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Recently visiting the motherland (the Philippines), I managed to capture these photos that I felt represented my ethnicity and cultural identity. The first picture includes my brother, my mother in the background and a moth. According to my mother or the Filipino culture, it is believed that butterflies are the souls/spirits of our late relatives. This visit was particularly for my late grandfather and thus, everyone regarded this moth/butterfly to be the spirit of my grandfather, visiting us.

As for the second photo, it was in the thriving market of my mother’s province. I wanted to highlight the market culture that we have in the Philippines – this isn’t something you usually see in Melbourne. But for the locals, it was the everyday norm. Think of Victoria Market but with x10 fresher produce, crowded stalls with its busy vendors, fish getting slapped everywhere and meat getting freshly cut right in front of you. This is the culture I grew up with but was slowly erased from my memory ever since my departure. It all came back to me during my visit.

A picture of your own mother already says a lot about my identity. We have about the same haircut here, similar eyes, mouth and nose. Most of my family say I look more like my dad (even my own mother). Again, this was taken during my visit in the Philippines. Seeing a photo of my mother in her youthful days really puts myself into a different perspective – my mother had a similar life like me before I was born – she was attending school, yet it was at a different time and circumstance. Hm.

I felt the need to actually include a photograph of Walt after the audio of him barking. It’s the exact same reason why I added the audio – Walt has become an integral part of my life and my family’s life, reminding us of our crazy childhood stage. This is a perfect photo because Walt was at the peak of his craziness and he was still quite small in comparison to today. It really shows how fast we grow out our childhood. Once again, I like to think of Walt as a reminder of it.

I went down to the Great Ocean Rd with my two friends from Japan. I decided to include this photo because beaches like this hold such a close part to my heart. I am in awe and entranced every time I revisit Loch Ard Gorge’s beauty – it relates to me because of my fondness towards that. The rock formations also show how unpredictable the sea can be – much like the course of one’s life.

I pretty much grew up in planes. Growing up, my dad often used to move due to his job’s demands and of course, we had to come along. We moved to Saudi Arabia – in between that was obviously long hours on the plane, transits from one country to the other, immigration, collecting the luggage, the usual. We would also travel back to the Philippines to visit every other year and also transit in different country for a day or two.

My siblings and I have experienced every sunrise, sunset, storm through the eyes of an aeroplane’s window. In short, a part of my childhood was becoming accustomed to the dry, recycled aeroplane air, the compartmentalised airplane food and the small foot space – this photo is a perfect fit for my years’ experience in an aeroplane.

‘Til next time,

Lyreca