This workshop explored the potential of establishing one’s own martial-spiritual connection by adopting practices from Indigenous Filipino Martial Arts. Prioritizing the unification of mind, body, and spirit as one functioning unit for protection and consolation, participants designed personalized weapons and imbued them with the power of prayer, also known as orasyon. Self-defense requires a level of self-importance that far exceeds the norm, which can be activated by invoking a warrior ethos.

Participants gathered with practitioners from the Philippine diaspora who have borrowed from Indigenous ritual and traditions as part of Filipino American History Month. Offerings included Hilot treatments (Ablon Seated Therapy) provided by Ngani Liwayway (spaces limited), demonstrations by The Chrysalis Kali Collective, and a Kamayan-style Filipino finger-food grazing table.

Self Defense Series

This event was part of an artist-led Self Defense Series at CTHQ. This series considered what it means to come together to form safety of self and safety of the collective through a spectrum of modes of empowerment, collaboration, and healing. These workshops featured artists who provide practical and critical skills to their communities, while challenging traditional definitions of self defense.

Other events in the Self Defense Series were:

Thursday, October 26th, 6:30-8:30 PM: “I Can Beat You Up”: Angry Asian Womxn and Sisters in Self Defense

Wednesday, November 1st, 7:00-8:30 PM: Workshop with Trans Boxing

About Caroline Garcia

Caroline is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, New York. She works across performance, moving image, and installation through a hybridized aesthetic of cross-cultural movement, embodied research, and new media. Her current body of work resists assimilation tactics across the transpacific through a critical engagement with violence. Citing a lineage of Guerrilleras from the Philippine Islands, she proposes unique renderings of survival strategies informed by elements of Indigenous Filipino culture and traditions including ritual headhunting and martial arts. By initiating her own recuperation of violence, Caroline creates gateways for both self and collective actualization and preservation to engage with larger systemic themes of grief, immigration, and safety.