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Jan 23Liked by Jean Vengua

Jean, my friend anthropologist Stuart Schlegel worked in the rainforest of Mindanao with the indigenous Teduray. He wrote a fascinating (and sometimes heartbreaking) book 'Wisdom From A Rainforest'. https://ugapress.org/book/9780820324913/wisdom-from-a-rainforest/ Perhaps you might find it interesting. Stuart taught at UCSC and is now deceased.

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Jan 23·edited Jan 23Author

Edward! I met Stuart in an event held for him in Santa Cruz and sponsored by a group from the Center for Babaylan Studies! He was a wonderful, kind person. I have his book, too. Thanks for reminding me about him. :-)

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So much good stuff here. I'm going to get on the Lynch/Oz film stat! Also I was supposed to go see the Pacita Abad show and totally failed to get myself to the city in time. So thanks for the video!

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Lindalay: I didn't get to see the Pacita Abad show, either! Thanks for this comment---which made me realize that I'm not done with Lynch/Oz, nor with my grandpa who, when he moved to the US, headed straight for Kansas. And one of the reasons I ended up on a road trip to Kansas to visit his kids, was because of OZ and the OZ museum out there . . . more on that in the next issue!

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What a delightful bit of writing, and handling of the delicate realities of male behavior that are so accepted, but often so hurtful to the women in the family. Thank you for what you are doing to strengthen all our ties to our cultural root systems, helping us all to have " power to" bring about positive change, in ourselves and in the world.

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Jan 26·edited Jan 26Author

Thanks so much for this comment, Amanda! Yes, it's a little difficult entering this "territory" of things that happened in the past--mainly because I'm starting to see how those past events can carry on into the future.

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People from Sorsogon are Bikolanos who are known to be musicians, singers, entertainers. I'm not sure why. My parents are from Casiguran which is a town south of Sorsogon.

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Thanks for that info, Estella! Yes, I guess my lolo was a Bikolano. Maybe I'll look into the music history of that area, too.

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Jean -- what a beautiful ethnoautobiographical account of what you have been discovering about your ancestral roots!! And thank you for the links to CfBS, to the Agta, Sambal, Subanen! There's one link that's not working. We can all identify with the sense of loss but we take heart that our daydreams and visions offer many clues to all that wants to be remembered!

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Thanks so much, Leny. Yes, both day- and night-dreams can offer some surprising insights. I will check out that link. :-)

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