Ang Kalatas May 2018 Issue | Page 5

NEWS A take on Philippines’ President Filipino paintings go to Blacktown libraries A BOOK, Duterte Harry - Fire and Fury in the Philippines, by television correspondent Jonathan Miller will be launched at the Australian National University campus in Acton ACT on Thursday, May 31, 2018. THREE paintings by Filipino artist Dennis Gonzales were officially turned over to Blacktown City Council at a brief ceremony on Saturday, April 28, 2018. The ANU-Canberra Times meet-the- author event will be held in association with ANU Philippines Project. Mr Miller is a correspondent for Channel 4 News based in Bangkok, Thailand. The book has been described as a “revelatory biography” on Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s rise to power, and how he can be seen as “the embodiment of populism in our time”. A vote of thanks will be delivered at the event by Dr Imelda Deinla, a Fellow in the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) and director of the ANU Philippines Project, College of Asia and the Pacific, ANU. Pre-event book signing will take place www.kalatas.com.au BOOK COVER of Duterte Harry – Fire and Fury in the Philippines. 5.30pm and again after the event. The event will be held in association with Dymocks Canberra. Duterte Harry will be available for purchase. n The artworks Sa Kabukiran (In the Fields), Laro (Play) and Kultura (Culture) highlight various aspects of Filipino culture. All three originals painted in acrylic on canvass and measuring 4ft in height by 6ft in length are now on public display on level 1 of Blacktown’s Max Webber Library. Officials in attendance to receive the paintings and were part of the official ceremony were Blacktown City Mayor and State MP Steven Bali, Acting Head of Post Consul Melanie Diano of the Philippine Consulate in Sydney, Blacktown City Councillors Carol Israel and Kathie Collins, members of the Filipino-Australian community. Mr Gonzales’ mother, Sydney-based artist Daisy Gonzales Cumming, spearheaded the project with support from Filipino-community organisations such as the NARRA Co-op Ltd IN PICTURE, from left, Blacktown City Mayor Steven Bali, Daisy Gonzales Cumming, Councillors Kathie Collins and Carol Israel, Consul Melanie Diano, with the painting Sa Kabukiran in the background. and Plaza Filipino Inc, A & E Escandor, and Invocare. Mrs Cumming has donated paintings which are on display at the Bulwagang Rizal of the Philippine Consulate General in Sydney, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines and at the Philippine National Commission for Culture and the Arts. n AK NewsMagazine, Vol 8 No 8 | MAY 2018 05