Sinag Fernandez




GAWA
Gawa Gathering is an art fundraiser exploring Filipino culture, diaspora, and resistance.  Funds raised suppoted an international human rights trip to the Philippines coordinated by the Asia-Pacific Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines

Structured around four thematic stops — Laya (freedom), Kain (food sovereignty), Uwi (homelanding and forced migration), and Kwento (folklore and collective memory), the themes provided a way for attendees to accessibly engage with key issues facing Filipino and other diaspora communities.

Bringing together zine-making, original paintings and prints, handmade jewellery and crafts, themed zine bundles, and seeds and seedlings, the name of the event gawa, meaning "make", "work", "labour", "craft", "create" — to position art-making itself as an act of resistance and solidarity, while drawing relations to the labour shaping the Filipino migration to Aoteaeroa and elsewhere.

 A site of hope, healing, and storytelling, Gawa Gathering connected young people to the realities of the Filipino people through artistic engagement and material contribution.
Featuring Soil of Cultures, Marc Conaco, Sinag Fernandez, Jo Rico, Jam L., Chris Burgos, Sinag Fernandez, Anakbayan Aotearoa, and Shahade

September 2025
Old Folks Association









3-IN-1  features a zine launch, a report, and a writing and zine workshop. These three components center around a 2025 youth solidarity trip to the Philippines supported by the Gawa Gathering fundraiser.


1/3: REPORT

 Through zines and discussion, delegates shared insights into the concrete conditions faced by the Filipino people and their continuing struggle for justice, human rights, and liberation.

2/3: ZINE LAUNCH

Lupang lumalangit lumalahong umaagos, translating to 'land heavening fading flowing', tells the story of an Aeta tribe displaced by militarisation, government corruption, and capital greed told from the perspective of the tribe's nominal chief.

Padayon Paraiso foregrounds a farming community situated deep in the forest, where women organisers and farmers of varying livelihoods reside. These women pursue genuine land reform and experience harassment and intimidation from landlords in connivance with the state. In spite of this, they continue fighting for a liberated future. Padayon is a Bisaya term meaning 'to move forward' and 'to continue'. Paraiso is a Tagalog word meaning 'paradise'.

3/3: WRITING AND ZINE WORKSHOP

Audiences were invited to write in response to words connected to the lived experiences of communities immersed in the programme. Broad and resonant, these words echo across the Philippines, Aotearoa, and elsewhere, a reminder of our interconnected struggles. Participants were then invited to transform their writings into a zine.

Facilitated by Sinag Fernandez, Janica Bayogan, and Eugene Velasco
Documentation by Angelique Estanislao

May 2026
Aaiotanga Community Space



2/3: ZINE LAUNCH
2/3: ZINE LAUNCH
2/3: ZINE LAUNCH
3/3 WRITING AND ZINE WORKSHOP
3/3 WRITING AND ZINE WORKSHOP
3/3 WRITING AND ZINE WORKSHOP








Get To Know Our Plant Neighbours is a workshop engaging in community research and to map and gather information about the plant species currently growing at Binhi and Tā Tātou Māra Kai. Local knowledge is developed over time by the community and is important to building kai resilience and adapting to a changing climate.

This community-led research project by Soil of Cultures, in collaboration with GAWA, is an evolving inquiry into what plant biodiversity can teach us about culture, ecology, kai resilience and adaptation, and their intersections with migration, colonisation, food politics and the climate crises.

The drawings and knowledge gathered during the workshop will contribute to a seasonal journal documenting the plants of the Binhi project and the knowledge held by the communities who care for them.
Documentation by Marc Conaco

August 2026
Binhi Garden, Molley Green Reserve