Yo-Yo Ma visits the Grand Canyon to play and listen to Indigenous perspectives
This piece looks at the famous cellists second trip in “a project to explore how culture can help us strengthen relationships to nature and to each other.” His first trip, to Maine, is documented in one of Reciprocity Projects forthcoming short films.
“The world’s most famous cellist, Yo-Yo Ma, visited the Grand Canyon in November not to play, but to listen. He listened to the Canyon itself and the perspectives of the Indigenous people connected to the Canyon for generations.
“I really liked the purpose and the focus of his visit,” said Ed Kabotie, a Hopi-Tewa musician who met with Ma. “It’s important to recognize that there are many intimate perspectives in this discussion, the perspective of the Hualapai, the Havasupai, the Navajo, the Hopi, the Zuni. It was a good group of voices, to interact with him.
Yo-Yo Ma visited the sacred American landscape to explore how its lessons about time, nature, and how the relationship to both can help shape a better future together.”
Continue reading at The Navajo-Hopi Observer.
SEEDCAST: STORYTELLING IS GUARDIANSHIP
Since time immemorial, Indigenous people have celebrated storytelling as a way to connect the present to past lessons and future dreaming. Narrative sovereignty is a form of land guardianship, and Nia Tero supports this work through its storytelling initiatives, including the Seedcast podcast, as well as in this monthly column for media partner the South Seattle Emerald.
“Many of us have known for quite a while that climate change, accelerated by human decisions and behaviors, is not only real but a direct threat to life as we know it. While the findings of the IPCC report released in August of 2021 might not have been a surprise, that didn’t make them less alarming. The report inspired urgent conversations not only at planet-focused nonprofits like the one I work at, Nia Tero, but on a global scale and in individual homes: What can we do to heal the planet? What role can we play? Where are the solutions?
The good news is that human decisions and behaviors can also heal the planet, as evidenced by the land guardianship carried out by Indigenous peoples around the world in the form of tending to the land with fire, seed saving, or not taking more than you need.”
Continue reading at South Seattle Emerald.
SEEDCAST: RECIPROCITY
“Indigenous peoples and communities have long used stories to understand the world and our place in it. Seedcast is a story-centered podcast by Nia Tero and a special monthly column produced in partnership with the South Seattle Emerald about nurturing and rooting stories of the Indigenous experience.”
“We have always been storytellers. By “we” I mean Cherokee people, and when I say “always” I mean since the beginning of time. Our stories are woven into the very fabric of our being and hold the language, medicine, and values that have sustained our people through genocide, pandemic, and colonization. They remind us of how to be good relatives to all beings and ground us to our place in the world. The stories of our past are just as important today as they were centuries ago. New and old alike, stories are a gift, a way to share and even more so a means of honoring who we are and where we come from. We raise our voices and uplift our people through creating.”
Continue reading at South Seattle Emerald.