Celebrate Filipino Heritage month, Pride month, and Indigenous resistance from Turtle Island to the Philippines with Unravelling: a group exhibition and zine launch by habi-habi po! 

habi habi po is a collective of Toronto-based Filipino/a/x artists Maria Patricia Abuel, Bianca Isabel Garcia, and Norwin Anne Pabitu, who focus on building community through traditional textile art practices to preserve Philippine cultural heritage and revive ancestral connections.   

As part of the exhibition, habi habi po will be launching their second zine: habilin.  Meaning "something given for safekeeping” or “will”, habilin is a transnational community zine featuring the work of Filipino/a/x artists, researchers, and writers from both the Philippine archipelago and diaspora.

habi habi po thanks Artist Resistance Through Solidarity for their support of this project. 

Exhibition Statement

Unravelling is a multidisciplinary exhibition on Filipino/a/x diasporic self-representations that reveals the intertwined connections between the textile waste of today's fast fashion industry, the resounding consequences of American imperialism and Canadian settler colonialism, and intergenerational matriarchal histories. 

Unlearning and rejecting the normalized culture of disposability that promotes excessive consumerism and extreme individualism at the cost of environmental destruction and the invisibility of garment workers, we hold steadfast in our hearts the creative sustainable habits instilled in us by our Filipino immigrant families—in particular, our mothers, aunts, and grandmothers. Together as a collective, we practice the Philippine weaving and textile traditions of the basahan, banig, and terno by repurposing and reclaiming discarded, forgotten textiles as a means to detangle grief, to bear witness to varying embodiments of colonial violence, and finally, to ask, "how can we pass on these practices to take care of this land and each other?" 

An Offering: honouring our collective grief and the lives affected by the Lapu Lapu Festival Tragedy 

Guests of all backgrounds are invited to contribute to a collective altar on the second floor of the gallery.  Please bring or prepare small atang (offerings) to honour Datu Lapu Lapu and the spirit of Indigenous resistance, the lives lost at the festival, and the loved ones left behind.  Offerings can be food or drink, gifts from the earth, or something you’ve made.  Bikolano artist/ educator/ healer Lukayo will share a prayer and altar protocols beginning at 3:30 PM. 

Unravelling by habi habi po 

June 14 – July 19, 2025 
Online artist talk: Wednesday June 25, 7:00 – 8:00 PM. Register on Zoom
Mask Days Saturdays July 5 & 12

Join us for the in-person vernissage: 
Saturday, June 14 
2:00 – 5:00 PM