Maria Prieto

I.

You come for a private island experience

to say you can blow a hundred grand

a night.

In the warmth of Banwa’s glittering white sand

in the company of the Sulu Sea

An iconic social media story

II.

I come looking for my mother

underneath the designer furniture,

peeling back floorboards, deconstructing

walls built by Tagbanwa,

the natives of the land uprooted

by colonial machines.

These bottomless piggy banks

dressed in the ethos of Tagbanwa

The great pretender

The new masters of Banwa tell me,

You will find your mother in the Tabon caves

I enter, finding cavities in the stone

Which museum do I call

for my ancestor’s skulls?

Rice-wine as an offering, I summon the diwata,

Bring them home

I ask the Hawksbill turtles, the dugongs, the Tabon birds,

Do you feel protected?

They say that is what’s promised, however

they do not talk to the new self-anointed masters and their guests

for they always appear hungry

III.

A camera’s flash captures a moment

The tourist says, Thank you,

breathes in the view of the Pacific

The worker, smiles back,

meditates on the harvest of sugarcane

Here, before the famine

On ‘Before the Famine’

Inspired by Caroline Hau's novel, ‘Tiempo Muerto’, Maria Prieto explores the modern-day commercialisation of Banwa and the subsequent forced displacement of Tagbanwa, the natives of the land. As these are processes that find their roots and sustenance in its colonial past, this poem spotlights how contemporary tourism in Banwa maintains unequal social power dynamics. Galvanised by her own experience of emigrating from the Philippines, Maria reflects on the way in which colonial mentality still permeates Philippine society.

Art courtesy of Amelia Earhart (@aaaearhart).