Embodying Revival: Manchester’s Collaborative Baybayin Workshop

A Long-Awaited Space for Filipino Culture

It could be said that an event spotlighting Filipino culture has been long in the making in Manchester. Since its establishment in 2021, the Manchester Filipino Society (MCRFilSoc), whose purpose is to form a close community of Filipinos and Philippine enthusiasts across Manchester universities, has been building towards spaces that celebrate Filipino culture and heritage. This workshop brought together the efforts of the student society, local Filipino business Aking Sinta Jewellery, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) alumna Trini Tait, and Sir John NL Leyson and Sir Ric Patriarch of London Filipino Centre, who travelled up especially for the event. They gave not only their time, food, materials and planning, but also a sense of hope to the Filipinos who attended: that they might continue advocating for their roots and feel unapologetically proud of them.

The hope was not to let this workshop stand alone, but to let its spirit encourage people to explore the many dimensions of Filipino identity, both individually and collectively.

Arriving With Curiosity and Hesitation

The intimacy of learning your history as an individual often goes unstated, but there is an undeniable magic in learning together. I did not know what to expect on that chilly Wednesday in Manchester before I entered.

A few weeks earlier, an Instagram post took me by honest surprise: Manchester Filipino Society was hosting a Baybayin workshop in collaboration with London Filipino Centre and Aking Sinta Jewellery. It echoed something in my core. Seeing something so visibly and culturally Filipino was something I had mostly experienced at home while growing up in Britain, and rarely out in the open as its own. Solely Filipino, I emphasise.

That familiar tentativeness grew inside me: the fear of seeming too eager. Would the other attendees feel the same? For many in the diaspora, there is an inherited pressure to blend in, and that pressure can quietly damage our sense of belonging. Many of us know the sinking feeling of not being fully one thing or the other.

In spite of this, there was a wild joy brewing at the chance to engage openly with my roots. I was balancing my usual social reserve in a room full of new people, while also feeling the need to let go a little and embrace the hope of community.

A Classroom Transformed

A classroom might usually feel sterile, but this space felt like the opposite. We were welcomed at the entrance, and the table was laid with a colourful array of light nibbles alongside the bright colours of the Philippine flag. The atmosphere made people feel at home.

When I arrived with my friend Loren, there was already a light social buzz as different groups helped set up the space. Among attendees and organisers alike, the sense of hope was palpable. We also appreciated the catering provided, with Ate Zoey of Aking Sinta warmly urging “Eat, eat!” — we needed that after a long day.

Before we started, I spoke with other attendees about what they hoped the workshop would be. Many longed to practise writing Baybayin as a way to reconnect with our shared history. Others were curious about the script, having heard of it before but never knowing whether they needed to prove their Filipino identity in order to learn it.

Learning Baybayin Together

During the workshop, it was moving to see people writing eagerly, responding to questions, showing their work to friends and comparing each other’s pages. It brought me real joy to realise that many others in the room felt the same excitement.

My heart was touched seeing people across the diaspora interact so openly and earnestly. For a while, we forgot the social and geographical barriers that might otherwise have come between us and simply enjoyed being together.

One moment that stayed with me was when a Malaysian international student explained that he had attended because he was curious about the similarities between the Malay script and Baybayin. It reflected Aking Sinta’s wider mission to bridge these connections and occupy that space proudly.

Engagement remained high throughout the workshop as attendees followed the slides prepared by Sir John NL Leyson of London Filipino Centre. His book Anatomiya Ng Baybayin explores the history of the Philippines, the impact of Spanish colonisation, what he terms cultural genocide, and the efforts of groups such as London Filipino Centre to keep our culture alive in the present day.

In preparation for the workshop, Sir John had also reached out to Trini Tait, a Manchester Metropolitan University alumna. She spoke about her joy in contributing to the session and shared work from her MA Digital Communication exhibition, which led her to create a Baybayin typeface now available for public use.

As the lecturers asked questions and guided the group through Baybayin’s history and current revival, more and more hands shot up. Steadily, any shyness in the room began to fall away as we embraced the collective joy of practising our culture. That transition meant a great deal to me personally. It is a feeling I carry with me daily.

It left me with the hope that I, too, could help create spaces for cultural connection and share this same joy with other Filipinos.

We may be distant from one of our homes, but we can, and should, create home here.

The Baybayin workshop showed me that this feeling is shared by many others and will continue to be pursued. There were numerous conversations throughout the evening that revealed just how deeply our community cares about preserving and evolving Filipino identity in Britain.

