The Philippine Embassy in London hosted an event dubbed “Pamanang Pilipino sa Sentro Rizal London” on 24 May 2024, in celebration of National Heritage Month.

The program featured a talk on the power of collective memory in heritage activism by Dr. Cristina Juan, Project Head of the Philippine Studies at SOAS University of London. Dr. Juan discussed how collective memory can be harnessed to champion Philippine heritage, citing as an example the community curation workshop that the Embassy and Philippine Studies SOAS held in 2022 to curate the collection of Filipiniana items that were later exhibited in Sentro Rizal London.

In his welcome remarks, Ambassador Teodoro L. Locsin, Jr. underscored the transformative power of heritage in preserving and promoting our cultural legacy, and highlighted that promoting our heritage is not only about honoring the past but also about empowering our future.

Attendees were entertained by some foreign students of London Filipino Centre (LFC), in their rendition of Dahil Sa’yo and in their reading of Isang Awit sa Huling Pagkikita, a Russian poem translated into Filipino by London-based poet and writer/translator Gene Alcantara.

The event, held in partnership with LFC, which conducts classes and training sessions on Filipino language and culture, was attended by the group’s foreign students, British contacts, and some members of the Filipino community. The event concluded with a salo-salo of Filipino delicacies. END