Envisioning the Future For Blind Creatives & Wayfinding Home Outside Hypercities
Written by Paul Panaguiton
There is an undeniable advantage for the sighted-community in the Creative Industries, as a usually image-centric and highly visual field, the non-sighted community are challenged to reclaim their space.
In the latest episode of the Nagmamahusay, a traveling podcast for creatives, Leah Rasay’s team went to Balai Hanan in La Union to have an enlightening conversation with Eva Wang, founder and convenor of Hiraya Collective, a La Union-based collective that empowers the blind and non-sighted community by offering artist residencies and programs centered on multi-sensorial activities such as, but not limited to, Archery for the blind.The conversation gravitated around the origins and the continual wayfinding of Hiraya Collective, as well as Eva Wang’s background that shaped her viewpoints in founding the organization—which ultimately gave way for insights from the non-sighted be seen and heard.
Even The Blind Has A Vision
When asked about Eva’s rationale in establishing Hiraya Collective, she was quick to point out how the blind community is viewed and stereotyped, “A lot of times, in the blind community, we’re looked at as just recipients of workshops, beneficiaries, like, more of one-sided. The paradigm is like, ‘oh, they’re disadvantaged, so let’s help them,’ more of charity.”
She lists out the field where the blind usually ends up, “…people often picture us in spaces or fields that we do, are more about massage, more about tech, or more about braille, formal education, something like that, but not necessarily art.”To limit the non-sighted community in those fields is myopic, a tunnel vision that pigeonholes their potential. As Wang’s Hiraya explored the possibility of non-sighted people performing music, writing literature, doing pottery, and even archery—she came to an important realization: “We’re also creators, or we have our visions, we have our own inspirations of how to do things.”
Finding Your Path Involves More Than Just Sight
Hiraya Collective is an organization born during the pandemic. A relatively young collective that continues to seek its identity. As of writing, Hiraya Collective are discussing whether they should register as a Nongovernmental Organization (NGO). “A lot of us are also coming from NGOs, and, it’s like, of course, we talk about, oh, should we also become an NGO or not, because… we also know that’s not the panacea for everything, like, if you’re an NGO, it’s like, yeah, it has another world of issues and concerns,” says Eva Wang as she ponders about the structure and appropriate label for what Hiraya is (as if this interview).
Whenever she is met with these concerns, she comes back to the core idea that inspired Hiraya’s conception, the concept of Wayfinding. “I became really interested in wayfinding, the paglalayag, back then [our ancestors] didn’t have compasses nor a map… you don’t need sight also, it’s more of the body, the knowledge is embodied.”What she means is, for a collective like Hiraya to truly prosper, prescriptive rules and structures are secondary as long as there is genuine connection between its members, to be kapuwa with one another: “What we’re happy is more than the output, it’s the process that we really treasure, yung pakikipagkapwa. We really value the unstructured times—walang agenda—but it’s really yung pakikipagkapwa.”
The Right Place Will Bring People Together
Eva Wang shared her story on why Hiraya Collective chose to hail La Union as their home, she starts by recollecting her experiences in so-called hypercities, “I really told myself that I don’t want to stay in hypercities, because I’ve lived in hypercities for a long time, like Japan, Tokyo, Seoul, Korea, Manila, so it’s like I’m really used to the hustle. So I said, I don’t want to do the same thing as what I’ve done before.”
That’s why when a community invited her to La Union, she decided to make it her new home where she would find Hiraya, “…it was really humbling, the place was so welcoming. I packed my bags, and I transferred to La Union. What I love about the place, and I think it’s a perfect home for Hiraya, because the word La Union means the union, and what we’re pushing for is inclusivity.”Sometimes, finding your way also involves finding the right location where your fellows or kapuwa could establish real connection.
Be Brave Enough to Try, Even When You’re Alone
Even from her early days, Eva Wang has been wayfinding her way to new and unfamiliar experiences that helped her become the brave and bold creative she is today. Although challenged with premature retinopathy, which made her right eye blind and left eye blurry, she was blessed by a supportive mom who let her try anything—sometimes alone—as long as she stayed kind. “I had an overnight stay with my friends, I also did some scouting, so, overnight at school, camping, so, I think that really gave me that, you know, the courage to do things,” she recalls.
Let this be a lesson to not be afraid to try new things to find yourself and your people, similar to what Eva did when she found Hiraya.
Don’t Just Be An Observer, Engage
There is also a portion where Leah had the chance to interview Eva along with Hiraya Collective’s convenors—creatives with visual impairment and sighted people with values aligned to the collective. Leah wondered if it is okay to laugh whenever a blind person jokes about their own condition, which became a jump-off point on how one should interact and befriend the non-sighted community.
One convenor, Van, offered a key insight. People should be able to make them feel that “they are not treated as persons with disability,” Van says. “We are in a space together, and this is how we all are, it just happens that we are blind but we are friends.”
Eva adds, “We always tell our collaborators that it’s okay. Our community is very open to trial and error, so we’re chill. Because you only know the do’s and don’ts when you’re there.”
So do not be a lone observer, find your way and immerse yourself with the non-sighted community by visiting and joining Hiraya Collective’s events in La Union, and realize that indeed, there is always more than what meets the eye.
