Bebot Barkada

Bios 🐣

VENUE PARTNER

Taguan Cafe is a Sydney-based café built around comfort, community, and the feeling of home. Founded by partners Margo and Vinny, the space began as a personal response to migration and the desire to hold onto familiar flavours, warmth, and culture while living away from the Philippines. Today, Taguan has evolved into more than just a café. It is a gathering place where people from different backgrounds connect through food, coffee, conversation, and shared experiences. Known for its thoughtful take on Filipino-inspired brunch and specialty drinks, Taguan blends nostalgia with contemporary café culture through dishes like savoury pandesals, house-made ube creations, and comforting rice meals rooted in memory and storytelling. Beyond the menu, the café has become recognised for its warm hospitality, collaborations with local creatives and community groups, and its ability to create spaces where people feel welcomed, seen, and at home in the middle of Sydney.

CREATIVE PRODUCER / COMMS & ENGAGEMENT:

Mariam Ella Arcilla is a community organiser, creative producer, and writer who grew up in a household of artists and cooks in Quezon City, Philippines. Embedded in the Australian cultural sector for over 20 years–she has inhabited strategic, communications, and curatorial roles across grassroots initiatives, publications, galleries, and government. Mariam runs Magenta House: a gathering, collective caretaking, and knowledge-sharing space in Redfern that hosts workshops, feeding sessions, talks, test labs, shop, and a reading room. She maintains a creative practice and has developed works for the Institute of Modern Art, BANG-ON, Saluhan, Firstdraft, Liquid Architecture, and Electrofringe Festival. Mariam has held senior roles at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art (Communications & Engagement Manager); STATION (Gallery Manager); and Miami Marketta, Rabbit & Cocoon creative precinct, and Tinygold (Co-founding Director/Curator). As a writer/editor she has served as Runway Journal Co-Chair and Guest Editor at Debris magazine, fine print, and Museum of Brisbane. She has mentored arts workers at Outer Space and Parramatta Artists Studios; and was an Arts Consultant for Creative Australia and Cultural Capital. She spent her formative years in hospitality—oscillating between family bakeries, pubs, night clubs, fine dining, fast food chains, and food marketing in Australia, UK and the Philippines. Mariam’s community work is profiled on SBS Radio, Never Too Small, VOGUE Philippines, The Straits Times Singapore, ABC TV, Habitus, Liminal, and Broadsheet. She's also an avid snacker with treats in her pockets at all times!

FEATURED CREATIVES, SOCIAL VENTURES & CULTURE WORKERS

Aban Eco - Aubrey Abanico is a Filipina entrepreneur, storyteller and advocate for conscious living whose work centres on culture, community and sustainability. Through Aban Eco, she collaborates with artisan and weaving communities across the Philippines, bringing traditional craftsmanship into contemporary spaces while supporting livelihoods, preserving cultural heritage and promoting conscious consumerism. Now based in Siargao, Aubrey recently expanded her work by opening a shop showcasing locally sourced products that celebrate Filipino craftsmanship, culture and small-scale makers. Her work has also extended internationally through a collaboration with Magenta House in Sydney, where Aban Eco products have been exclusively stocked, creating opportunities for Filipino craftsmanship and cultural storytelling to reach new audiences. Most recently, Aubrey partnered with Lokal Lab an NGO, to support the growth and development of the Lokal Snackbar, bringing her experience in community-building, customer experience and values-led business into the hospitality sector. Living between cultures has shaped her commitment to helping people reconnect with identity, heritage and a sense of belonging. At the heart of her work is a belief that business can be a force for good—uplifting communities, honouring tradition and creating meaningful impact for both people and planet.

Akasya Kape is a coffee brand that seeks to facilitate community and the gathering of like-minded minds, enveloped by island vibes and Filipino pride in every cup of coffee. Joining them for the event is Paolo of PaoloLearnsCoffee, an online coffee creator who has brewed over 3,000 cups of coffee at home and continues to share the joys of specialty coffee with people around the world through his educational and approachable content.

Aktibo is a Filipino-founded Australian activewear brand focused on movement, wellbeing & community. Inspired by family, culture and everyday movement, Aktibo was created to make wellness feel more inclusive, approachable and connected. Through performance-led activewear, community events and our Aktibo Run Club (ARC), we aim to bring people together both on and off the run route.

Bottomfeeder is a zero waste food project from Filipino-Hungarian cook and fermenter Margaret Sevenjhazi. Borne out of a lineage of farmers, cooks and survival intelligence rather than trends.

Cathy Sison is an Art Director, Graphic Designer, and Calligrapher from Melbourne. With over 10 years of experience, she has worked as a brand designer for notable companies including Thankyou, Frank Green, Lululemon, and Hairhouse (Warehouse). Recently returning from NYC as the former Head of Shillington School of Design, Cathy has also built a thriving calligraphy business. She is actively involved in the Assisterhood mentorship program and conducts numerous workshops around Melbourne and NYC. She is currently the Program Leader for Graphic Design and Digital Social Media for Collarts Melbourne/Sydney.

