Introducing The Tao Kollective, and a Breakdown of the Filipino Identity.
I have had this idea brewing in my head for the past several months now, well I guess more than a year if I were to include building a community away from social media.
But I have been wanting to leave Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook, and social media in general, going back to my roots as a writer, during my blogging days. On social media, there is just too much noise, too much distractions, at least for myself, that, as someone who has recently been diagnosed late in her mid-30s as neurodivergent with Inattentive ADHD, is something that has been both overwhelming and distracting for me, especially in today’s world and events.
The lack of community on social media has also decreased over the last several years. There has been a shift. It’s all about content creators, which, quite frankly, I never got the appeal of? From Tiktok, which was so community based before, where people just made videos to vibe and talk with others, building a community, to the early days of Instagram. A lot of that has been lost nowadays, and honestly, I miss the days of the internet where people can be themselves, learn, discuss, without being judged or trolled, and having others to talk with to learn together, learn from our experiences, building online friendships, and building a small community around whatever niche theme or topics you were interested in.
Which is what I loved about the early days of Youtube, Tumblr, Instagram, and Tiktok, to those days of running your own blog sites, finding others who did the same and connecting with them based on your niched topics, like fashion, anime and manga, reading books, etc. It’s hard to find traces of those vibes from back then.
Which is why I’ve been disenchanted with social media, turning off my notifications from everything, and trying to build a community, both locally and online.
Going back to Tumblr, I’ve started to remember why I enjoyed Tumblr so much. I could write about my own thoughts, ideas (especially if they never came to fruition, and they were written and posted when I would run with my ADHD thoughts and ideas running a hundred thoughts a minute, in the middle of the night) and my own research. If someone read any of my posts, resonated with it, or remembered something they learned or experienced that fit the topics, like a cultural practice or belief, they would mention it, and either a mutual knowledge exchange was shared, or the other person had more to provide in whatever practice or belief was being discussed.
Finding a platform to write and talk about my thoughts and research on the pre-colonial, traditional, and indigenous folklore, beliefs and practices of the Philippines, the way I used to when I started 15 years ago on Tumblr, is what led me to creating a Substack, to see how it goes. It’s also the reason why I also recently created a new blog on Tumblr, thepinaywriter (for my own personal thoughts, research, and reblogs) and thetaokollective.
Which leads me to introducing, The Tao Kollective.
What is it? What is it’s purpose?
The Tao Kollective is an independent research and study group that I have recently founded. My vision and mission for The Tao Kollective, is to have and build a community of both academic and independent historians, researchers, cultural bearers, and Filipino’s born both in the Philippines and in the diaspora. The focus is on documenting, researching, learning, immersing, and preserving these pre-colonial, traditional, and indigenous folklore, beliefs, and cultural practices of the different ethnic groups of the Philippines.
Every person who joins the community are encouraged to do their own research studies into learning more about their own ethnic and family lineages. Whether it’s academic research or by interviewing their family and elders, interviewing them and asking them questions about any folklore, beliefs, and cultural practices they may have heard of growing up as a kid, from their own elders.
Any research done by an individual can be submitted and shared with the community to further discuss, and cross reference with written academic sources, and other’s whose ancestry comes within the same ethnic groups, islands, and regions of the Philippines, to see the collective and shared beliefs of each ethnic group.
Because, let’s be frank, there are way too many ethnic groups to research and cover by one single person alone. There are more than 100 ethnolinguistic groups in the Philippines after all.
And each one of us, who are longing to reconnect with our ancestors and cultural and traditional roots, beliefs, and practices, should be focusing on their own ethnic groups. Because the Philippines isn’t monolithic. We are not monolithic.
It’s diverse, from it’s environment, flora, fauna, and the communities, languages, and ethnic groups. We aren’t monolithic. And just like each river, mountain, rice terrace, plant, tree, animal, etc., in the Philippines are all unique and different in their own ways, we as Filipinos, under a common nationalistic and regional community, coming from those who can trace their ancestry to the islands of what is currently now known as the Philippines, after years and years of colonization, we as Filipinos, are also unique and diverse.
And this also applies to the diaspora.
From Filipino-Americans, Filipino-Canadians, Filipino-Australians, Filipino-Germans, etc., wherever the Filipino diaspora and communities are outside of the Philippines, we also have our own local communities and cultures, shaped by our environments, countries, provinces, regions, states, cities, as well as by our own ethnic beliefs and practices, passed down from our own families and local Filipino communities.
The “Filipino Identity” is just as vast and diverse.
Think of it this way. Imagine a banyan tree ok? Picture how it looks like.
The roots are the foundations of the tree. They represent our ancestors, those who lived and are now long gone, each generation, living, learning, loving, and dying, only to be the next generation to join the ancestors. Without them, we wouldn’t be here. Their names, long forgotten, as the generations pass every 100 years or so. While we may not remember them anymore, we still remember, honor, and acknowledge them.
The branches of the tree are the different Filipino communities across the Philippines, and the diaspora. One branch represents Filipinos whose ancestry traces to Ilocos. Another, represents the Bontok, the Kapampangan, the Tagalog, Bikolano, Itneg, Ifugao, Kalinga, Cebuano, Akeanon, Ilonggo, Waray, Tausug, Aeta, Manobo, etc. Then there are other branches, the ones that twist and bend around it’s previous branches. These are those who call the Philippines there home. The U.S., Canada, Australia, Germany, the U.K, Dubai, etc., and all the Filipino Diasporic communities within each country that we have found ourselves settling in, away from the Philippines. Each different, but similar.
