A Glimpse Into The Chewang Chi Biyeg Tapestry
Chewang chi Biyeg ~ River of Life illustrates the indigenous Kalinga people’s victorious struggle against planned dam projects on the Chico River in the Cordillera Region of the Philippines in the 1960s-1980s, but is connected to the fight against the 1977 International Hotel Eviction in San Francisco, which affected predominantly low income Filipino Manongs.
The depiction of both struggles reflects how Kalingafornia Laga views the perspective of our homeland, the Philippines, and its relationship to the realities and lives of the Filipino American community in Diaspora.
From 2015-2017 free community laga weaving workshops were attended by over 100 individuals, of all genders from 6-70 years old at the International Hotel Manilatown Center, the very site where the historic hotel rose again and was rebuilt in 2005. In 2016, a workshop for about 15 Filipino American children was conducted for the Sama Sama summer camp in Oakland.
According to Creative Work Fund director Frances Phillips whom supported our work so ardently, “the 2017 Creative Work Fund grants reflect several strong themes: anxiety about gentrification and displacement in Bay Area communities; the challenge of maintaining cultural knowledge in diasporic communities; and an honoring of legacy—be it icons of the local LGBTQ arts history or African artists who have long made the Bay Area their homes…”
Chewang chi Biyeg was completed and unveiled on August 4, 2017 during Manilatown Heritage Foundation's commemoration of the 40th Anniversary of the I-Hotel Eviction.