Iloilo is Auntie Nora’s hometown.
As is very commonplace in Hong Kong, Auntie Nora was one of the many hundreds of thousands of domestic helpers that make the move from their home country to work as a nanny for households abroad. I wanted to explore this economy of care. What does it mean to care? For your family, and for another that’s not yours?
She came into our family three weeks before I was born, up until after I left for my first year of university – 19 years.
We both talked about me going to Iloilo since I was a child, but it wasn’t till 2018 when I finally had the chance to fly out to visit her myself. An insider and outsider, I documented her and her family in this rural part of the Philippines, and I hope to continue doing so over the years.
Maria, Auntie Nora’s daughter
Auntie Nora’s daughter, Maria, and their neighbours
One day, Auntie Nora and I went a walk around the village and she showed me the land that used to be her parents’. Mud seeped between our toes, and we walked together through the fields.
Their village has no running water, so every other day her cousins will strap empty jugs to their motorbike, head over to the next village to fill them up with water, and bring them back.
Nora Sasota Saringo
A portrait of Virginia Sebuan, Auntie Nora’s aunt.
She has since passed away, and I regret not being able to send these photos back to her. I sent them instead to her daughter, Gracemae, who was not able to return to the Philippines from Hong Kong due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Everywhere I went, Auntie Nora’s friends and family would ask me if I’d had Boku pie yet. I was so intrigued as to what it was - turns out it’s a traditional Filipino coconut pie made with young fresh coconut. I had many slices.
Auntie Nora used to tell me about caribous when I was little. I never knew what they looked like because they weren’t the classic farm animal you’d see in children’s animal books.
In Hamtic, I was so in awe of how powerful they are, roaming the streets of the village and the paddy fields – Auntie Nora and the villagers all laughed at me for wanting to take pictures of the caribous.
Angel and Zyrish, our neighbours