We recently connected with Kirin Macapugay and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Kirin thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.

I come from the Indigenous peoples of the Philippines collectively known as “Igorots” or “Cordillerans,” from the five major tribes of the Cordillera region of northern Luzon–Benguet, Ifugao, Bontoc, Apayao, and Kalinga. In the Philippines and the diaspora, many of my people faced discrimination, and some do not carry our identities as proudly as my parents do. My Kalinga mother and Bontoc father taught me our cultural traditions as far back as I can remember. Early photos of me as a baby show me decked out in heirloom beads. The sound of gongs playing, the bright red of our traditional handwoven fabrics, are all ingrained in my memory. I remember my mom dressing me in our traditional tapis (woven skirt) and sending me to school during Halloween. My culture is not a costume, but she wanted me to be unique and did not see the need for me to pretend I was a fictional character. This pride in my culture would carry me through hearing disparaging remarks about my people, and I will educate others as long as my breath will let me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Seeing misappropriation and misinformation about my indigenous cultures, plus a call from other Igorots, led me to create IKAT, Indigenous Knowledge, Art, and Truth in 2021 with five other indigenous people from the Philippines. My work extends to greater civic engagement, solidarity, and education work. In 2015, I founded APICA–Asian Pacific Islander Community Actions–a nonprofit hub for grassroots projects including the People’s Collective for Justice and Liberation and the Kuya Ate Mentorship Program. Beyond the cultures I was born in, the cultures of the neighborhoods I love are very important to me. I believe in telling the stories of the communities that raised me. I am Chair for Made in Paradise Hills–a collective of entrepreneurs, artists, and community leaders with roots in Paradise Hills; a founding board member for San Diego Asian Pacific Islander Coalition, and a core member of FIERCE Policy Forum. With a background in community organizing and developing community-based projects, I am honored to be tenured faculty at San Diego City College leading the Human Services department and PEER–the only program of its kind preparing students with lived experience in homelessness to work in organizations combatting homelessness, a partnership with the San Diego Housing Commission and the City of San Diego. I serve on the Governing Board for Southwestern College, where I am an alum, making me currently the only Filipina-American in public office in San Diego County. I am Vice Chair of the Higher Education Committee on the California Commission on Asian Pacific Islander Affairs, and serve on the Asian Pacific Islander Advisory for San Diego Mayor Gloria. I was also the former Chair of the Chula Vista Cultural Arts Commission and served on the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture. I was awarded “Best Professor” by San Diego State University School of Social Work Students in 2016, “Present Day Civil Rights Woman Leader” by RISE San Diego in 2017 (the only Filipina thus far to receive this honor), “Civic Leader of the Year” by Asian Pacific American Coalition in 2020, a County of San Diego “District Shero” by Supervisor Vargas in 2021, and a “Woman Who Inspires Us” by San Diego Magazine in 2021.

I published “An Introduction to Social Work, Empowering People and Communities,” with Cognella publishing. I have been featured by NPR, PBS, NBC, CBS, ABC, Union Tribune, San Diego Magazine, Voyager San Diego, Asian Journal, Filipino Press, and others. I have a Master’s in Social Work from San Diego State University, a Certificate in Indigenous People’s Rights from Columbia University, and am currently a Doctorate of Social Work candidate at the University of Southern California.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

There were, and are, times when I am the only woman, or person of color in a room. That is changing more now, thankfully, but in those moments, I felt I had to quiet parts of myself to appear as if I belonged in certain spaces. I know now that I do not have to live that way. All this work, the titles, and roles I hold, I attribute to the lessons I have learned as an Indigenous person—accountability to my community, the commitment to collective well-being, and the need to carry all my identities at all times. The things that make me unique are my strengths, from my cultural heritage to the community I grew up in.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Along with my five co-founders of IKAT, we curated a collection of academic and community-based journal articles and historical documents in addition to our ethnographic and anecdotal collection of work around Igorot and Indigenous socioeconomic and cultural issues. These can be found on ikatvoices.com. This collection, and the ongoing work, inform the holistic lens I take when I educate others. We cannot discuss the benefits of Indigenous knowledge while separating ongoing discrimination. We can not discuss “Indigenous medicine” without touching on medical and public health disparities Indigenous People and other marginalized communities face worldwide. I also recommend these various anthologies where my personal story is shared: Reclaiming our Stories volume 2, by P. Alexander, et al. shares my growing up in Paradise Hills during the rise of 90s Asian gangs and how these experiences impacted my life to this day; The Pilipinx Radical Imagination Reader, by M. Nievera-Lozano and T. Santa Ana; Representation over Visibility by A. Oleano; and Impower You by L Oviedo.

Contact Info:

• Website: kirinmac.com

Image Credits
BKM Photography & Design