Center for Babaylan Studies
Grow roots deep enough for generosity to sow seeds, for others you love... those you do not know... unseen generations you will never meet.
Diwatang Lupa
Check or money order donations can be made out to Center for Babaylan Studies. Please mail to:
CfBS
c/o Olivia Sawi
760 Henderson Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94086-8255
To decolonize is a daily & radical pursuit for liberation.
It is part of all of us.
It is part of how we rise in the morning, and lay our heads down at night. It is in the way we raise our children, and in how we relate to others. It is in how we pray, and how we see the natural world. It is in how we work and create our livelihood. It is also in how we invest in our communities, our futures, and our world. Every day, you are doing some of the most radical work of self love and self care, and we are on this journey together.
Help us to continue to bring more educational materials, academic resources, art, culture, and events to your city, your laptop, your school, and into your daily life with a donation. No amount is too small to make a difference.
Your Donation Will Support
01
Online and In-person Educational Offerings by leading academics from around the world.
02
The continued creation of the International Babaylan Conference, as a space for community building, cross-cultural collaboration, and incubation for strategies around personal and communal decolonization.
03
Funding opportunities for independent artists exploring decolonization, indigenization, and community empowerment in their creative work.
04
Providing financial aid and resources to Lumad (indigenous) groups and local initiatives in the Philippines and throughout the diaspora to support their capacity to thrive and continue their ancient customs in the face of political adversity.
What People Say
LANE WILKEN
Filipino Tattoos, Ancient to Modern
“Working with CFBS has brought me into contact with many like-minded individuals, people who understand the value of our indigenous practices. Here I have found community and established wonderful friendships. In return, it was within this community that I was able to more deeply share my own research about our cultural histories and further explore my calling in life as a practitioner of our tattooing arts.”
JANA LYNNE UMIPIG
Core Member
“ The Center of Babaylan Studies has grown me from afar for 5 years now and has humbled my spirit by showing me who I am and calling me to rise in my fullest, truest self whenever I felt I could not, or was afraid to...CfBS is a community I will continue to give of my service and spirit to, as it has and I know will continue to fill me time and time again.”
LUKAYO ESTRELLA
Educator, Healer, Artist
"I attended the 2010 and 2012 Babaylan Conferences, and the 2015 PAMATI Gathering, all events which have changed my life deeply and, though it sounds dramatic, saved my life… These gatherings connected me to other peoples similar to my ancestry and spurred my solitary and extensive research into pre-colonial Bikol practices and any spiritwork techniques that do not require initiation."