GHANA

The journey begins…

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The Hoopoe in the Sufi poem said:

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“One who enters here will be filled with such longing that they will give themself up completely to the quest symbolized by this valley. Then they will no longer fear the dragons….When the door is opened and they enter, then dogma, belief and unbelief—all cease to exist.”

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And our Anishnawbe elder and Guiding Bird, Duke Redbird, challenged us to consider the difference between Western hierarchies, and indigenous hierarchies that honoured Mother Earth and our co-existence.

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Our birds were asked:

“What beliefs or dogmas shape or impact you? What superpowers do you possess to take this journey?”

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A Bird Takes Flight

 

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In this Valley of Love, journeying birds were asked to consider how love manifested in their communities and to share a ritual that expresses love and teach it to another – after considering:

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“If you look at things with the eye of ordinary reason you will never understand how necessary- it is to love.”– Attar, Conference of the Birds

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“And from strength will come power

The power to Love

And of Love

Humanity shall acquire reconciliation…through the power of Love.” – Duke Redbird

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Duke’s is particularly timely/topical as Canada just announced new calls-to-action on Sept.30, Canada’s national day for Truth and Reconciliation.

And I believe our project asks us to reconcile our practices, with the planet and others…

 

Love

In this valley of knowledge, we asked our groups to explore the true meaning and understanding of knowledge in a world where we have information overload, fake news and disconnect from nature.

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Duke Redbird tells us the only information highway we need to plug into is nature. Pawel Pokutycki asks us what the digital paradigm offers us by way of information and understanding.

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We asked our groups to capture the experience of a sunrise and note all the sensations, feelings, images and thoughts then share them on the information highway. What feelings do we have when we experience these sunrises digitally?

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Let us know, and place your sunrises on our padlet in the explore page.

 

Peter Atsu Adaletey of Dzolali Theatre House says:

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I met some students walking homeward after the close of school. I called them and sought their concern if I can engage them in a brief dialogue; wanting to know their response to some issues. They agreed and we walked to my rehearsal studio.

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We began to dig deep into the word “KNOWLEDGE”. It appeared that, from a general perspective as shared from google search, KNOWLEDGE is defined as:

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Facts, information, and skills acquired through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject. It adds on that it’s an awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation. 

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No doubts about this because it is very clear but in order for us to approach this deeper and from a different angle, I asked the students if it is enough knowing facts for facts sake.  I again asked if there is any value when carrying KNOWLEDGE but unable to share and practically use that in response to issues confronting our space. Here, some silence and nodding of heads made it clear that we need to dive more into this area.

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As dialogues became more intimate, I realised that the students have acquired some knowledge on climate change. But sadly, we realised that applying such facts to helping address the unfavourable state of our environment has not been fairly met. That is where I strongly stood. As we dialogue, collectively, we agreed that KNOWLEDGE IS NOT KNOWLEDGE or worthy until it has been APPLIED.

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Collectively, we arrived at the short poem ‘Heads’

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The Heads - by Raphael, Emmanuel, Henry, George & Stephen

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WHAT WE READ

WHAT WE HEAR

WHAT WE WATCH

 

SUCH

NOT KNOWLEDGE

 

IT IS

WHAT WE PASS ON 

FOR CHANGE

 

 

Mother Earth does not boast of her seeds acquiring facts. Rather, it remains proud and healthy when FACTS ARE APPLIED to ADDRESS situations. The mathematical formula for KNOWLEDGE then arrived.

 

KNOWLEDGE = Facts/Information x Application

IGNORANCE = Facts/Information – Passiveness

In this Valley of Detachment, the Hoopoe tells us:

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“Then comes the valley where there is neither the desire to possess nor the wish to discover…Even when the blood of your heart shall fill the ocean, you will only be able to make the first stage. No traveller has seen the limit of this journey.”

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Our Guiding Bird Duke Redbird shares wisdom through his poetry around loss and reflection.

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We in turn asked the birds:

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“What losses and dramatic changes have you and your community experienced that have detached you from a sense of belonging, a sense of agency, a sense of being in control? What do you see in the mirror and what is the true inner reflection of you as a person or your community as a force? How can you write the change you believe in for your community, for this planet?”

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Detached

In this valley the Hoopoe tells us:

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“I and you are no longer relevant as we are one with everything” – Attar

 

Duke tells us that the Dish with One Spoon philosophy is unity itself:

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The “dish” represents the land that is to be shared peacefully and the “spoon” represents the individuals living on and using the resources of the land in a spirit of mutual co-operation

And from his poem The Dance:

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“My voice and my heart, if they live, I live...” – Duke Redbird

 

With this wisdom and guidance in mind, we asked the birds:

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What do you see that has atomized/broken apart in your community or the world? How do we bring it back together?

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We tasked the artists to create something that symbolizes unifying.

 

Dekaworwor

In the Valley of Wonderment the Hoopoe tells us:

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“Man lives in a dream …do not do as you have always done, be astonished and bewildered.”

 

and Duke reminds us that artists must chronicle their times, as from his poem, Daphne Odjig:

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“The people drew their legacy in colours and in line

The memory of ten thousand years eternally enshrined”

 

As artists are masters of wondering, we invited all birds to:

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“Wander and wonder, then create an act of wanton wonder.”

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In the Valley of Wonderment we shared with each other something we cherished.

 

Each of us sent another participant a voice message telling them one thing that amazed us: an experience, a being, a phrase, some poetry, a particular moment in our life. We wanted to discover wonderment in anything and everything. We wanted to share a gift.

Here is the result of those eight experiences.

In this final valley, the Hoopoe tells us:

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“In this calm sea, a man, at first, experiences only humiliation and overthrow; but when he emerges from this state, he will understand it as creation, and many secrets will be revealed to him.”

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Duke shared his wonderful new poem, Mother Earth, inspired in part by this project (the greatest creation).

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We also looked to the worlds of Carl Sagan:  In our obscurity – in all this vastness – there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

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In the journey we have travelled, it seems the time has come to be both humble and bold. Humble in knowing that we are not everything and yet bold in our commitments to caring for our earth and each other.

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As we land in Glasgow, alongside COP26, our final making request of the birds was to make a pledge to the planet: our world, our communities.

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“We can’t go back and make things the way they were.

Sometimes I feel that without the human being, nature could live better.

The birds would be alright and the cycle of life could go on.

Now we must try and recover what we did wrong, what our ancestors did.

We need to think about living a simpler life, a life in nature”.

 

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