Buklod Kababaihang Filipina
Next performance Friday, September 16, 7.30pm
Lion Theatre, Lion Arts Centre, cnr North Terrace & Morphett St, Adelaide
$15/$10 concession
Phone 345 3510 for bookings
Reviewed by Chris Spindler

In a moving 45-minute performance, Buklod Kababaihang Filipina (Filipina Women Survivors of Family Violence) depicts in a series of sketches, stories and songs the real experiences of 10 Filipina women.

Through their performance, the women aim to increase the understanding and knowledge of family violence against Filipina women in Australia.

The performance adds to the calls for an inquiry into the large number of violent deaths and disappearances of Filipina women in Australian marriages. There have been 19 in the past six years.

The clear message throughout the performance is that domestic violence is prevalent particularly in “serial sponsorships”. A study of serial sponsorships by the Australian Department of Immigration found domestic violence in 80 out of 110 cases.

The performance is so powerful because it tells of the women taking control of their own lives and directly challenges stereotypes of Filipina women which portray them as passive, subservient, uneducated and being “done a favour” by being taken out of their poverty.

One of the skits, “The Jail Keeper”, depicts the emotional abuse suffered by a Filipina woman from her husband, who won't allow her out of the house or let her eat Filipino food or get to know any other Australians until she has had enough and walks out.

“Where's the door?” and “I want to keep my baby” show how the women have to fight to win some independence from the abuse and lack of control over their own lives.

The skit “News Item”, read out by several of the women, sums up some of the broader issues confronted in the play:

“Australian men are sponsoring a succession of women as fiancees or spouses. Some men have sponsored up to eight women, while it is not uncommon for men to have sponsored up to three. Exact figures are unavailable, as the Department of immigration refuses to provide the information.

“There is a growing body of evidence of men sponsoring women as fiancees or spouses, sexually, physically and/or emotionally abusing them and then abandoning them before moving on to sponsor another woman and repeating the cycle.

“There are successful Filipina-Australian marriages. Filipina wives and their Australian husbands are angered at the stereotyping caused by the high percentage of serial sponsors mistreating their wives. There have been calls for the federal government to reveal the personal details of Australian sponsors to their would-be wives ...

“However, the minister of immigration and ethnic affairs, Senator Bolkus, continues to hold out against calls for Filipina women to be given access in Manila to a full personal history of their intended Australian sponsor ...”

The next performance of Buklod Kababaihang Filipina in Adelaide will raise money for participants to attend a national gathering titled “Stopping Violence Against Filipina Women in Australia: A Government and Community Responsibility.

This article was posted on the Green Left Weekly Home Page.
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