For years, I rarely saw my culture in the media. The Wiggles helped change that
While scrolling on Instagram recently, I saw John Adamo Pearce – the purple Wiggle – teaching kids how to sing Bahay Kubo, the Filipino song I sang as a child that names vegetables growing in a backyard. Pearce, a proud Filipino-Australian, often showcases his culture through fun Instagram reels with his mum, Flordeliza.
When I see my culture represented in the media, I still experience a 'pinch-me' feeling. Growing up in the '70s and '80s, it was rare to see it depicted in mainstream Western media. But that's gradually changing.
Two years ago, Sesame Street introduced TJ, the first Filipino-American Muppet. Arvin Garcia, a Filipino nurse from Melbourne, won the reality cooking show The Great Australian Bake Off last year. And in the 2023 season, MasterChef Australia featured Filipino-Australian chefs, including Ross Magnaye, cooking traditional dishes (both Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay have dined at Magnaye's Melbourne restaurant, Serai, with Ramsay hailing Magnaye's taco sisig as the best dish he's tasted in years).
There's more: the Good Food Guide (produced by Nine, publisher of Sunday Life) awarded one hat to Askal, a Filipino restaurant in Melbourne. The owners of Askal have also opened a bar called Inuman (Filipino for 'drinking session'), making it the first rooftop bar in Australia that serves cocktails using ingredients such as lemongrass, durian, lambanog (Palm liquor), ube (purple yam) and pandan.
Representation matters. It is empowering for children of any non-white background to see their culture showcased in the media. It is not just about cultural pride; seeing someone in the media who looks like them sends the message that they, too, can succeed.
In 2022, there were 320,300 Filipino-born people living in Australia, up from 206,110 a decade earlier. This makes us the fifth-largest migrant community in the country. But that fact hasn't stopped me from sometimes feeling isolated.
As an exchange student in Perth in 1994, I was the only Filipino in my dorm. A Singaporean roommate said to me, 'You're the first Filipina I met who's my equal.' I don't think she meant to be disrespectful. But the only people from my culture she encountered in Singapore in the '90s were domestic helpers. I am mighty proud of these women; they are often teachers who make the sacrifice of working abroad to provide financially for their families at home.
I am often mistaken for Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Singaporean or Chinese. At university, many Spanish-speaking students assumed I'd be Latina because of my surname. Recently, an Australian neighbour told me, 'You're not like the other Asians. You don't use chopsticks, right?'
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23 minutes ago
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RIP Brian." - John Cusack, who played Wilson in the 2014 biopic "Love & Mercy," on X "Rest in Peace!" - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, on Instagram "Oh no Brian Wilson and Sly Stone in one week - my world is in mourning. so sad." - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, on X "Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson's genius magical touch !! And greatly saddened of this major worldly loss!! My thoughts go out to his family and friends." - Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, on X "First Sly, now Brian ... this is really just ..." - Maggie Rogers wrote on her Instagram Story, adding a heartbreak emoji "God bless Brian, peace and love to all the family, peace and love Ringo and Barbara." - Ringo Starr, on X "Anyone who really knows me knows how heart broken I am about Brian Wilson passing. Not many people influenced me as much as he did. I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him. 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RIP Brian." - John Cusack, who played Wilson in the 2014 biopic "Love & Mercy," on X "Rest in Peace!" - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, on Instagram "Oh no Brian Wilson and Sly Stone in one week - my world is in mourning. so sad." - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, on X "Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson's genius magical touch !! And greatly saddened of this major worldly loss!! My thoughts go out to his family and friends." - Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, on X "First Sly, now Brian ... this is really just ..." - Maggie Rogers wrote on her Instagram Story, adding a heartbreak emoji "God bless Brian, peace and love to all the family, peace and love Ringo and Barbara." - Ringo Starr, on X "Anyone who really knows me knows how heart broken I am about Brian Wilson passing. Not many people influenced me as much as he did. I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him. 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Rest in peace dear Brian." - Bob Dylan, on X "Brian Wilson was my friend and my brother in songwriting. We shared a similar sensibility, as evidenced by his 4 over 5 chord under 'Aaaah!' in 'Good Vibrations' and mine under 'I'm Into Something Good.' We once discussed who used it first, and in the end we decided it didn't matter. The world will miss Brian, but we are so lucky to have his music." - Carole King, on Facebook "I know Orbison is the king of emo, but man if there was a human being who made art out of inexpressible sadness ... damn it was Brian Wilson." - Questlove, on Instagram "The maestro has passed - the man was an open heart with two legs - with an ear that heard the angels. Quite literally. Love and Mercy for you and yours tonight. RIP Brian." - John Cusack, who played Wilson in the 2014 biopic "Love & Mercy," on X "Rest in Peace!" - Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, on Instagram "Oh no Brian Wilson and Sly Stone in one week - my world is in mourning. so sad." - Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, on X "Anyone with a musical bone in their body must be grateful for Brian Wilson's genius magical touch !! And greatly saddened of this major worldly loss!! My thoughts go out to his family and friends." - Fleetwood Mac drummer Mick Fleetwood, on X "First Sly, now Brian ... this is really just ..." - Maggie Rogers wrote on her Instagram Story, adding a heartbreak emoji "God bless Brian, peace and love to all the family, peace and love Ringo and Barbara." - Ringo Starr, on X "Anyone who really knows me knows how heart broken I am about Brian Wilson passing. Not many people influenced me as much as he did. I feel very lucky that I was able to meet him and spend some time with him. 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