Cristina Lazo
Welcome to May PERAan. Tampok ang mga kababayan
nating magbibigay ng praktikal na paraan para
kumita ng pera. Pwedeng side hustle o raket
investment negosyo at iba pa. Makakausap natin
ngayon ang may-ari ng isang community space na
taga Sydney, si Mariam Arcilla Hello Mariam,
Cristina Lazo
Unang-una kailan nagsimula itong community space
na to? So tell us how you opened up your private
space to accommodate itong mga micro-workshops,
food gatherings. Sige, ikwento mo.
Mariam Arcilla
Magenta House started in April 2023. But the
origin story would be traced to my Lola's bakery
at home. Kasi I grew up in Cubao, Quezon City. And
my Lola and Lolo had a big family of eight kids.
And so we had a bakery underneath my bedroom. We
always had people in and out our bahay. And after
the bakeries closed, we would give a lot of our
pagpag. pandesal and fruitcakes to the neighbors.
And so, I was always used to the act of community
building through food. And so, when I moved to
Sydney, I really wanted to carry the spirit of my
Lola into the work that I do as a community
worker. And so, opening up Magenta House, I ended
up starting a library, a test kitchen so you can
teach people how to cook, Halo-halo workshop,
reading sessions, language classes. So that's how
it started in April 2023.
Cristina Lazo
Isa kang art consultant, writer, at community
facilitator. So paano ang iyong time management
Mariam Arcilla
Wala nang time management. I think my time
management is much better now when I am an
independent worker. Kasi I used to work for almost
30 years in institutions and organizations. So I'm
juggling multiple deadlines, projects,
stakeholders, so many artists you're working with.
And so I really got trained or had to train myself
in having to juggle a lot of time management. And
so I brought that teaching with me. It's very
important to have boundaries. I think as a
Filipina, we're so used to accommodating and being
hospitable and giving so much of ourselves to
people. And what I've learned is that you can't
really do that all the time without burning out.
The reason why I use my own time and resources in
the way that works for me. Open on weekends,
sometimes we open during the week, sometimes I
have days off. Management is very important and
it's from just years of learning what not to do.
Spend the time to build a website with a visiting
schedule. So if you wanted to visit to read in the
library, there's lots of Filipino history books
here and cookbooks. Or if you wanted to come to
our workshop, there is a scheduling portal where
you book. So that gives me that private life and a
public life when I want to. So we have all of our
events and programs downstairs. And then upstairs
is where tulog na, you know? So yeah.
Cristina Lazo
Let's talk about kung mga magkano yung pondo or
kapital, lalo na nung sinet-up mo na itong
micro-workshops. pati yung online store, kasi diba
madaming aspects yung iyong negosyo?
Mariam Arcilla
Self-funded. Wala nang grant, wala nang government
support ng the Artist Run Initiative. I used all
of my savings from working consultant, as a
writer, as a community facilitator, and I decided
to start this as a voluntary initiative. And how
we make income is that the workshops that we have,
sometimes we'll have a workshop that will cost
little bit higher than the usual, then that ticket
will offset or it will pay for somebody to have a
free spot in the workshop. So a lot of it is
community endeavors, mutual aid. We hire at the
house for photo shoots sometimes and then that
pays for the free poetry workshops that we have.
So that's a way that I'm able to sustain and pay
ourselves a little bit for the labor, for the food
materials, for the ingredients. Kasi Sydney is
mahal. There's a lot of expensive things to
consider here. And so we try to make things
accessible. If you're a Pinoy in the diaspora or
wanted to know more about Filipino culture, it's a
really rare place to get to experience that. So
people are willing to pay. So that's the way that
I'm able to sustain. And we also actually have a
tahanan at the back of the house. So the shop, I
have Filipino book textiles from Iloilo and Cebu.
Sayan artists making artisanal heritage products.
And then I sell them, and then the money that I
make goes back into the program.
Cristina Lazo
Why is it important for you to celebrate the
Filipino heritage? Bakit importante sa'yo yun?
