To reach the stars
A fund-raising exhibit for IP kids
HER slideshow starts with Lea Salonga's "The Journey" and I couldn't help but rib her, "Feel mo iyan kanta, no (I bet you empathize with the song)?"
She laughed in agreement.
For indeed, what a journey it has been for Jelieta Mariveles-Walinski, who incidentally was a columnist of Sun. Star Davao Superbalita writing under Tingog Mandaya while teaching in Catalunan Grande in 2008. She left for the US in December 2009 after marrying her American husband.
A Mandaya and daughter of a farmer and housewife, Walinski is one of 11 children, who
was determined to finish school even as early as eight years old.
Decades later, she returns as a professional and digital photographer with special interest on astrophotography.
Walinski is featured in a fund-raising exhibit to be held from November 21-26, 2016 at the Rodriguez Hall of the Ateneo de Davao University Community Center of the First Companions, Jacinto Campus.
The fund-raiser is for the children in Marilog that Kaugmaran Pagpagahum Inc. is serving.
To be featured are 15 of her best photographs, two are 30"x40" on metallic paper, while 13 others are 18"x12".
It's an auction type fundraiser with the two big ones being auctioned starting at P10,000 each and the small ones starts at P3,000.
The main photo in her exhibit is entitled "To reach the stars" because that is what she has been doing.
"Mao nang gisulti sa akong amahan na bisan asa pa ko moabot, mutan-aw ra ko sa North Star kay mao nang mangtudlo sa ako pauli (My father had told me to always look for the North Star because that is what will lead me home)," she said.
While his mother has been insisting that she focus on her education because that is something that no one can take away from her.
"Ang edukasyon dili makawat bisan malayo ka sa amoa (No one can take away your education no matter how far from home you go)," she recalled her mother as telling her.
Born and raised in Patobato, San Isidro in Davao Oriental, she was selling firewood and charcoal while still in elementary school to earn enough for her education.
The family does not have enough to send her as there are 10 other mouths to feed aside from her.
She worked to stay in school until she was in third year high school when she eventually dropped out.
But her journey had just started.
It was the Marcos era when she left home, but had to go back because her father was sick.
On a bus home, they were warned that there was a major checkpoint further up ahead somewhere in Agusan and in fear, she asked to share the umbrella of a nun who was among the passengers when they all went down.
She stuck with the nun and went with her to the "kumbento", scared and all alone at a time when strangers were held in suspicion in hinterland villages.
The nun urged her to go to school so that she will be a familiar face in the area, from then on the nuns were the ones sending her to school.
That is the very reason why it was easy for her to agree to auction out her works for lumad children in Marilog.
"Nakita nako sa ilaha ang akong kaugalingon (I saw myself in them)," she said, describing how she would carry her pair of shoes instead of walking on them because she did not want the pair of shoes to be soiled or broken, the same with her slippers. She'd rather hurt her feet than break her slippers, she said, and this is what the lumad children are doing as well.
In college, she said, she went to University of Southeastern Philippines (Usep) and took up Education, still as a working student, working for the RGS nuns. She made greeting cards which the nuns sold. Her schedule was from 6 a.m. to 12 noon she goes to school, then hurries back to the nuns because she has to make cards from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.
The love for photography, however, was already in her as a child when they were so poor, they could only have their photos every "closing", meaning, during commencement exercises at the end of a schoolyear.
"Kada closing ra pud ko makapa-picture," she said, but she was very fascinated by the photographs.
When she finally graduated from college and taught at Catalunan Grande, she was already able to afford a Sony point and shoot camera.
"Of the five children I mentored in photography using that camera, four won," she said, which again encouraged her to take more photos.
Eventually, she graduated to a Canon DSLR, which she bought from her last salary as a teacher before leaving for the US.
That was when she was able to focus on photography, since she had nothing else to do.
She was bored and looking for something to do when she asked her husband if she can study photography. She completed Professional Photography with the New York Institute of Photography in New York, New York in 2012 and Digital Photography in the same school in 2014 aside from taking up several online courses related to photography in Udemy.
Her photographs have been published in Canon Europe Website in 2010, in Western Update, a USAFederal Funded Magazine) in 2011, and in Capture Minnesota Books in 2012 and 2013 aside from being awarded the Most Followed Photographer for these two publications. Since her early forays into photography, she is now doing this professionally and has a photography studio in Becida, Minnesota.
Kaugmaran Pagpagahum Foundation Inc., popularly referred to as the "foundation ni Sister Jo Bacaltos", is a non-profit institution founded in November 1991 to improve the quality of live and increase empowerment for the segment of society who are affected by militarization. It is headed by Sr. Josephine Bacaltos, RGS. It continues to serve the needy indigenous peoples and their communities 25 years hence.
Sponsors of the exhibit are: James Patrick Walinksi, Joel Walinski, Mr. and Mrs. Michael Walinski, Mr. and Mrs. Chuck Mike, Mr. and Mrs. Eric Johnson, Lyll Mariveles, Patricia Predengast, Aissa T. Gonzaga, William Walinski, Mr. and Mrs. Larry Compton, and Maureen Woodward.