Who Were We Before We Were “Filipino”?
By Leo Albea for One Down
In 2018, just a few months after One Down was founded, I met a Bay Area artist named Kristian Kabuay. We were filming a short feature about the mural he was co-painting in Historic Filipinotown, that included Baybayin, the indigenous writing system of pre-colonial Philippines. At the time, I didn't fully grasp how much I didn't know about being "Filipino." And like many of us in the diaspora, my definition began with what colonization left behind - "Filipino fiesta foods," stereotypes, and relatable trauma involving our parents.
I didn’t yet have the language for what existed before all of that.
It would take years, and rediscovering Kristian’s work again later, to realize that what he’s doing isn’t just art. It’s restoration.
Rediscovering the PreFilipino
Kristian Kabuay coined the term PreFilipino to describe the cultures that thrived across the archipelago before the Philippines was even called “the Philippines.” It’s a word that challenges the colonial timeline most of us inherited, the one that implies we began the moment Spain “found” us.
“PreFilipino is not about rejecting the word Filipino,” Kristian once said. “It’s about remembering what existed before it.”
That distinction matters. Because when you grow up Filipino American, most of what you know about your culture is filtered through colonization. You know the food, the fiestas, the Catholic holidays, but not the 4,000 years of civilization that came before. You might even get Baybayin tattooed on your skin without realizing it’s more than a set of characters, it’s a worldview.
Kristian’s work asks us to see those erased centuries not as a footnote, but as the foundation.
The Mission Behind His Work
Through his platforms: Baybayin.com, Balay School, and his books like An Introduction to Baybayin, Kristian teaches what he calls “pre-Philippine literacy.” But what makes his approach radical is how modern it feels.
He’s built teaching bots, online classrooms, and even augmented-reality art to make ancient knowledge accessible to anyone with Wi-Fi. His lectures span from Stanford to Tokyo University. He’s taught children to trace the same symbols their ancestors once wrote on bamboo. And his digital workshops reach thousands of Filipinos worldwide.
But Kristian’s goal isn’t fame. It’s normalization. “My goal,” he says, “is to become irrelevant — because that means the work has been normalized.”
He doesn’t want to be the only one keeping Baybayin alive. He wants it to be so embedded in our culture that people no longer need someone like him to explain it.
What We Lost and Why It Matters
When you trace Filipino history, you start to see a pattern: the deeper you go, the quieter it becomes. Colonization didn’t just erase what we had; it replaced what we believed about ourselves. By the time many of us learned the word “Filipino,” it already came preloaded with foreign definitions.
That’s why Kristian’s work matters. It reconnects us to the knowledge that our ancestors weren’t “primitive” or “illiterate.” They were writers, philosophers, and cosmologists, long before Spain claimed to “civilize” us. And for those of us in the diaspora, this isn’t just about pride. It’s about responsibility.
We inherit the fragments of a history scattered by colonization. What Kristian is doing, reviving scripts, restoring memory, building community, is the blueprint for how we put those fragments back together.
Reclaiming Language AND Self
The more you listen to Kristian talk about Baybayin, the more you realize it isn’t just a writing system, it’s a reflection of how Filipinos once related to one another. There are no harsh uppercase or lowercase divisions, no rigid punctuation. Like the culture it came from, it’s fluid and relational.
To write in Baybayin is to remember that communication once came from connection, not authority.
That’s what Kristian’s work does. It doesn’t just teach you to read Baybayin; it teaches you to see yourself again.
Because before we were colonized, before we were named, before we were divided by language or region, we already belonged to something.
So maybe the question isn’t just Who were we before we were Filipino?
It’s Who might we become once we remember?
Learn More
Explore Kristian Kabuay’s work at kabuay.com and follow @kristian.kabuay.
You can also begin your own learning journey with his book, Sulat Kamay Workbook, available online and at select Filipino bookstores.
Sources
Scout Magazine – “Kristian Kabuay: Baybayin Artist”
NextShark – “Meet the Filipino-American Who’s Keeping an Ancient Script Alive”
Balay Kreative – “Preserving Indigenous Philippine Art and Culture with Kristian Kabuay”
Inquirer Lifestyle – “Rediscovering Baybayin with Kristian Kabuay”
Mahalaya SF – “Baybayin and Identity: A Cultural Awakening”
Asterra – “The Importance of Reviving Baybayin in Education”
Working Draft Magazine – “Bound by Baybayin”
Kabuay.com – “About” and “Blog Archives”
The Aswang Project – “The Beautiful History and Symbolism of Philippine Tattoo Culture”
Paul Morrow – “Baybayin: Ancient Script of the Philippines”