By: Jonah Lazar, SFU Student
Content warning: Mention of residential schools
“When they asked what my race was, I had no idea.” These are the words of Colleen Almojuela, an Indipino Elder and panellist at the Honor Thy Mother documentary screening at SFU Burnaby’s Leslie & Gordon Diamond Family Auditorium. Almojuela is one of the children of the 36 Indigenous women who sought out work on Japanese-owned berry farms on Bainbridge Island in Washington state in the early 1940s.
These women, many of whom were survivors of residential schools in Canada, all ended up marrying and having children with Filipino immigrants who were also working on these farms. Marriage had dire consequences for them, as marrying a non-Indigenous man meant they lost their Indigenous status due to Canada’s Indian Act of 1876. This law isolated them from their communities by only allowing them to return to Canada for brief family visits and restricting them from participating in ceremonies and cultural events. The children of these marriages, referred to as Indipinos, have now gathered together to share their story in Honor Thy Mother.
This documentary, with a runtime of just over half an hour, managed to deliver a valuable introductory insight into the residential school system of Canada, before delving into personal accounts of the Indipinos of Bainbridge Island.
Many of the stories told in the documentary were deeply personal, with several of the children of this community — now Elders — recounting their struggle with identity, racism, and belonging due to their mixed-race heritage.
While I believe there could have been room for further contextualization of the Indipino community in the broader Filipino and Indigenous diasporas, as well as a deeper exploration of the place this identity holds in future generations, Honor Thy Mother still offers a unique, untold story of a marginalized group.
After the screening, Indipino Elders Colleen Almojuela and Gina Corpuz, along with Indipino Community of Bainbridge Island’s board chair Lanessa Cerrillo, and 2024–25 Jack and Doris Shadbolt Fellow (and son of Almojuela) Justin Neal, participated in a panel discussion about the film and what it means to identify as Indipino.
A noteworthy project that was highlighted at the screening was the 100% Project, a digital archive of the experiences and recipes of “multiethnic Filipinos,” supported by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center. The project, led by the Corpuz family, deals with Indipino self-identification as both entirely Indigenous and entirely Filipino.
The panel also proudly announced that Bainbridge Island’s school system has since made Honor Thy Mother a key part of their eighth-grade curriculum, highlighting the importance of this story to the history of the island and cementing Indipino experiences as ones which future generations will retell.
As Truth and Reconciliation Day passed us by, many of us will have taken a moment to remember the impacts of residential schools and the cultural genocide implemented on Indigenous Peoples on Turtle Island. While these tragedies often take centre stage, and rightfully so, it is also crucial for us to consider lesser-known, intersectional stories such as that of Bainbridge Island’s Indipino community.