Mariam Arcilla
Because I have such a massive gratitude and
privilege of being a Filipina in the diaspora, I
feel like Filipino people are absurdly resilient
and incredibly creative and innovative. You look
at the food that we have, you look at the
asintibok that we have preserved for 500 years,
you look at the sawsawan and all the experimental
food that we've been able to actually create
through our minds and our souls. You think about
the dieties and the diwatas that we pay tribute
to. You think about how strong our ancestral
lineage is. Across the archipelago, the
revitalization of language and culture is so
strong and how active we are in making sure that
the Filipino culture remains intact even though
we're not on the archipelago, we're in the
diaspora. I think it's so important to always
rebraid our ancestral roots through projects like
this. I feel so privileged to be a Filipina. Like
so much of what I do that is so rooted in the way
that we care about people, the way that we love
using food, for example, as a way to show our love
and care, and the way that we take care of our
elders. And so when we have workshops and programs
in Magenta, It's intergenerational. There's a lot
of nanays that bring their daughters here. There's
a lot of young Filipinos that want to learn
bilingual classes. So it's very important. I feel
like I have a responsibility to continue that as a
Cristina Lazo
So what is your purpose in sharing your private
space to people? What's at the heart of this
particular intention you have?
Mariam Arcilla
That's a great question, Ate. The intention really
is to bring people together through the spirit of
art-making, cultural endeavors, and communion. So,
circulate knowledge, to be proud of their culture,
even if it's not Filipino. We have a lot of people
who are from the Pacifica, from all parts of Asia,
from the indigenous communities, and it's so
important to them into a shared base where we can
all take care of one another and learn about
everyone else's culture as well. And the reason
why we do it at the bahay is because a home is
such a sacred and vulnerable place. It's so
different to going to like a big auditorium and
talking at somebody in a crowd. It feels cold
sometimes. It feels clinical. But in this space,
you can come up to your favorite poet and have a
conversation with them. Or you can grieve about
your lola, which I did recently when my lola
passed away, in a room full of strangers that will
become your friends because we all share that
sense of kapwa. So that is the purpose of
Cristina Lazo
Ano ang risk pag pumunta ka sa ganitong klaseng
Mariam Arcilla
Financial risk is ever-present. I'm not in it to
make money. So I try and find other things. You
know, I apply for grants or I work with other
collaborators on other projects. And then that
fuels the money back into the space. The risk of
you inviting strangers into your house. You're
very conscious about security and privacy. And
also our neighbors. Making sure that our neighbors
feel safe as well when we invite people over. I'm
very lucky in that because my background is in
marketing and communication. Making sure that the
right people come into our home. And when I say
the right people, I mean people who are invested
in sharing their stories and mutual respect about
going into someone's home, taking off your shoes,
sharing energies that are positive and that are
very generous. So we've been lucky with that.
Cristina Lazo
Let's talk about yung iba-ibang aspeto ng iyong
negosyo. So meron kang online store, meron kang
micro-workshops. How do you plan to scale? Ang
Mariam Arcilla
Too much work lang. One day, it would be so nice
to come back home to Quezon City and start the
house there. But that is a very long time down the
line kasi I'm so embedded here in Sydney. But my
dream is to open a proper shop kasi ang maliit ng
bahay ko, only three meters wide. I'm running out
of space. The hope is one day that my
collaborators and I, so I work with Anya from Anne
Hill Fabrics, from Super Indays, and Iloilo, and
Aubrey from Abanico. Being able to support their
businesses and practices by having a shop here in
Australia is a big dream of mine. So that is a
publication arm. So I want to be able to publish
artists of Filipino heritage through our projects
because my background is in independent
publications. We sell and promote and poetry by
Filipino artists who are in Australia and
Philippines. So in the future, publishing their
work so that they can continue to their livelihood
Cristina Lazo
Final message, Mariam, sa mga gustong kumita ng
extra or those who want to start their own
business, kausapin mo sila ngayon.
Mariam Arcilla
I feel that you should just dive into it with an
expectation that there's going to be a lot of work
but it's going to be super rewarding at the end of
the day. If your vision is pure and if you have
community at the forefront of your thinking and of
your decisions, then you will be a success.
Because money will always follow, right? If you
actually feel like you're on the right path. So my
advice is, like younger artwork, I had three
things that helped my decision. So if I had to say
yes to a job or working on a project, I would do
these three things. Is it interesting? Is it
challenging? Does it make money? It has to be
either two out of three, right? It's interesting.
It is challenging because there's lots of events
that we have to kind of get our head around. And
then the money will follow because it's not as
important as cultural preservation, as connection,
as barkada making, as kapwa preservation. It
naturally follows. So that should be your guiding
Cristina Lazo
Dahil diyan, maraming maraming salamat kay Mariam
Arcilla. Thank you, Mariam!
Mariam Arcilla
Thank you so much!
Cristina Lazo
Tandaan niyo, mapapakinggan itong podcast sa
www.sbs.com.au slash Filipino. Tandaan, huwag
ma-stress sa pera. Matuto mula sa iba dito sa May
Peraan. May Peraan. May Peraan.
