Lana-Making Workshop

Sourced from coconuts, Lana is a sacred Filipinx oil used for generations in rituals, medicine and cooking practices! Want to learn how to make this ancestral oil? Join us on Sunday 18 May for an interactive Lana-making workshop presented by Bangka Healing Arts with Magenta House! 🥥🫙

Dive into the ancestral knowledge of herbal medicine, plant allies, animism and Filipinx healing modalities as we take turns to create Lana together. As we cook, we’ll imbue this mixture with our intentions and spirit and choose a selection of tanom/halaman/plant allies: Ginger (luy-a), Lemongrass (tanglad), Guava (bayabas), & Moringa (kamunggay/malunggay). 

We’ll then move through the elements of pressing and pounding herbs (Yuta/Earth), milking and extracting coconut milk, and cooking herbs and coconuts together in the fire (Kalayo/Fire), before finally setting the medicinal oil. As we make this Lana from scratch, we’ll be sharing ancestral frameworks around herbal medicine, plant allies, animism and Hilot (Traditional Filipinx Medicine).

Take home your freshly-made oil and experience the various ways that Lana is used throughout the Philippines archipelago and the diaspora. No prior experience in herbal medicine or cooking is required. Just bring a jar (approx. 200ml) and we’ll handle the rest.

Lana-Making Workshop | Sunday 18 May, 10am-3pm AEST
Address provided to registered attendees

Cost:

$70 for Unwaged (reduced fee for individuals who are not employed or have limited income)
$100 for Waged (general fee for individuals who are earning income or are employed)
$120 for Solidarity (supporter’s fee for individuals to aid in subsidising free and lower-cost tickets)
Free for First Nations = waived fee for people who identify as First Nations or Aboriginal.

Your ticket includes a catered lunch by Lawan and plant-based refreshments by Magenta House.
Fees will go towards materials, ingredients and labour, with 20% proceeds to Pay the Rent. 

Due to the nature of this event, placements are limited to keep interactions intimate and invested. 

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About the Facilitators

NAWA SYBICO or GAT NEYA KILAW SA KALASANGAN (Hilot Binabaylan of Diwatang Kilawneya) is a first generation Bisaya immigrant settler living on Mumirimina and Muwinina country in Nipaluna, Lutruwita (Hobart, Tasmania). Their practice revolves around ancestral technologies such as herbalism, somatics, astrology, and death care. Through these healing arts they weave together a decolonial and liberatory practice, by embodying holistic and non-linear ways of problem-solving for inhabiting neo-colonial space. Their anti-oppressive practice centres marginalised communities as an organising strategy for confronting inter-generational burnout and trauma inside of social movements. Nawa acknowledges and honours the mentors and lineages they carry. 

ARGO THEOHARIS or GAT TISEDEL SA YUTA (Hilot Binabaylan of the Diwatang Deltise) is a first generation immigrant settler on Jagera & Turrbal country in Magandjin (Brisbane, Queensland). Their ancestral lineages hail from Greece on the Paternal side and on the Maternal side Sibuyan Island, Romblon in the Visayas of the Archipelago known as the Philippines. Their Lola (Maternal Grandmother) was a practicing Arbularyo on our island, and people from across Romblon would travel to her for ritual and healing. It’s this lineage that inspires Argo to explore how our Indigenous ancestral medicines and philosophy can be used to address ongoing histories of colonial violence & oppression.

About Magenta House
Step inside Magenta House, a gathering and knowledge-sharing space in Redfern, Gadigal land. Our programs come alive through intimate workshops, communal meals, talks, soirées, and reading sessions. Alongside this, we run an arts & culture Library, and a Shop stocking artisinal products and publications focusing on food cultures, heritage ventures and experimental publishing from Asia and Australia. Based in a domestic space, Magenta House is a synergetic site for ideas and conversations to ferment through encounters and collaborations.

Image credits: [Banner] Workshop at Tahanan Studio; photography by Vader Fame.
Lana-making photography (1-3) by Argo Theoharis (4) Mo Chan; poster design by Mariam Ella Arcilla.