Analiza: Welcome to the Women of Color Rise podcast. I'm Analiza Quiroz Wolf, proud Filipino-American executive leadership coach and former CEO of a nonprofit and Captain in the U.S. Air Force. I'm also the author of The Myth of Success: A Woman of Color's Guide to Leadership. It's based on the lessons learned by many women of color leaders, including those on this podcast. We talk with successful CEOs and C-suite women leaders of color and learn about their leadership journeys. I'm on a mission to support having more diverse leaders at the table. If you're a woman or a woman of color who wants to sit at that table, you're in the right place. Now let's get into today's show. I am so excited to be with Grace Nono. She is a Filipina, and she is a singer. She is an ethnomusicologist, a scholar of Philippine shamanism, a cultural worker, and I was so honored and grateful to have spent time with grace in the Philippines, in her home, learning so much about our indigenous practices and being in the land. Grace. I'm grateful to be with you today, and have you share your story.

Grace: Thank you, Analiza, for inviting.

Analiza: Grace, I want to share with the audience. And have you share with the audience your background. You have been to so many places all around the world, and yet, now you're back home. So could you share, please where you're from and a little bit about that journey and why you're back.

Grace: I was born in Agusan, which is in Northeastern Mindanao, in the Southern Philippines.Having come from here means I spoke languages that were not the most popular, and that has been very important in my life. It means that I could go places and be able to communicate with people now coming from a place that was considered provincial, backward, people from here were seen as inferior because maybe we had darker skins and the way we speak, You know, we're considered as having accents, even though everyone is an accent. So that was something that I had to overcome in my life to go past that position of inferiority that Neo colonial dynamics assigned to me.

Analiza: So Grace. I want to talk about the tie to our history, 300 more years of Spanish colonial rule than the Americans for half a century, and that had deep consequences for the people. This inferiority, which is not real has been internalized by the people our ancestors me, and there is this beauty that you lifted up in the land, in the language, and Also your depth of relationships and research with the Filipino bears, culture bearers, and so I want to bring that to light, because often, as someone who has been part of the Diaspora in America and has not had a strong connection to my roots, you have actually gone back to your roots. You have grace. Hasn't mentioned this, but after getting degrees from Harvard, Yale, doing scholarships and fellowships across the country and in the world, you've decided to come back to your land. What made you decide to come back now?

Grace: That's the beauty of having grown in the land, having grown up in the land. Analisa, you have that early connection that you may lose along the way, because you have to, you know, assimilate, just like everybody else. Gain degrees. I do not have a degree. From Harvard, by the way, from Yale, from NYU and from the University of the Philippines. I did a postdoc at Harvard, Now, everybody is never, ever separated from the land. We eat food that comes from the land, but our relationship to it may be not active, you know, not actively conscious. We're not consciously relating to it because our lives are mediated by, you know, infrastructures that we have built for modern life. Now coming back to your question, it is a choice, it is a choice, but it was also largely a calling. During the pandemic, I thought to myself, What am I gonna do now? When am I going to go back to the land? Land is something that you have to maintain a relationship with, otherwise you could lose it. My parents left me, you know, not the big piece of land, but land, and they lived, died and are buried on the land. And I know that if I am the one to take care of the land, no matter how difficult that is, I may be able to let it be what it wants to be, more so than if I hand it over to some developer, to somebody who wants to build a mall on it, because I have the heart, I have a relationship with the earth that is deepening. Let's put it that way. I may have been alienated for a long time, but I am coming home, and that is a good thing.

Analiza: The relationship with land Grace to go deeper into that and to bring the land, listen to the land. Have it come be what it is, and feeling a calling, I hear a spiritual connection that it's not just I'm going to take care of it, I'm going to plant things on it, but there's a soul connection. There seems to be a spiritual connection.

Grace: It is a soul connection that I hope would awaken in all of us. Now, some of us may awaken that connection earlier, others at a different time, but it's really a connection that is in all of us that has to be reactivated, because we are all of the land, you know, but we may not be aware about it each day, each moment, because of this life's many distractions, many intoxications, but the land cares for us each moment, and to become more aware of that, my relationship is getting deeper, and that is happening by me actually bringing myself to inhabit a piece of land and getting to know it. Just about two hours ago, I was talking to my person here in the land, and we were listing down the different birds, you know, that we have seen here, that we have heard the different you know, the dragonflies, the fireflies, kinds of frogs, different kinds of fishes. So it's beautiful. It's really beautiful. I've read tons of books, but this is something else.

Analiza: Grace, the connection to the land and nature and feeling called you have had, also depth of experience and commitment to the culture bearers, learning for yourself, sharing learnings. And I want to talk about the byline, because that was actually what attracted me to you first, was that I was in search of reconnecting to the land, reconnecting to indigenous healing practices, and reconnecting to the history and understanding our people better. And so your name came up, and your books, your award winning books on the byline, and your experiences and music were so beautiful, are so beautiful. And I'm curious, how has that Philippine shamanism, working with and learning from culture bears, how did that start for you?

