Did your parents or grandparents ever tell you stories when you were a child? Did they tell you who your ancestors were and what they were like, or how your family got its name? Did anyone ever tell you the origins of your hometown or locality?

Knowing our past helps us know who we are and what we could become. However, much of our rich and colorful heritage is unrecorded and undocumented, preserved only by being passed down through the generations as stories and customary practices woven through the fabric of daily life. Each time one of our elders dies without passing down what they know of our heritage, a part of our inheritance is lost, leaving each generation poorer in knowledge, thinning and tearing the fabric of our culture.

In answer to this need, Filipiniana.net launches LAHI, the Local Arts and History Initiative. LAHI aims to help preserve what is left of our history and folk heritage by calling for all Filipinos to share what they know and remember of our past, through folklore, folk literature, local history and even family stories and photographs. Each of us has a story to tell, to help reweave the fabric of our culture and restore our pride in our race--- ang ating LAHI.