Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

REFIGURATION OF IDENTITIES AND FUTURES IN TIMES OF TRANSFORMATION 113parents, housing inadequacy (i.e., a whole family forcedto sleep in one room), and insufficient education forboth parents and children. Others said that there arean increasing number of families with absent parents,as parents working abroad leave their children in thecare of relatives or older children. Without parentalprotection, the children left behind are exposed toabusers within their household. Many think that themain reason for this domestic abuse is overwhelmingpoverty caused by local and global inequality and thegovernment’s inability to support its own citizens.I also think that one of the reasons why there was suchan overwhelming reaction to this particular issue is thatthere is more awareness of domestic violence and childabuse and wider media coverage in the Philippines. Inother words, people are aware that this abuse has a name.In 1994, in Japan, there was no record of domesticchild abuse at all. When my artist friend tried to getinformation from the Japanese Ministry of Health,the officials there said that domestic violence and childabuse did not exist in Japan as there was no record,and that the term “domestic violence” was a “foreign”concept. In contrast, awareness of this problem amongyoung people is very high in the Philippines. However,because of the family structure and perhaps religion, itis still difficult to speak out about such experiences. Thisproject provided victims with an opportunity to relievethemselves of their burden.I was very fortunate to have befriended Alma Quinto,a well-known Filipina artist who participated in theYokohama Triennale in Japan in 2005. When she wasin Yokohama, I collaborated with her in organizingworkshops on domestic child abuse and trauma. Shehad been working with sexually abused girls at anorganization called Create Responsive Infants By Sharing(C.R.I.B.S.) in Manila for over ten years. C.R.I.B.S. isa non-profit institution that houses abandoned infantsand abused girls between the age of six and seventeen.With Alma’s help, I conducted a workshop with childrenat C.R.I.B.S. This was to further understand the issueof abuse by interacting with the victims themselves andalso to try to provide some help towards their recoveryprocess through art making.The C.R.I.B.S. workshop’s main purpose was toempower the girls; therefore, the whole process wasdecided collectively. I came up with the idea of makinga pinata and smashing it up. A pinata is a children’s toyof Spanish-Mexican origin. It is a colorful papier-mâchédoll filled with candies. At parties, children smash it upwith sticks. I have noticed that some institutions forabused children try very hard to exclude any indicationof violence from the children’s environment. To mymind, this “protective” method seems to rigidly solidifytheir identity as that of victims. While some protectionmay be necessary, I think outbursts of violence and theexperience of power in a controlled environment willenhance the children’s self-esteem. Moreover, I alsosimply wanted to have fun with the girls.I suggested making a “Monster” pinata and that the girlsmake drawings of a monster, which could be somethingfrom their past experiences or their inner selves or purefantasy. Then we showed each other these drawingsand made up a unified image of a monster. With helpfrom UP students, we made the basic structure of apinata with papier-mâché, which the girls then painted.I put secrets of child abuse cut into small pieces likeconfetti and candies inside the monster. On the day ofthe smashing, the girls dressed up in their best (theywanted to dress as super women) and sang a song fromthe Philippine version of the TV series Wonder Woman.The girls then smashed up the monster and tore it open.Afterwards, we discussed how they felt about it. Manysaid it was a great deal of fun and also felt that it wasempowering.Another aspect very particular to the Philippines aresecrets about political affiliation. There are manystudents who kept their membership in or sympathy forthe Communist Party of the Philippines a secret fromtheir families. Unlike in Japan, the Communist Party isbanned in the country and crackdowns on students onthe UP campus are prevalent. While I was there, onefemale student with a video camera was abducted bya special police force unit and later released. An uncleof my friend was gunned down during his politicalcampaign. Thus, the threat is very visible and real.However, even in this difficult situation, there are alsobrave and encouraging secrets. Several participants saidtheir secret is that they want to become doctors, teachers,or volunteer workers to help deprived people, ratherthan carry on the family businesses and make money.This social awareness and eagerness to do somethingto improve their society is not found once in Japanamong the more than 1,000 secrets I gathered there,and was also rarely found in other countries. This maybe because of the location (i.e., UP Diliman is a stateuniversity) but, compared to other countries’ politicalapathy, the young students’ compassion and interest inthe socially marginalized in the Philippines seem to bevery strong.Chiang MaiHere, the venue of the installation was the Chiang MaiAsian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows