The Land Dreams in Ceremonies: Reparation Ceremony #12 *Lekwungen*

 

Motanky Fabric: I chose to work with leftover fabric from previous months, as the plague of over-production and over-consumption is (to me) so very apparent in city spaces.  Using upcycled fabric to craft with is both challenging and exciting – especially when precious pieces of linen, well-woven cotton, hemp, and silk find their way to my hands.  Working with natural dye and fibre became an expression of ancestral memory and a growing expression of care for and responsibility toward the land.

Urban Ceremony: One of the first things I noticed as I exited the car for ceremony was how loud, congested, and dissociative everything felt. Walking toward the ceremony location, I passed by a group of Canadian Geese sitting on a manicured hotel lawn.  They seemed like tourists on their way to more suitable (wilder) locations, just taking in the “sights” and watching the urban-animal-humans.  Nearby, a large tree housed a crow making odd and wonderous sounds, only audible close-up – otherwise drowned out by water-taxis, seaplanes, traffic, and ferries.  The loudness of it all was the most striking thing.

Imagining Victoria... The Pysanka is written with mirror images of an imagined “then and now”: Ancestors began leaving when the trees were taken ~ when land was taken…  In the movement of time, ancestors are returning and landing in urban settings to provide guidance as humanity struggles to recommit their place in the natural world.  We are tasked with the need for rapid and heart-felt reparation.  The current environmental and humanitarian crisis are simply one and the same thing – genocide surrounds us.

Incompletion... I sought permission from Quw’utsun’ and Tsartlip elders to perform the ceremonies and root my ancestral medicine “here.” However, I did not know anyone in Lekwungen territory to approach, and establishing a superficial connection felt misaligned.  In following advice from the main elder I consult, I instead sought permission from the “guardian elders” – mountains, trees, and a waterfall.  It is a retraining of my western straight-line-mind to remember that they are the first elders and ancestors, and because my primary relationship is to the land, they are therefore the primary elders I must approach.

Shadow Walking: During the very last step of oiling the completed exhibit Pysanka, it broke.  The same thing repeated for the next Pysanka also.  It is said that the medicine is “complete” when the Pysanka breaks.  I pray the message the talisman carries is, indeed, seeping into the ocean and soil.