Outback Filipino fiesta

SINGING, dancing and celebrating with food are characteristics of Filipino culture, making one of the country’s fiestas the ideal match for Blackall’s upcoming Heartland Festival.

The festival, due to start today, is a celebration of all that Blackall has to offer from an art and cultural perspective.

The Filipino Fiesta and Sinulog Parade, which will close the festival on June 11, is traditionally a colourful display from locals of Filipino origin, where beautiful costumes, creative floats, and dancing create one of the most anticipated days on the town's calendar.

Blackall has been a focal point for Filipino immigrants to the Central West for many years.

After her marriage, Enri Jensen came to Isisford in 1983 and moved to Blackall in 1990.

Originally from the Bicol region in southern Luzon province, Enri said she didn’t find it hard to get used to living in Australia.

"I’m very adaptable, and my husband’s family treated me like one of their own," she said.

Although she grew up without electricity or sealed roads, she moved to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, for work and night classes in dressmaking.

"I started working with designers, but when I came to Australia I didn’t sew for two years," she said.

"Then I thought I’d make a few things for my children and pretty soon everyone wanted me to make something for them."

Enri now runs a sewing supply shop and dressmaking business in Blackall.

She often joins other members of the Filipino community in celebrating birthdays and special events, saying that they are always having dinner together and often end up singing.

"Every year in the Philippines people went home for their fiesta, a big occasion when everyone got together," Enri said.

"Each village has its own patron and the fiesta is a way to thank them."

She recalled the colour of her village’s celebration, involving a large decorated boat on which the patron was taken out to sea, followed by a flotilla of smaller craft, and lots of bands and music.

Blackall people got their first taste of this vibrant tradition when a number of women were approached to demonstrate their dances at community events a few years ago.

Their display was enthusiastically received, and with the aid of Blackall’s Catholic parish, their first Fiesta was celebrated in 2005.

Young and old alike are sharing in the cultural experience this year, with Blackall State School students and 60s and Better members learning some of the dance moves for a display during the afternoon of the Fiesta.

Enri and her friends have also been taking cooking classes in the leadup to the day, teaching traditional dishes such as Misua (pork/seafood) soup and Beef Mitsadu.

"This fiesta is a pleasure for us, as it means we can look back to the old days," Enri said.

This year’s Fiesta will also celebrate Philippines Independence Day, which commemmorates the occasion in 1898 when revolutionary forces proclaimed their independence from Spanish colonial rule.

Women from Longreach, Jericho and Toowoomba are coming to Blackall for the day to help with the cooking, singing and dancing, swelling the numbers of the local Filipino community, which now stands at 12.

Although Enri, who obtained her Australian citizenship in 1984, has been back to the Philippines three times, she now feels like a stranger there.

"The Philippines is like New York," she said.

"I grew up with the tradition of Sinulog but it’s dying out now, and people don’t understand me when I speak anymore."

Looking forward to being a grandmother in July, Enri declares she will probably end her days in Blackall.

"I’ve got my roots here now."