How does one embody the spirit of the Babaylan? How do we heal from colonial and sexual trauma by invoking the healing spirit of the Babaylan? Can the Babaylan narrative be a powerful critique and salve for the psychic split of modernity? This collection of scholarly essays and personal narratives by decolonizing scholars, poets/writers, artists, culture-bearers, and activities, offer the wisdom and insights gleaned from their engagement with the Babaylan tradition and practice. The writers all share this belief: If we can articulate the Babaylan healing practice and Kapwa psychology as our intellectual, emotional, cultural, and spiritual capital -- then we have much to offer to each other, to our communities and to the world. We offer these gifts to everyone ready to receive the call of the Indigenous.

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Back from the Crocodile’s Belly is a celebration of the beauty, richness, and diversity of indigenous ways of being as revealed in the critical studies and creative performances of living native traditions in the Philippines and in the United States diaspora. Through the use of primary and secondary research, the re-reading of historical and cultural archives, and the articulation of silenced stories, the book seeks to open up space for an alternative discourse on indigenous knowledge that does not merely reproduce progressivist and social evolutionary paradigms that invariably position the Indigenous Subject as “primitive,” “barbaric,” and nothing more than a “quaint relic of the past.” In revealing the beauty and vibrancy of native Filipino cultures, the book lays claim to the relevance and power of indigenous epistemologies in healing colonial and civilizational trauma brought on by the violent conscription of native peoples into the project of Modernity. In the face of growing economic, spiritual, and ecological crises portending global collapse, the book affirms that the abjected “Primitive,” who now stands as Modernity’s only remaining Other, has much to teach us not only about survival but about living generously and fiercely “with all our relations.”

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Originally published in 2005, the latest edition of "Kapwa: The Self in the Other" includes key updates, such as an expanded introductory chapter. Essentially, this book is the late Dr. Katrin de Guia's seminal work, featuring her groundbreaking research, which profoundly shaped the modern understanding of Sikolohiyang Pilipino (Filipino indigenous psychology). She was also recognized as the wife of Philippine National Artist Kidlat Tahimik. In her fieldwork alongside traditional healers, wisdom-keepers, and indigenous artists, de Guia illuminated kapwa as the definitive essence of Filipino personhood. She defined kapwa as a relational way of being where the self and the other are inextricably linked. This book is the result of her pioneering research into the unique worldviews and lifestyles of Filipino culture-bearer artists. It comprises narrative accounts, critical essays, and other writing in a variety of literary styles combined with theories and findings about Filipino psychology, cognitive science models, and chaos research, from which a profile of Filipino personhood emerges.

Important Currency Notice: Our classes are priced in USD. International cards are gladly accepted, and your bank will seamlessly handle the conversion to Canadian Dollars (CAD). Please note that your bank may apply a standard international transaction fee.