Kahalla

This year we uplift one of FAJ’s guiding values: Makibaka: Fighting for Collective Power! This t-shirt art was created by Kahalla, a queer Black and Ilúko multi-media storyteller, archivist, land steward, and healing practitioner from Huichin, or the unceded Ohlone lands known as Oakland. Holding inter-generational threads between materiality, embodiment, and quantum healing, Kahalla interweaves practices of retrieval, gathering, and channeling, with the intention of cultivating living bridges that connect Ancestral and interpersonal histories to liberation-rooted futures.

Inspired by the anthology “Back From the Crocodile’s Belly”, a gender-expansive being wields a machete on the back of the powerful water guardian, an embodiment of the primordial Ancestors. Encircling them is the chant born from a legacy of movements against fascist dictatorships in the Philippines: “Makibaka—huwag matakot” or, “Fight—do not be afraid!” in precolonial Baybayin script. In old stories, the Babaylans (spirit-healers) were thrown to the crocodiles by colonizers. This image explores the power of collective liberation through a global Kapwa consciousness—emerging from the mouth of our intended demise, protected by the cumulative power of those who came before.