Co-Director
Perla Ramos Paredes Daly chaired the Filipino American Women’s Network FAWN2005 conference, Coming Into Our Own Spirit and Success, the underlying theme of which was the babaylan archetypes (www.fawn2005.com).
She founded the first online community for Filipinas called BagongPinay (www.newfilipina.com) whose approach was radical and edgy, created for and by Filipino women to help shape Filipina identity online. She received the Fillipino American Women's Network FAWN2000 Babaylan Award for that global community work. Through NewFilipina, Inc. she conducted networking nights for Filipina-Americans in New York City and Women’s Wisdom events in Manila between 1998 and 2004. She helped launch international online discussion groups for Pagbabalikloob (decolonization, or translated as return to deepest inner self) and for Tagipusuon sg Babaylan (Heart of Babaylan).
Perla came to explore the archetypal roles of the babaylan (warrior, teacher, healer, visionary and priestess) and expressed her findings in art and prose poetry at www.babaylan.com. She wrote the Bahala Meditations soon after that time. Perla wrote about pinay cyber-feminism and ethno-gender-activism in the anthology Pinay Power: Theorizing the Filipina/American Experience and is currently developing the launch of the pinay.com site for 2009. She is currently blogging with Baybayin Alive to help people understand baybayin as a tool for decolonization and exploring Filipino identity. She is the creator of the Babaylan Mandala Fine Art Series.
P has a background in graphic and web design (www.bagyoperla.com), in Yoga teaching (RYT200) and in Reiki. Today, she goes "undercover" as a senior art director for a financial firm but the rest of her life is dedicated to her family & home, and to the babaylan spirit. In her spare time she conducts monthly women's meditation circles for the Seekers of Feminine Wisdom in Austin, TX.
Perla has been an activist and multimedia artist who has collaborated with artists, healers and activists around the world in digital collage, poetry, photography, painting, online communities & publications.
Statement
" I felt compelled to heed whisperings of the diwata(elemental) about the diwa(idea/essence) of babaylan beginning in 1999. Since that journey began I have discovered that the Babaylan of yesterday and today knows very well that all things, all people, all existences are all connected within Creation and within the Divine Existence. This Sacred Interconnection is the essence of pakikipagkapwa, Filipino's well-spring of compassion and ahimsa (sanskit: non-violence, non-judgementalism). "
"Babaylan is a word that initially evokes Filipino leadership and I have witnessed it tickle egos with illusions of status, privilege or "being special." But what babaylan means to the Filipino soul is what is Real--- that it is a service that involves great responsibility and a constant battle with Illusion, Fear and one’s very own Ego. "
"Babaylan work is contemplative and action-oriented---it heals, guides, gives courage, strengthens, clarifies, incites, calms, supports, makes whole, brings balance/justice, creates interconnection and allows for growth and expansion for Filipinos so that they may live in a level of freedom that allows them to come to know their Loob and come closer to realizing their highest human potential. "
May this work enrich and fulfill you.