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In this episode, host Chachie Abara dives into DreamWorks' Forgotten Island to look beyond the fantasy and folklore, unpacking its deeply relatable themes of diaspora trauma, identity, and mental health. As a 1.5-generation Filipina-American, Chachie breaks down the psychological weight behind Jo and Raissa’s journey on the mystical island of Nakali. What starts as an epic animated adventure quickly mirrors real-world immigrant anxieties: the terrifying fear of losing touch with your roots, the grief of cultural erasure during assimilation, and the emotional toll of trying to preserve lifelong friendships when your worlds begin to shift. Tune in for an insightful conversation on: The 1.5-Gen Experience: How navigating life between two cultures shapes identity and belonging. Cultural Erasure & Memory: The quiet grief of adapting to a new world without forgetting who you are. Friendship as an Anchor: The vital role of Kapwa (shared identity) and keeping your safe spaces alive through life's transitions. Whether you're a fan of Philippine mythology or looking to destigmatize mental health conversations within immigrant communities, this episode offers a warm, validating space for collective healing.

Welcome to a brand-new season of Bannuar Voices (formerly Kasamahan Co). We’re kicking things off by stripping away the polished edits and inviting you directly into the room with us for a special, uncut season opener. In a world that often asks us to curate, shorten, and package our truths, this episode is a deliberate space to slow down. We’re holding space for the full, messy, and beautiful complexity of our stories—the long pauses, the spontaneous laughter, the deep breaths, and the real talk that usually gets left on the cutting room floor. Inside This Episode Unedited Brief Connection: Experience the full depth of our conversation exactly as it unfolded—authentic, vulnerable, and grounded in community. Next Episode will feature more on: Honoring Our Roots: We reflect on our transition from Kasamahan Co to Bannuar Voices, unpacking what it truly means to step into courage and honor the "everyday heroes" in our families and neighborhoods. Generational Truths: Candid reflections on identity, diaspora life, holding onto cultural roots, and navigating the quiet moments of healing and growth. Note to Listeners: Because this is an uncut release, you’ll hear all the organic warmth, conversational tangents, and genuine moments as they naturally happened. Thank you for walking this path with me!

Welcome to Season 11 of Bannuar Voices (formerly Kasamahan Co). What started as a shared table to bring our community together has grown into a living, breathing archive of our stories. This season, we’re stepping fully into our rebrand to Bannuar—the Ilokano word for hero or brave pioneer. We’re moving away from distant legends and turning the mic toward the everyday heroes in our neighborhoods, families, and diaspora: the storytellers, elders, organizers, artists, and quiet changemakers keeping our heritage alive. Unfiltered Conversations: Moving past polished edits to hold space for raw, honest, and human storytelling. Deep Roots & Diaspora Narratives: Exploring identity, ancestral wisdom, labor, and generational healing across the Ilokano and Filipinx community. Radical Community Care: Honest discussions on what it means to show up for each other, build resilience, and shape public space. Whether you’ve been walking with us since Episode 1 or you’re pulling up a chair for the very first time—welcome home. Your story belongs here. Subscribe & Follow🎧 Catch new episodes streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms. 📲 Connect with us on Instagram: @BannuarVoices What to Expect in Season 11! Unfiltered Conversations: Moving past polished edits to hold space for raw, honest, and human storytelling. Deep Roots & Diaspora Narratives: Exploring identity, ancestral wisdom, labor, and generational healing across the Ilokano and Filipinx community. Radical Community Care: Honest discussions on what it means to show up for each other, build resilience, and shape public space. Whether you’ve been walking with us since Episode 1 or you’re pulling up a chair for the very first time—welcome home. Your story belongs here. Subscribe & Follow🎧 Catch new episodes streaming on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms. 📲 Connect with us on Instagram: @BannuarVoice

When it comes about Filipino identity and culture has so much than just where you came from or what language you speak. If you ask me when I first started with the podcast, I was first taken back by all the different cultures and language but as I continued with this journey, it comes to the land-based identity. If you want to hear more of Jonah's story, listen to the podcast and follow his small business at @nanea.designs

AJ Clifforde Alcover (1st generation) Filipino-Cebuano who immigrated from Digos City in the Philippines. He is a former graduate and alumni of Brown University. He is currently on the pre-med track on his way to go for Medical School. Shoutout to Kaeo Studios (@kaeostudios) in Waipahu Plaza for providing a space for us to do the podcast in person!

Marnelli Joy B. Ulep is the Program Development Manager for the Business Administration Division at UH West Oahu. She holds a BBA in Marketing and International Business and a MEd in Higher Education Administration, both from the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa.  For many years, she was involved with community organizations like NaFFAA and groups that empower Filipino/a youth, like the Sariling Gawa Youth Council and Miss Oahu Filipina Scholarship Pageant. She currently is an member of Advisory Boards for local high school academies. Marnelli is also a wife, mother to two, and daughter to immigrant parents.