The trunk of the tree is the Filipino Identity. With it’s winding branches, all brought together to form the base and trunk of the overall banyan tree, representing all those different Filipino communities from the Philippines to the diaspora, collectively forming the general, overall, and massive, Filipino Identity.
And finally, the aerial roots of the tree represent us, now, as we continue to live, love, and be raised within our own communities, ethnic backgrounds, raising the future generations. And as each generation passes on once more again, we continue to join the ancestors, a cycle never ending, that has been continuing for generations. We are those aerial roots, as we eventually join the ancestors once more, bringing in our lived memories, experiences, cultural beliefs, practices, folklore, languages, and stories back to the roots and foundations of the spiritual banyan tree, back to the ancestors, back to the collective.
Which, leads us back to the formation of The Tao Kollective. A collective, of our stories, our own reconnection to our ancestors, lineages, reclaiming, preserving, learning, and continuing to teach and pass on these traditions, beliefs, folklore, and cultural practices down for the next generation. So that we can continue to keep that banyan tree alive.
In many of our beliefs, the banyan tree is seen as a tree that connects us all. It’s a sacred tree, known and believed to be the home of the spirits. Offerings were traditionally given to the balete, honoring the spirts, some who are ancestral or nature spirits, sometimes being ancestors themselves, just another soul of the individual who lived, falling in line with many of our traditional beliefs of having more than one soul.
That breakdown of the Filipino Identity is something I honestly thought of in the spur of the moment while writing this. To be honest, as my ADHD thoughts started running and doing it’s thing, honestly, the more it made sense as I continued to find those patterns and piece that together as I continued to picture the banyan tree in my head, explaining each part of the tree and the Filipino Identity, together with tying it in with our traditional animistic beliefs.
Ah the joys of the ADHD mind when it works while hyperfocusing.
With that said, I invite you, my dear gentle reader’s (sorry I had to say that, just finished watching the lasted season of Bridgerton hehe) to come join The Tao Kollective community!
I have debated on what platforms to use for this. Discord is an option, and I did decide to create one, for those who still want to continue to use Discord as a place to connect and chat with. I have also thought of using Substack, Tumblr, Patreon, and my own blog, all to discuss my own research and thoughts and hear from you on your own thoughts of what I’ve written and researched.
All of your support, whether it’s free or monetary, will not only help support me, as I come to terms with my struggles with ADHD, and knowing where my heart and souls are set on in life, which is basically doing this. Research, archive, preserve, and immerse in our folklore, beliefs, and cultural practices and dedicating the rest of my time and life to it, but also supporting myself in this unfortunate capitalistic world that we are not meant to be living in. That’s a topic for another day.
But also to hopefully one day bring The Tao Kollective to something more. Something bigger. And if you’ve seen my stories or posts on Threads, you might already know what that is as I previously mentioned my ideas of running a physical and local Filipino Cultural and Research Center that includes a library and museum. Building an online database and library, based on the research and on the ground field studies within the Philippines and our communities, so that these folklore, beliefs, and practices may be preserved for future generations, as we learn them ourselves in our lifetime.
If you want to join the Tao Kollective, you can join and/or support me through these following ways. Come join the chat’s where available. I have just finished setting up a Discord as well for those interested in joining the conversations there. Also recently set up my fresh new blogs on Tumblr, so feel free to connect with me there if you are there as well.
Substack: The Pinay Writer
Patreon: The Pinay Writer (for those who want to support and be connected personally to me, joining me on lives, posts on what I’m personally researching at the moment, random late night posts during my late night research nights where I share my thoughts and research, sometimes including my “aha” moments, of looking at patterns and connecting the dots between certain beliefs, practices, and folklore, which we can then further discuss.)
And The Tao Kollective (for those who want to support the research of The Tao Kollective, and goal and vision of a Filipino Cultural and Research Center, Library, and Museum. Of collecting books, hard to find and out of print books, resources, examples of cultural art and music such as traditional instruments, woven textiles, mats, food, and other cultural practices. Of funding future research and immersion trips for Filipinos in the diaspora, looking to connect with their heritage and ancestors, to immerse themselves in the Philippines, listen, learn, and be engaged with the local communities in the Philippines, bridging those gaps within our communities, learning from one another, and bringing all those experiences, knowledge, and research together, so that we can share that with the community, the collective, to the roots of our banyan tree of spirits and the people’s collective.)
Tumblr: @ thepinaywriter and @ thetaokollective (currently working on editing the themes of both blogs!)
Discord: The Tao Kollective (still working on organizing the channels and roles!)
My Blog: ThePinayWriter.Com (where you can comment or drop a message on the Tagboard on my blog)
And with that, I leave you with those thoughts. Feel free to comment and share any thoughts and ideas you may have. Remember, it’s about community, and building those needed communities.
But for now, as I close a chapter in my life being on social media, I am ending this post, while looking forward to building and strengthening my communities. Of learning, researching, and connecting with those who share the same beliefs, views, and who are also connecting with their ancestors and cultural practices.
Because our ancestors survived through being in community. And it’s my hope we can continue doing that.