DIOLA - For over a decade, Krystel Diola, known as DIOLA, has been a dynamic force in the local music community. From organising events for emerging electronic soul musicians under Behind The Front since 2012 to her roles in publicity, artist liaison, radio (FBi Radio alumn), co-founding a record label (Low Key Source), events and community engagement at EMC, and teaching music workshops through Nakama Arts and collaborating with the Tangan collective in Darwin, DIOLA’s contribution has helped shape Sydney’s local live music community. As a DJ, DIOLA has shared the stage with top local and international DJs, sharing the stage with renowned artists like Questlove (US), Maxwell (US), Noah Slee (BE), HAU (2015 National tour), Average Rap Band (NZ), DJ Sarah Love (UK), Nickodemus (US), Stro Elliot (US), Tall Black Guy (US), Byron The Aquarius (US), Tokimonsta (US), The Goods, DJ Spinna (US), and more. She has performed at festivals including Wide Open Spaces, Darwin Festival, Vivid Festival, Performance Space Liveworks, OzAsia Festival, Dark Mofo with Barkaa, Freedom Sessions, J DILLA Tribute annual tribute nights, and Soul of Sydney.

Kasama Studio is a small batch ceramics practice and creative hub founded by Ria Desiree in 2024. Kasama means "together" or "companion" in Tagalog - a fitting word to describe its founding ethos of building community through clay.

Kristina Náray is a cook based on Naarm/Melbourne. She previously grew up on Darug/Western Sydney and on a grape and citrus farm in Millewa-Mallee region, Kulin/Victoria. She completed a Bachelor of Health Sciences majoring in Nutrition and Health Promotion, before working as a nutritionist, culinary teacher, and cook. She previously worked in the public and community health sectors for over 13 years. Kristina’s mother grew up in the mountain regions of the Zamboanga peninsula, with mixed Subanen background, and historical ancestral lineage to the island of Bohol in Central Visayas from both her parents. Kristina’s father is ethnic Hungarian and comes from a farming family that cultivated grapes, sugarbeet, and seasonal produce in a country town called Gombos. Kristina is passionate about promoting Southern Philippines' foodways practices and stories through her culinary work for Malindang.

Kristine Aquino is a sociologist and urban ethnographer with a research focus on migration and mobilities across Asia and Australia, particularly Filipino migration; migrant place-making in global cities; ethnic relations, racism and antiracism. At UTS, she serves as Course Director for the Bachelor of Sustainability and Environment. Community engagement is central to her research practice. She has collaborated with government agencies, city councils, and NGOs in Australia and Asia to support the welfare and integration of marginalised communities. Kristine's research has been published in leading international journals and edited collections, spanning the interdisciplinary fields of migration studies, ethnic and race studies, and urban studies. She currently serves on the editorial boards of Q1 journal Ethnic and Racial Studies and the Anthem Studies in Asian Mobilities across the Globe series. Her first book, Racism and Resistance among the Filipino Diaspora (Routledge, 2018), explores everyday experiences of racism and antiracism among Filipino migrants in Australia. It was shortlisted for the Australian Sociological Association’s 2020 Raewyn Connell Prize (best first book by an author in Australian sociology) and received a Special Commendation. Her second book, The Calamansi Story (2023), funded by the Australia-ASEAN Council, is a co-edited anthology that examines transnational foodways as home-making practices among Filipino migrants in Australia, launched at the 2023 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and featured in the 2023 OzAsia Festival.

Magenta House is a gathering and knowledge-sharing space based inside a re-envisioned home in Gadigal/Sydney, Australia. We dream up programs and connective avenues that interlace art, food, communing and experimental practices. We look at the ways that creative hospitality, co-learning, and intimate assemblies can embolden our ways of navigating and caring for the wider world together. In this spirit, we self-organise and collaborate with kindreds to create workshops, communal meals, test kitchens, dialogues, learning modules, reading sessions, and more. We also run a cultural library and an online shop supporting social ventures and independent artisans across Asia and Australia. Founded in April 2023, Magenta House is a synergetic platform for ideas and conversations to ferment.

Marjorie Tenchavez is a cultural practitioner who spent the first 12 years of her life in the famous culinary hub, Marikina City, in the Philippines, prior to moving to Gadigal/Sydney. She is also the founder & outgoing director of award-winning social enterprise, Welcome Merchant, which champions the entrepreneurial talents of refugees and people seeking asylum living in Australia. She often splits her time between Narrm, her current city, and Gadigal. In her spare time, you’ll find her either in a dance class, reading with her cat, singing off-key at a karaoke joint or dining away at a feast for good. She dreams of immersing herself in the nature positive sector for her next venture.

On Sundays, We Play is a project documenting the social worlds of Filipina migrant domestic workers through their own words. It follows the lives of women who have made the complex decision to leave their families behind to toil overseas as domestic workers in Singapore households. While this opportunity enables them to provide financial security for their children and loved ones back home, it of course comes at a cost.

Pattrische Art creates cute, culture-inspired art, stickers, and hosts creative workshops that bring people together through fun and creativity. Whether you love journaling, collecting stickers, or just want something that makes you smile, we’ve got something for you.

Tsismis Corner is a Gadigal-based design house handling everything from custom merch to e-commerce platforms. We weave cultural storytelling into all our work, including our signature hat collection honoring our father’s 1990s Annandale Filipino & Asian supermarket and restaurant, Manila Foodtown.

Tropical Futures (Tropical Futures Institute/TFI) is a creative studio and design practice founded in 2017 by Filipino-American designer Chris Fussner in Cebu, Philippines. It began as an experiment in contemporary culture and design with a focus on rethinking how the tropics are perceived, imagined, and represented, especially within art, design, and visual culture. TFI operates as a multidisciplinary think-tank that works across clothing, exhibitions, workshops, parties, residencies, pop-ups, zine fests, and community events, merging different creative fields to foreground tropical perspectives and narratives that often get overlooked in mainstream cultural discourse.

Bebot Barkada logo design by Cathy Sison