Before we could talk, we sang; before we could walk, we danced
This summer I attended the Grand Ronde Powwow here in Oregon. As an artist I prefer metaphor to the typical fact reporting narrative & so I would like share this experience by offering this story & some photos I made the old-fashioned way, using medium format b&w film. As an outsider adopted by this shared land, I am always considering how I can engage in a way that is neither silently witnessing from a distance nor appropriating someone else’s story, but in a way that is authentically conversational, offering something in return to increase the abundance of what has been shared with me.
When Creator wove the world & all its beings, Creator was so delighted they shouted “Sva-ha!” (Sanskrit: “Yee-haw!”)
Feeling this sound in our chests for the first time, all creatures rejoiced.
We people scattered across the earth awakened & screamed & howled in joy so Creator could hear our thanks. But Creator could not hear us. So we people hit the earth with our open palms & beat sticks together while we howled & screamed, but Creator could not hear us. Creator was so delighted by this & so dearly wished to hear what we were saying.
Creator pulled the silent threads all beings have woven into us through the crowns of our heads & we people stood for the first time. Before this we walked with our hands on the ground.
The moment we stood upright, we screamed & howled, we beat sticks, & we danced our thanks.
Now Creator hears us. Now Creator’s heart fills with joy.
& So this why all people in the world sing songs before we can talk. This is why our hands touch the earth before we can walk. & this is why we dance.
I offer my thanks to the Grand Ronde people for the invitation to the uyxat Powwow Grounds on August 19–21, 2022, to Mother Earth for all of the abundance & care in this world, to all creatures for they are all our dear siblings, & to the Bodhisattvas who quietly guide us in this life.
I offer this work as a gift in praise of all past, present, & future ancestors that we may all continue walking alongside each other in a good way.
