolve, how we move forward and by the lives we lead. We may not agree on everything but we all agree that WE are what it means to be Filipino, in our little corner of the globe.

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