Grace: That's a good question. Analiza, I grew up even here in Mindanao, where there's a lot of traditional culture still, but the colonial history, the Neo colonial history, puts a veil over all of that we are raised to be as as the best colonials that we can ever be, to be able to go to school or in degrees and all of that. So I had no inkling whatsoever. I thought religion was Catholicism, Protestantism, Islam, all of that, but nothing else. I thought music was, you know, popular music, classical music, and it's all Western, you know. But then I had, I had an experience that turned everything around for me. I was on a trip to the mountains with some friends and this was after college already, and for the very first time, I met a living babaylan, you know, a living ritualist or Shaman. And for the first time, I listened to an oral chant, an indigenous chant, and all of that provoked a big question for me. I had gone through college in the best educational institution in the Philippines, and not once did I come across these things, except maybe I read about the baba Ilan in a book. And in that book, it said that Babaylan perished, you know, with colonization. And here I was face to face with this person. And so I thought to myself, what's what's wrong with our education? How can I say that I am educated when I don't even know about these things, or I've read things that are contrary to what I am experiencing right now. And so from that point on, I was ushered to an educational direction that was not solely academic. So yes, I went to school, I pursued that, but I had this other educational track of going directly to culture bearers, which to me are, are people, a lot of them advanced in age, but not everybody who usually had minimal levels of formal education, because education has been patterned after colonial education. So education has been a way to colonize our minds. Culture bearers. They have knowledge. They have wisdom. That is not something you will get from the classroom. Maybe the classroom will talk about it in cursory ways. When you go straight to the culture bearers and witness them practicing what they know in context, that is a whole other way of learning.

Analiza: Grace. I want to go deeper into the fact that I was so fortunate to have spent time with you and for you to generously share your relationships, to be able to meet Bylaw and myself and see some witness, some experiences, ceremonies. I'd love grace, if you would be able to share with us. What is this knowledge? What is this knowledge not written down, not captured in the books, and what is it we're missing?

Grace: Okay, I cannot tell you all in words, yeah, these things have to be experienced. But maybe to put it simply, it is a living relationship with the seen and unseen world. It's a living relationship with the land. And you can write about these things, you can talk about these things, but you can never reduce all of that to just words. Yes, I was happy that you were able to experience some of that well while you were here. Now, it takes a long time to also unpack what one experiences and unpacking in my experience, requires ongoing conversation, ongoing relationship with the culture bearers, who will help you understand what is going on. You know, whatever it was that you experienced. So when I talk about culture bearers, I'm really talking about you if possible. A lifetime of relationships. You'll learn from them. You share with them what you can in ways where the relationships with spirits, with ancestors, with the land, are not severed.

Analiza: One of the insights that I personally have been reflecting on is as I try to ground myself as a mother, as a leader, supporting leaders is that there's so much knowing being already I don't have to imagine a place that doesn't exist. There are these beautiful and not to make it romantic, but examples that come from my land, our land of ways of being that is about community and connection and honor, To the land, to ancestors to spirits, that is embedded through centuries or more. I mean, this is beautiful, not to say that there's no drama. We're human. There is, but yet, there's a sense of we'll help each other, and we're not alone. We're not alone here, and there's pain and life will give us challenges, and we're not alone. And it's, it's for me that's so not what I experience in my upbringing and my education. And it's beautiful to see that, and it's, it's beautiful to know that I want my daughter, my children, to see that we have that in our roots, and there's a relationship that I hope we can build, even though we're far in the United States. But there's this sense Grace, and I so appreciate this manifestation through you that I get to learn and other resources. It's beautiful, and so that moves me Grace, because you and I have been talking about two things. One is you have a traditional arts series coming up, and I'd love for you to share about what is that, what's the intention, and how can people sign up?

Grace: We have this Philippine traditional music, poetry and dance webinar series that we started during the pandemic, and people can find out about it in the Tao Foundation, no that that is still under reconstruction, on my on my page, on my website, Grace nono.com but also on Social media. You can look me up on Facebook, and we have an Instagram account called Hemi Tula galau, okay? And what is this? This is music, traditional music, masters, traditional dance and martial arts masters and practitioners, and also oral tradition practitioners, passing on some of their knowledge to whoever is interested, mostly descendants of Filipinos, but we we are also Open to to others who are sincerely interested to learn through this webinar, and we have proven that people actually do learn how to play musical instruments. It and it's, it's just amazing. And it's, we're in our fifth year, and it's been wonderful to provide the service for people who want to reconnect with their roots, to do so through an embodied practice. You know you're not just reading a book. You are learning how to play a musical instrument. You are learning to play gongs, to play a lute, you know, to sing in a particular way, to dance in a particular way. So it's beautiful, because you are, your body is very much at the center of this process, and later on, we would like to organize on site. You know, people can come here and actually meet the masters and commune with other learners, and it'll be beautiful.