Attendee Interviews

These attendee interviews were provided by both participants in the Baybayin workshop and the organisers behind it. Together, they reflect the workshop’s wider aim: cultural celebration, connection and continuity.

I asked members of Manchester Filipino Society for their insight into how the workshop came to be and what hopes they had when planning it with Aking Sinta Jewellery and London Filipino Centre. I also asked Loren, a British-Filipino local artist and workshop attendee, to share their thoughts on Filipinos embracing Filipino history and culture, and how that can continue to grow in Manchester.

Tristan, Marketing Officer on the Manchester Filipino Society Committee

“I hope to see many different groups of Filipinos educating themselves and others about the history and culture of the Philippines, as I believe community is a huge part of what makes Pinoy culture so distinct from other Asian cultures. I hope workshops like this can help British-Filipinos like myself develop a more authentic connection to a culture that I do not often see centred around the UK.”

Arild, Events Coordinator on the Manchester Filipino Society Committee

“I loved helping with the planning of the Baybayin workshop. There is such importance in learning about our ancient script, especially as so much of our culture has been overshadowed or forgotten through lack of practice and the destruction of our history.

This workshop really opened my eyes to how beautiful the script is. I had always known it was beautiful, but learning more about the historical reasons Baybayin fell out of use made me appreciate even more the fact that we can still know and learn it today.

The fact that Aking Sinta helped make this event happen shows how people in Manchester can explore Filipino history and culture in interactive ways. It was such a privilege to work with Zoey, Sir John and Sir Ric. Hopefully, in future, we can hold more Filipino culture-based events because it is vital that we continue learning about and highlighting our history.

I remember Sir Ric essentially saying that after that workshop, we are now the pioneers of keeping Baybayin alive.”

Carina, Inclusion Officer on the Manchester Filipino Society Committee

“Zoey reached out to us about holding this event, and as a committee we were more than happy to take part. One of our goals for MCRFilSoc was to hold more cultural events for our members and engage more deeply with the history of the Philippines, so this felt like a meaningful opportunity.

I had not heard of Baybayin before, so this was a new and eye-opening way for me to engage with Filipino culture and history. The team from Aking Sinta and London Filipino Centre were incredibly friendly, and it was a pleasure to meet them for the first time. The session was really intriguing and I met and spoke to a lot of people both new to FilSoc and frequent members of our society, all interested in the cultural history of Baybayin. Throughout the workshop it was inspiring to me to see that despite the painful past there is still the possibility to revive original scripts and continue to learn about Baybayin in the present day.

I found the workshop really moving and emotional, particularly the emphasis that Sir John and Ric expressed of keeping cultural traditions alive and making sure to pass on this important history to the next generation.

I would be more than happy to see these sessions return as an annual event with FilSoc and I would like to emphasise that cultural events like these are so important for bringing together community.”

Loren, British-Filipino Local Manchester Artist

“I was a little nervous to attend. It’s been years since I was a student, and I’m only half-Filipino, so I was worried to be a bit out of place, but my interest and excitement won out, and all the people I met were friendly, and of course Zoey and her partner were so welcoming.

It was actually so heartwarming to join in with a group of Filipino students who are all so close with each other and who are all so interested in connecting with their heritage and the history of the Philippines.

I absolutely do feel like there is a general shift in attitude to Pinoy cultural practices within the diaspora. When I was growing up I certainly had no idea that there was ever an ancient written language, and seeing more and more people adopt its usage, artists online especially, has made me eager to incorporate it more into my own work.

I’m a visual artist but rarely have I explored my Pinoy heritage in my own practice, and I’m hopeful that I can begin to do so, maybe with printmaking, textiles, who knows? But attending the Baybayin workshop definitely sparked something in my design-brain!”

Remembering Baybayin, Together

All in all, these attendee interviews reflect a shared commitment: now that we know about Baybayin, we must not forget it. What this workshop made clear is that cultural revival does not happen in isolation — it happens when people come together to learn, share, remember and make space for one another. This is the hope behind the cultural revival work of Sir John Leyson and Sir Ric Patriarch, and it is also a reminder that Baybayin is part of a much wider story of writing systems across the archipelago. Some are extinct, some survive only in a few places, and some have been absorbed into local dialects. All deserve to be remembered and honoured as part of the wider work of preserving and creating space for Filipino heritage in Britain.