Heading to Manitoba

Heading to Manitoba

 Levy Abad - Freelance Writer

 

“I’m leaving you tomorrow. I’m heading for the prairie,

I’m taking all my memories of the seasons with your smile

I’m heading there to write my song and sing about a better life

In a place where peace and justice and compassion all abound”

 

Heading to Manitoba is a song that I wrote months before I left Mississauga for Winnipeg. I tried to put my experiences in a song as much as possible, as this is the only way I can assert myself and contribute socially. In Mississauga, I worked as loader in one of the logistics businesses from 5:30 p.m. to 6:00 a.m., breaking down paper skids, sorting and loading. I have to wrap 20 pallets minimum, man the conveyor lines to load the trucks that deliver to different points of Ontario and other places. I got no complaints and actually enjoyed it. The only problem was the impact on my health and the question I had before was, how long can I do this when I’m not getting younger?

 

During work time, I used to look at the boxes and wonder when I would be able to lecture again and talk about isms and social issues like I did in the old country. I remember being a part of the social movement and am always engaged in the politics of human rights and democracy for the marginalized. We helped out with farmers’ issues back then, calling for land reforms, lowering of land rents, campaigns against GMOs. We also helped with workers calls for increasing minimum wage and the struggle against contractualization,  environmental  destruction, government corruption and other third world issues that many Canadians are not familiar with.

 

In Mississauga, I remember being mostly asleep at daytime as I have to regain strength for graveyard shift.  During this time, kids were still small and my wife was looking after them. I was the breadwinner of the family and we managed to survive paycheck to paycheck.  Saturdays were devoted to volunteer work, helping out with a migrant organization by writing songs, singing and at times, I also helped out with discussions on Filipino history and migrants issues and concerns like the murder of Jocelyn Dulnuan, a Live-in-Caregiver and Juana Tejada who was diagnosed with cancer and was about to be sent home despite completing her residency requirements. If not for the campaign to stop the second medical test, she could have been sent home. In both cases, we were successful in advocating for their rights.  I have the experience of going to different places in Ontario, to research on the varied conditions of Filipino migrants. My music brought me to Ottawa for a migrants’ concert and also to Montreal for a solidarity concert. Migrant stories inspired me to write songs such as “Para kay (For) Ellen, Jocelyn, Sol and Juana that was used as a musical score in the award winning documentary, “Baby not Mine” by Shashah Nakhai.  During this period, it dawned on me that to be able to take leadership role in the community, one has to improve his/her economic situation first. Since I was still struggling during this time, I managed to contribute my time by giving songwriting workshops, talks on history of migration etc. As if these were not enough, I also attended studies on the scripture and shared ideas on theology of liberation, played the guitar and sang at church on Sunday morning.

 

One time, a friend told me that, “It’s good that you still have time for writing songs, but no time for politics.” Actually, there is politics in songs and whether you like it or not, songs are political. I told my friend that most of my songs are topical or socio- political in nature. What I like about songs is that they are affective and effective in articulating the issues of the day. Songs that tackle policies on migration and how to transform a situation to a better one, anti-war songs, human rights and songs about justice and compassion are some examples.

 

Fast forward to 2013, I have released a Human Rights album titled, Canadian Experience Vol. 1 (Tagalog album). This was followed in the early part of 2014 by my second album, Never Give Up, Canadian Experience Vol. 2. Few weeks ago, I released my third album titled, Rhythms of Compassion, Canadian Experience Vol. 3, featuring my originals songs such as “Stand Up for Your Rights,” “Souls Taken Away (a song about the Residential School system), “Daughter She Can’t Find” (song tribute to Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, and many more as a way of giving back to the community. Included in this album is the song, “We are Migrants.” This song sums up the history of migration in the province. I was fortunate to have been invited to perform these songs at the Rights Fest during the opening weekend of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights. In addition to this, part of my volunteer work in the Winnipeg Multicultural Human Rights Forum is to coordinate events where I also perform my songs.

 

Just like how I started my article, I would like to end this with one of the verses of my song:

 

“Heading down to Manitoba with a guitar and a song”

I bring my heart and soul to Winnipeg to heal and to be strong

I’m heading down to Manitoba, and sing about a better life

 And write the best lines of the lyrics of the story of my life”

In the land, heart and spirit of the great Louis Riel.

(Published on The Korea Times: "Heading to Manitoba" - December 2014, Vol. 3 No. 12)