It’s 10.24pm on the 9th of May on the year 2026. The temperature outside is autumn cold, around 12 degrees. When I was out earlier this afternoon, the maple tree outside my home looks gloriously yellow, green and orange, the grounds below it filled with those magical crisp-looking dry leaves of the season. On the kitchen bench is a half-eaten guava, freshly picked from the small bush-height guava tree at the front yard, competing for space with a calamansi tree planted a couple of metres next to it.

Yes, while I’m thinking of a time in the late 1890s, in a place thousands of kilometres from where I’m sitting now, yet a place that is never too far from my heart, I write this – the reason why ‘The Australian Filipina’ has been renamed ‘The Lakambini’.

I consider it a proud moment. The word ‘Lakambini’ is Filipino, and yet it’s also Australian. It’s a name that carries that dual identity that I – and hundreds of thousands of Australian citizens – carry. But I’m getting ahead of myself. I want to share why I’ve chosen this name.

First, a stereotypically 2026 media problem. The first thing I did was check if I’ll have an SEO challenge picking a name that had four syllables (two syllables too long for many), a foreign word, and whether it’s already taken.

The answers only reinforced my decision. It said that there was a movie released in late 2025 – one that was 10 years in the making – titled ‘Lakambini: Gregoria de Jesus’. The titular character was played by one of my favourite Filipina actors, Lovi Poe. The ubiquitous AI platform warned me that a new publication would be fighting with this movie on SEO, which made it a bad idea.

But then it mentioned that the director of the movie commented that the name ‘Lakambini’was barely searched on the internet. I did a quick Google Trends request online and this was what turned up:

Term & Estimated Monthly Searches

  • José Rizal (Philippine hero) 10,000+ (often far higher)
  • Andrés Bonifacio (Philippine hero) 5,000–10,000+
  • Lakambini 0–10 or “insufficient data”

This can’t be right. Gregoria de Jesus, a Philippine heroine who called herself Lakambini is little known, barely searched, not someone who has sparked a conversation on Google.

I looked further into the name and learnt more about her.

You see, I chose the name because it meant ‘muse’ or ‘noble woman’, which fitted with the mission of The Australian Filipina. This publication was founded in 2005, the brainchild of Jaime Pimentel, a Fairfax journalist who came to Australia a few decades prior. He believed that Filipino women in Australia, too, should have their own women’s magazine. You might think it’s ironic that a man should be behind a women’s publication, but then you’ll miss the point. Tito Jimmy (as I and my fellow writers at the time called him) is a man, but he is a journalist, a media man, and a proud Filipino. I’ll forever thank him for the genesis of the Australian Filipina as a monthly print magazine.

The first editor of the Australian Filipina was Kris Maslog-Levis. She is a best-selling author of children’s books and YA fantasy novels. Mimmette Roldan, another amazing Filipina writer, was also there at the beginning as an editor, writer and magazine production guru.

I’ll jump a few years later. Life happened. I picked up the baton and turned it into an online-only website. It was the year 2009 and websites were the thing! I was very privileged to have a circle of very supportive writers and collaborators, at the very top of that list being award-winning community reporter and journalist Violi Calvert. You’ll see her byline numerous times. She’s a radio broadcaster and writer. Truly, if not for her, The Australian Filipina wouldn’t continue to exist. And this gets me to why I chose ‘Lakambini’.

Quite simply, and yet powerfully, Gregoria de Jesus was the revolutionary heroine who took on the name of ‘Lakambini’ and was known at the time as the keeper of records. She kept the story of the Philippine revolution safe from the Spanish Guardia Civil. The story goes that when the Spaniards were close to discovering the revolutionary society’s secret documents, it was Gregoria who rode on the calesa all night to keep the documents safe.

The Australian Filipina writer Violi Calvert is that keeper of records in modern-day Philippine history. Events, celebrations, profile interviews – Australian Filipina history over the past decade that would have never existed without her.

Yes, I had my share of articles that I’ve written for the publication, but I give credit where credit is due. Without a doubt, Violi is the most prolific and most ardent community writer/journalist/advocate I know.

Now this is a complete coincidence, but one of the publication’s contributors is Chi de Jesus. He writes about fashion, beauty and other lifestyle stories. It’s the randomness of the universe but the statistical probability of ‘de Jesus’ coming up for The Lakambini – each one born a century apart – is the kind of stories that make the storytelling that much sweeter!

From the first spark of the name’s meaning as ‘muse’ to the real-life archiving and storytelling of the Australian Filipina’s most prolific writer to the future of the publication – timing isn’t everything, but it creates a deadline that’s hard to resist.

According to the 2021 Census, there are more than 322,000 people living in Australia who were born in the Philippines. The total number of Australians with Filipino ancestry is 408,000, a figure that grew by 26 per cent between 2016 and 2021.

If there was a readership base for The Lakambini media back in 2009, there’s an even bigger audience ahead of it.

Besides those who live in Australia as residents, there’s another group that The Lakambini can serve: the Filipino youth living here as students. There are more than 31,700 Filipino international students currently studying in Australia - a 274 per cent increase from just 8,492 in 2019 - representing a fast-growing and highly engaged segment of the broader Filipino-Australian community. They, too, need a voice.

Let’s talk about gender. There’s a reason this publication remains dedicated to women-centric content. It’s my nod to leading community media – the Philippine Community Herald, the Philippine Times and the mighty SBS Filipino – all of which are doing a great job for the general community. That space is well-served (and guess what, we’re friends with each other, too!).

And even in 2026, Filipina women still face some of the challenges that Gregoria de Jesus faced in the 19th century. It’s a lot better now but we can still do more towards gender equality across many dimensions – in our personal lives, professions, and overall status in society.

A quick diversion to personal finance. Did you know that at the time of the 2016 Census, the median individual weekly income for Philippines-born Australians aged 15 and over was $746? This is higher than both the overseas-born median ($615) and the Australian-born median ($688), indicating above-average disposable income within this community.

Let’s pause on that for a bit. Many Filipinos are earning more than the median Australian-born professional. There’s a lot to unpack there and I hope that The Lakambini can help share stories around wealth and well-being. It’s great for the Filipina wallet – and great for the broader economy.

On politics, it’s a sign of a community’s maturity that there have been a series of historic ‘firsts’ this year for Filipino-Australian politicians. The Lakambini endeavours to cover that journey, too.

I don’t think I have to mention Philippine arts and culture, or food, or fashion - but there are plenty of stories to tell.

Today, on the very day of Gregoria de Jesus’ birthday, on behalf of everyone behind The Lakambini, from our writers to our website administrators and sponsors, I say, ‘The Lakambini’ is officially launched. It’s a media platform with roots in Sydney and serving the Filipina diaspora in Australia and beyond.

While it’s a chilly night outside, it is warm and toasty here at my desk, as I write this:

‘To Lakambini, the Katipunan’s keeper of records, Gregoria de Jesus, happy 151st birth anniversary! You risked your life so that Filipino stories, full of boldness and bravery, were never lost.
We carry that work forward.’