08 OCTOBER 2025, VANCOUVER, BC. Last 27 September 2025, PCG Vancouver, represented by Vice Consul Marco Harder, attended the official unveiling of Pagalala at Pagasa, a mural by Filipino-Canadian artist Mara Cortez at 165 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, B.C. The unveiling ceremony was done in collaboration with Filipino BC.
The mural depicts the precolonial Tagalog deity Mayari at the head of the boat and 11 faces, symbolizing the journey of the departed into the afterlife. In her artist statement, Mara cites the artifacts that she saw during her recent trip to the Philippines as the source of her inspiration for this work. She also states that her work is an attempt to represent “the way we continue to care for and watch over one another, even beyond death.”
