The Filipino mixed-media exhibit Maleta unpacks images of migration, distance, and estrangement.

The art exhibit Maleta, meaning "suitcase" in Spanish, is packed with stories that offer an intimate look at the lives of Filipino immigrants to Canada. As a gallery-mounted display of murals, installations, video, and photo pieces, it marks a breakthrough for the Sinag Bayan Cultural Arts Collective, a Vancouver-based group composed of arts-oriented members of progressive Filipino-Canadian organizations.

"It's a lot of firsts for us, which is a pity because there's a lot of outstanding artists in the community, but we haven't really come together to tackle contemporary issues like migration," Sinag Bayan coordinator Sean Parlan told the Georgia Straight in an interview at the Kalayaan Centre in the Downtown Eastside.

Filipino migration to Canada may be defined as a series of waves that started with doctors and nurses in the early 1950s, followed by middle-class professionals and caregivers in later decades. The narrative often heard by the Canadian public about their journey tells of successful adaptation and living the North American dream.

"You don't hear of the struggles; you don't hear of the aspirations and hopes of the many migrant communities," said Parlan, a 29-year-old graphic designer. "They kind of assimilate and disappear. For us, it's making these stories visible."

These include tales of family estrangement following long years of separation in the case of live-in caregivers. And moments of desperation for professionals who arrive in Canada only to realize that their educational and work credentials are worth almost nothing. There are accounts of debts incurred in the Philippines to raise money for immigration, and the day-to-day efforts to cope with living on low wages.

Maleta opens at Gallery Gachet on Friday (October 5) and closes on October 27 with joint performance-art pieces by members of the Sinag Bayan collective and Manila-based artists Mideo Cruz and Racquel De Loyola, who will be in town for the LIVE Performance Art Biennale (livebiennale.ca/). (There will also be First Nations hip-hop, African spoken word, and Chinese electronic remixes as part of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival [www.heartofthecityfestival.com/].) One installation in the show incorporates original letters sent between family members on Christmas and birthdays, occasions celebrated apart from each other as they await reunion in Canada. This correspondence will be mounted on a wall to form the Tagalog word malayo, meaning "far". A highlight of the exhibit will be a triptych by Wing Diocson Yap, a Montreal-based Filipino-Canadian painter who is also the artist in residence at Gallery Gachet for the month of October.

In a phone interview from Montreal, the 31-year-old Yap told the Straight that his piece will tackle the roots of Filipino migration, which he identified as poverty and oppression. He said that it will offer a sweeping look at a history that saw Filipinos exploited through several generations.

"When I looked into my own experience, I realized that it wasn't just me as an individual, but that I'm a part of an entire historical process," Yap said.

With its references to travel, the suitcase is a ubiquitous object in the Maleta exhibit. A piece by graphic artist Carlo Sayo features a suitcase filled with water from the Pacific Ocean, and beneath it are photos of different migrant families.

"It's a commentary about crossing the ocean and the kind of weight that comes with migration," Sayo told the Straight by phone. "When we were doing interviews about people's experiences about coming to Canada, they had this metaphor that with all the work you have to do, you feel you're really drowning in paperwork or drowning in debt."

Sayo, who is also a Sinag Bayan coordinator, said that an installation prepared collaboratively by Sinag Bayan members involves reproductions of immigration documents and passports. These will be arranged in the form of a wave moving from one suitcase, representing the Philippines, to another, symbolizing Canada. Like this piece, most works to be exhibited are the product of the collective work of various Sinag Bayan members.

The community art project started with a series of seminars followed by joint sessions to put together the exhibit material. "There's a piece of each of us in the works that will be in the exhibit," Parlan said. "We haven't had the chance to work together before, so this is also a first for us."

According to Gallery Gachet's Web site (www.gachet.org/), Maleta is part of a three-month-long presentation of visual art, performance art, art walks, and artist talks on the subject of migration that started in September. "The Work of Migration examines migration and trauma, while uncovering histories unspoken in the 'Canadian' identity," the on-line description of the project states.

Parlan describes these histories as "lost stories" that Sinag Bayan hopes to make known. "We want to underscore the frailty and vulnerability of families as they try to understand what it means to be in a new country," he said.