Decolonizing the Diaspora through the Center for Babaylan Studies

In this chapter, I speak about my journey toward the founding of the Babaylan Studies Center and my research and activism in the reclamation of the Philippine indigenous spirit as part of the Philippine diaspora, particularly in the Filipino American space, as a Kapampangan woman. I show the entanglements between my Christian upbringing and colonialism and evidence the common struggles of Filipin@-American migrants post-1965. This chapter outlines some of the ways the global Filipino/a has taken up decolonizing and re-indigenizing through the Babaylan Studies Center.