about the shop
Welcome to bkla! I'm Miki, a first generation Filipino immigrant living in Toronto, the place where trees stand in the water. Be Kind, Love Always started with the vision to introduce Filipino culture to Canada -- a country with over one million Filipinos.
I'm on a mission to help improve the lives of marginalized communities in the Philippines by supporting their livelihoods. Your support will allow bkla to engage with more communities and create a bigger impact.
Thank you!
MRmix`slmt`po
about the brand
bkla.ca, formally known as Be Kind, Love Always, also means “bakla ka”, a phrase some of us heard growing up.
bkla is dedicated to the original bakla — the Babaylan.
Babaylan: indigenous, shaman, healer, priestess, ritualist, herb doctor, village therapist, diviner, mediator between ordinary and nonordinary realms of reality. S/he is known by other names in various tribes: Ma-aram, balian, balyan, mumbaki, dawac, catalonan, manogbulong, tambalan, and more.
When the Spanish colonized the Philippines (1521-1898), the Babaylan was considered a threat to the colonial and Christianization project.
In many tribal communities’ governance structure that included the tribal chief or datu, the bayani/bagani (warrior), and the panday (crafts person), no decisions were ever made without consulting the Babaylan.
These four pillars of a tribe held together the communal life of its members but the Babaylan seemed the most important and powerful and hence became the target of extermination as soon as colonizers arrived in the islands in the 15th century.
— BABAYLAN: FILIPINOS AND THE CALL OF THE INDIGENOUS
What if being bullied since childhood was a misguided attempt to acknowledge someone who embodies both masculine and feminine attributes?
What if we were meant to be lifted up?
How? How do I retrieve my own memories of indigenous knowledge and indigenous spirituality when colonialism has robbed us of the language with which to speak of the knowledge we still feel in our bodies and in the depths of our Loob (shared humanity)? When what we have is the language of the West and the language of a theology that is difficult to translate? When we aim to be understood by transnational and diasporic peoples whose engagement with the world is also determined by discourses not of their own making?
— LENY MENDOZA-STROBEL