This is a breathing, growing, fluid space centering care, creation and ancestral memory • • • where voices and bodies are honoured with tenderness and integrity.
We nurture the practice of re-membering through bodywork, ritual and the act of creation.
We breathe life into this space with the intention to offer room to those most often left out, vulnerable and systematically disadvantaged.
Arugâ ᜀᜇᜓᜄ
tenderness • • • nurture
We are living in a time called to organize, mobilize and hold spaces for us to further root ourselves into Ancestral Intelligence; collectively growing beyond current destructive and colonial paradigms. We aim to embody a space where art and a sense of belonging are practiced as rituals of care.
Envisioning a world where care is an integral part in the collective, creativity is sacred and healing is rooted in relationship with the self and others, we deeply resonate with Audre Lorde’s words that care is an act of resistance, and art a tool towards liberation.
We invite you to join us in building relation-ships with ourselves, each other and our ancestors.
our logo symbolises our journey. like a boat (bangka in Tagalog), we are here in this journey together, collectively paddling to a shared future.
Every decision we make is shaped by a clear sense of intention and purpose.
Through every step, we focus on staying true to our values and making space for thoughtful and lasting work.
Intentions
Our work is rooted in deep reverence for Indigenous systems. We acknowledge that the knowledge systems and relationships to land and community are living, sovereign traditions that have sustained generations. Our intention is to honor, protect and learn from those teachings and the ones holding and carrying, especially in a time where these practices are being appropriated, extracted or commodified without proper consent, initiation or permission.
We aim and commit to:
Centering Indigenous leadership and voices in any work that draws on Indigenous knowledge, practices or aesthetics.
Prioritizing consent, accountability and ongoing relationships rather than one-off collaborations.
Sharing spaces, time and capacity with Indigenous, local and diasporic communities through equitable support.
Ensuring reciprocity by co-designing projects, events or programs with community partners so that decision-making, and intellectual property remain with or are returned to those communities.
Investing in community-led initiatives for cultural preservation, language revitalization, land stewardship and intergenerational knowledge transmission.
Practicing cultural humility and response-ability: continually learning, listening and being open to correction and recognizing our limitations + the historical harms that shape current inequities.
Maintaining transparency about where income from (collaborative) work goes.
Creating safe, respectful spaces that follow protocols set by community knowledge-holders and elders.
Avoiding extraction by not replicating sacred rituals or ceremonies outside of their appropriate contexts.
A pulse beating towards remembering our return.
Rooted in the body and attuned to spirit, ARUGA was born from a longing for spaces that hold, nourish and honour those so often pushed to the edges. Art is not separate from life — we believe it is a practice that helps us to remember an unfolding path returning home residing within us.
We believe care is relational, and the body witnessed as an archive, portal and guide. Through this belief, we hope to create meaningful work that is intuitive and grounded through touch and ritual.
This is our offering to build relation-ships with one another,
a call to root oneself in the medicine held in ancestral memory.