2026

This year is a special year for Knowledge Kapamilya.

In its third year, we have both new faces and returning faces, freshmen and graduates: students that are familiar with the Burke collections, and students whom Kapamilya is their first foray into any museum storage; students that are beginning their college career, and students who were a part of Kapamilya’s first and second cohorts.

For many college students within the Filipino diaspora—whether first generation or third generation—there exists a missed connection between identity and heritage. What does it mean to be Filipino, without having ever visited the Philippines, nor speaking neither Tagalog, Ilocano, Cebuano? What does it mean to be Filipino, if I didn’t grow up eating bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) or ginataan hipon (shrimp braised in coconut milk), nor heard any stories about my parents or grandparents before migrating to the new homeland? What does it mean to be Filipino, if I didn’t grow up around other Filipinos, or know anything about the Philippines?

Perhaps many of us grew up in an environment where we didn’t observe Philippine heritage every day. But, maybe we should also consider the idea of conflating identity as a checklist of identifiers (i.e. must have a Filipino last name, or must have several middle names; must have grown up with a house rule of no outside clothes on the bed; must speak a Philippine language) as not a true indicator for what (or who) defines having Filipino heritage. Rather than defining being Filipino as an inventory of experiences and knowledge, it can encompass the connections and relationships we build with other fellow Filipinos.