Virtual Filipino Canadian Exhibition Brings Back the Healing Power of Nature

For this year’s Canada-wide celebration of Culture Days from September 24, 2021 to October 24, 2021, the Filipino Canadian Art Museum will be presenting “Mountain Goddess | Maria Makiling” a virtual multimedia exhibition featuring live jewelry art by Romina Urra-Gonzalez captured by photographer Allan Florendo, and a collection of paintings by artists Esmie Gayo McLaren and Charlie Frenal featuring iconic Philippine flowers.

The world saw nature’s power to regenerate and heal itself immediately after the global pandemic hit. As parts of the world step back into the new normal, the hope is that we remember to tread a little more lightly into the future. Being mindful of the impact we have on the natural world and our role in guarding all living things has been at the heart of the beloved Philippine folk story “Mountain Goddess | Maria Makiling”:

“Mariang Makiling was a goddess born of the rays of the moon, the mystery of the forest and the lullaby of the lake. Her hands and feet were soft and delicate. Her skin was clear and light brown. She had large black eyes and long abundant hair. She would stand at the edge of a cliff, flooded by the light of the moon and her hair would float in the air. She lived in a mountain surrounded by beautiful gardens. There were tall trees with straight mossy trunks. On their branches, vines would weave into beautiful laces embroidered with flowers most rare. There were various plants, from threadlike forms to broad leaves, and split or circular gigantic ferns. There were palms of all kinds, tall and graceful, with their leaves like feathers in the air

Mariang Makiling would walk gracefully above the grasslands, so light and airy that not even a single blade of grass would break. Her favorite walk was after a storm. Wherever she passed, life, order and calm was restored. The trees straightened their bent trunks and the rivers flowed back in their channels. She would sit by the river for hours, as though contemplating the slow course of the water. She would bathe in a hidden spring at midnight. The moon reigned in the midst of silence and nothing disturbed the spell of solitude. It has been many years since Mariang Makiling has last been seen. But the tale of the mysterious goddess of the mountain lives on in the light of the moon and in the shadows of the trees.”

(Adapted from: Mariang Makiling by Jose Rizal. 23 November 1890 La Solidaridad. Warren, Arnold H. (1968).
http://www.theipps.info/Presentations/makiling.pdf)

The Filipino Canadian Art Museum will be premiering the virtual exhibition on Instagram, Facebook, and on their website on September 24, 2021 at 10 am PST. A first-person view flying video through the forests of Mount Makiling, Philippines “The Filipino Mountain Goddess Experience” will also be premiered featuring the work of video creator Leonardo Barua of the Makiling Center for Mountain Ecosystems taking audiences on a flying adventure tour of Mount Makiling Forest Reserve.