“Filipino resilience” has become a popular cultural trope that praises Filipinos for their ability to survive, overcome and recover from frequent natural disasters, political turmoil and socioeconomic hardship. The Philippines is the third most climate-vulnerable country in the world, even though the nation’s per capita Greenhouse Gas Emissions are only one third of the global average. It is subject to increasingly extreme weather patterns, such as super typhoons. The Philippine nation-state has also fashioned itself into a labour export economy, sending out millions of migrant workers abroad every year, many of whom work as foreign nurses and domestic workers.
This event will bring together a diverse array of Filipino scholars on climate change, care work and disability to examine the conditions from which tropes such as the “Resilient Filipino” have emerged and how these tropes mask the various forms of state-sanctioned violence, sociopolitical neglect and capitalist exploitation that are imposed upon Filipinos both in the Philippines and across the diaspora. This will be a public-facing, panel discussion that focuses on how such conditions wear down Filipinos’ health and wellbeing from an anti-ableist and disability justice lens. Throughout the discussion, panelists will consider how the systems that created these conditions can be traced back to the ongoing legacies of colonialism in the Philippines and how Filipinos can push back against these systems and care for one another using indigenous Filipino philosophies, community care practices and creative expression.
This virtual panel will feature cultural worker and scholar Allison Masangkay, Assistant Professor from the University of Winnipeg, Dr. Dennis Gupa; Research Associate from the University of Sheffield, Dr. Élaina Gauthier-Mamaril, and PhD Candidate from the University of Toronto Walter Villanueva.
This talk is presented by the Centre for Southeast Asia Research (CSEAR).