Analiza: So for our listeners, we will include those links and know that it is doable no matter where you. You are in the world, you don't have to make the trip all the way to see grace. So that would be amazing. And this is coming up, so I will include all of those links. The other piece I wanted to share, Grace, what you alluded to is that a possible in person trip to meet the Masters, meet you. And I'd love to hear, what is that vision? What's the intention for that vision?

Grace: Yes, and Annalisa, you're a collaborator in this. We call it Utah, which means land co-creating with Mother Earth, from alienation to reconnection, from degradation to restoration. It is a 10 day immersive program designed to nurture connection, spent 10 days in community with Filipinos and global participants eager to engage hands on with the land culture bearers and practitioners of traditional arts. The participants will experience cultural immersion, explore indigenous food, architecture, clothing, music, dance and other practices, hands on. The dates are still being finalized.

Analiza: It sounds wonderful. Grace. I want to really emphasize for our listeners that it's about connection, and whether you are even Filipino, of course, we love Filipinos. But how can we reconnect with the land, whatever your land is? How can we connect with our spiritual practices, our culture bearers, our ways of connecting with nature? This is, this is the intention that there has been a severing, and if we feel alienated, that's not a solo experience, that there can be a way that there are avenues, either through the webinars you mentioned, or through this trip, which we will put into place. But I'm so grateful for these opportunities, because often we feel it and yet there's no it's difficult to find. How can I? How might I bring back that connection, and not just for myself, but for our children, our community. So thank you so much for offering this grace. It's such an appreciated and beautiful grace. I want to talk about lightning round questions. Let me know if you aren't ready, sure. Okay, chocolate or vanilla,

Grace: Chocolate.

Analiza: Cooking or takeout?

Grace: Cooking.

Analiza: Climb a mountain or jump from a plane?

Grace: Climb a mountain.

Analiza: Have you ever worn socks with sandals ?

Grace: In places with lots of mosquitoes, like here? Yes.

Analiza: How would you rate your karaoke skills on a scale of one to 1010?

Grace: Actually,I don't like karaoke, to be honest. I really don't

Analiza: Grace you're so just an international singer, like so famous. So just Guruji would never say that, but I want to make sure we say so.

Can you plug your book here?

Grace: The first book is the shared voice, chanted and spoken artists from the Philippines that is about oral, you know, accessing wisdom that's not in the books through oral tradition. Okay? The second book, Song of the Babylon. That one is about the healers, the ritualists and the oralists. And the third one, the one that you were talking about, this babalan singback, Philippine shamans and voice gender and place, Cornell and Ateneo. This one is the ethnographic information, plus a lot of you know, meshing with a lot of theory, interdisciplinary theory.

Analiza: What is your favorite way to practice self care?

Grace: Well, I like to watch movies and I like to play with my dogs.

Analiza: What's a good professional development you've done?

Grace: I've loved interacting with artists and scientists from different cultures and with culture bearers.

Analiza: What's your definition of a boss mama?

Grace: A boss Mama is like my mother, like my daughter, and probably a little bit like me. What is that? My mother was low key, but she was definitely the boss my mother, my daughter, maybe in her own way, similar. Maybe I'm like that too.

Analiza: What advice would you give your younger self

Grace: to not be so hard on myself. I can be very tough on myself, to laugh more, to relax more, to sleep more. It's hard. I know that it's hard to give that advice because, you know, we have always been trying our, our very best and trying to keep up and, but looking back, yeah, now I have to learn that. Okay. I have to learn to relax more and to laugh more and enjoy more sleep more.

Analiza: Where can we find you? Your website would be great to mention here any of your social media, yeah, Grace, nono.com

Grace: Facebook pages, Grace Nono and Grace Tao music. Those are just two words. Grace Nono Tao music, and I still have to be more active on Instagram.

Analiza: That's all. And then last question, do you have a final ask recommendation or any parting thoughts to share?

Grace: I think the gist of my life is, is finding a way to align with my my soul purpose, my life purpose, that that, to me, is the greatest fulfillment of life, so that I will keep doing that, keep trying to open my ears, my my heart and my mind and my body to to inspiration, to guidance, and for as long As I have that it is a life well lived so

Analiza: beautiful grace. I'm grateful. Thank you so much for the stories, and I'm excited about our upcoming trip together. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Grace: Thank you. Thank you so much.

Analiza: Thank you so much for carving out time to hear today's podcast. Read things before you go first. If you found it helpful, please leave a five star review. Second, you can get a free chapter of my book, The Myth of Success, a woman of color's guide to leadership at Annalisa wolf.com/free dot com, slash free chapter. And lastly, if you're interested in executive coaching, please reach out to me at analiza@analizawolf.com. Thank you so very much.