Fourth generation Filipino-Kama'aina Settler in the Kingdom of Hawai'i, I introduced to you, Tiffany Nohea Kasoga (she/her/hers). Through the season of her life she calls this, "motherhood" and the journey in re-discovering her culture again especially since growing up she did not have any close ties that helped her uproot her own cultural upbringing or the way she was brought up varied through her genealogy. Key terms you should know: Kama'aina - is a word describing Hawaii residents regardless of their racial background, as opposed to kanaka which means a person of Native Hawaiian ancestry. 'Aina - Land

Description:  Demiliza Sagaral Saramosing is an educator, scholar, and teaching artist of Bisayan descent with genealogies rooted in the seas shared between the Visayas and Mindanao. She is the descendant of Sakada great grandparents and of immigrant Bisayan parents. Demiliza’s poetry, scholarship, and activism draws from her experiences being born and raised in occupied Hawai’i and growing up in working-class Kalihi. She waded through the stresses of poverty, policing, and assimilation in Kalihi alongside other racialized, diasporic, local, and Kānaka Maoli peers. For Demiliza, she believes that she and her peers collectively challenged their colonial realities through the building of new, fun, and pleasurable cultural identities grounded in Kalihi and other forms of youth subcultures. This Kalihi youth culture and consciousness has led Demiliza to identify and align herself with social justice movements that heal our relationships to land, waters, and to one another in her adulthood. Demiliza’s hybrid cultural youth experiences led her to align with and build transoceanic relationships in queer, feminist, Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities and scholarly spaces in Hawai’i, Oregon, California, Minnesota and globally. These experiences and relationships inform her commitments for decolonial and abolitionist justice in her scholarship and activism. ____________________________________________________________________  C O N N E C T with our guest here: @bisayanremix; @mykalihi  S U P P O R T us on: Venmo: @kasamahanco F O L L O W us on: tiktok, instagram and youtube: @kasamahanco

1.5 Filipino immigrant from Iloilo and Bacolod City to Los Angeles. We have Chef Ria Dolly Barobas coming to you live here in Hawai’i. Chef Ria has family lineage of our Sakadas. For those who may unfamiliar of what and who are Sakadas, Sakadas were migrant workers in and from the Philippines specially for this segment, Sakadas who moved from Philippines to Hawai’i between the years of 1906-1946 to work as labor contract workers on the plantation fields. Ria’s grandfather who went back to the Philippines after the plantation petition his family to immigrate to Los Angeles, California which at that time, Ria was 6 years old. For this podcast narrative and episode, we will talk about her Sakada lineage, emotional hardships, and what is like to run a Filipino owned business led by a Filipina chef.

Growing up (in Hawaiʻi) like some of us, have experienced this shame behind trying to look like your "FOB" or Fresh of the Boat. Was this because our history wasnʻt represented in history books which forces us to assimilate to that typical "white" culture. The importance of knowing our own history in order for us to know ourselves plays a huge role in our identity. For our latest narrative, we have Aldrin, by friends and family is known by AJ. His entire Filipino-American journey is an experience that many might relate to and apart of it is learning that his roots were tied to Sakada lineage. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________ C O N N E C T w i t h us: Instagram: @kasamahanco S U P P O R T us on: Venmo: @kasamahanco

Ashley Marie is a second generation Ilokana Filipino American. Roots in Ilocos region. Ashley is someone who aspires to break cultural stigma.

Kasamas Rise Up, Podcast Host meets Carlo Farinas, a second generation Filipino American born and raised in the island of Oʻahu as the only child. Carlo is someone with great aspirations who continues to seek his Filipino heritage and roots. A timeline of his grandparents lineage: 1969 My great-grandpa on my mom's side Grandpa Ikong immigrated to HI to work on the plantation and was recruited by his brother Bernard who came by boat from PH after WWII 1979 My great-grandma followed afterwards to also work at the dole plantation 1986 My grandpa Ipe and grandma Resura immigrated to work on the dole plantation, along with their children (my uncles) Sherwin and Ruben Stay connected with us at https://kasamahancollective.com and social media @kasamahanco. If you would like monetarily support us, you can through our venmo at @kasamahan-co! Instagram: https://instagram.com/KasamahanCo

Kasamas Rise Up, Podcast Host meets Erin Enriques, Third-generation Filipino-American. She is currently a fourth year student  studying international relations and environmental science. Erin is a great granddaughter of Vicente “Inting” Eligio, a sakada from the Philippines In this podcast narrative episode we not only reflect with Erin what it means to be a Filipina but we talk about the importance to travel by yourself which helps you into navigating on your identity as well as how the more self assured you need to be in your identity to navigate globalization in order to make new relationships who never was exposed to a person like you. Stay connected with us at https://kasamahancollective.com and social media @kasamahanco. Instagram: https://instagram.com/KasamahanCo If you would like monetarily support us, you can through our venmo at @kasamahan-co

Kasamas Rise Up, Podcast Host meets Emily Erika, first-generation Filipino-American who was raised on the west side of Oʻahu. She is currently a second year medical student with hopes of becoming a primary care physician. She is passionate about mentoring first generation students especially those with aspirations of going to medical school. Emily is a granddaughter of a Filipino Sakada, Victoriano Tombaga who was known as ʻPapa Victorʻ to her family. In this podcast narrative episode we reflect on her culture and identity especially as a Filipino-Ilokano who is continously learning about her identity. Connect with Emily about everything Pre Med & Medical School here: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ee_to_md Stay connected with us at https://kasamahancollective.com and social media @kasamahanco. Instagram: https://instagram.com/KasamahanCo If you would like monetarily support us, you can through our venmo at @kasamahan-co

Kasamas Rise Up, A spin-off and re-brand show of our podcast series with a whole new look and name.  Thrrough this spin off, we will have three featured guests from the diaspora before we dive into the Sakada stories in the coming months.  Today's featured episode we have Rome Lim, (he/him) He is our blog writer for Kasamahan Co with a passion in the creative industry. He is currently the director of communications for Pinoys on Parliament, It is Canada’s First and Largest National Youth Conference for Filipino Canadians. Every year, the conference is held in Ottawa, which is the capital of Canada.  For today's episode, me and Rome had a conversation about what its like as a Filipino-Canadian.  To support Pinoys on Parliament, you can donate on their GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/pinoys-on-parliament-2023?qid=804d2094e9a1e6f66a49b1b3792df0e7