Land, Lineage and Embodied Learning

My practices arise through collaboration with my home in the Appalachian mountains. Cherokee people have lived here for thousands of years, developing deeply rooted traditions. The erosion of culture in my Western European ancestry that supported deeply loving and collaborative relationships with the land and its inhabitants has contributed to devastating and ongoing harm. Many peoples have not forgotten our species’ need to collaborate with the Earth, but in my lineages, I am continuing to remember. My dearest hope is that my work can be an aspect of repair on behalf of my ancestors.

Western science is just beginning to take the idea of plant intelligence seriously. And yet I believe that all of our ancestors had ways to learn from plants, building up rich traditions not through blind trial and error, but by tapping into innate capabilities our minds and bodies have that many of us do not have cultural support to cultivate. I have been searching for vestiges of nature-based traditions in my own ancestry since I learned my first ballads and fiddle tunes at age 17. My own journey of healing with the Earth and embodying this music for so long has gifted me a window into the ancient origins of these forms of expression, when listening to the land inspired spontaneous embodied expression.

Experimental art and music traditions provide me with equally vital lineage, giving me hope that through my own expression, I can continue to build on the healthy culture that artists such as Pauline Oliveros, Milford Graves, and Don and Moki Cherry grew in collaboration with the land. These artists and so many more have been way showers for me in understanding that creative expression can be a path to growing healthy land-based culture. My circles aim to help people experience the value of their own creative expression in this endlessly generative process. The Earth has so much wisdom for these times, and we can listen together.

We are a vital keystone species. As social mammals, we are wired for connection not only with each other but with the whole world around us. I believe that practicing creative expression to collaborate with the Earth is one of our core ecological niches. Creative expression rooted in embodied listening can open vibrant relational fields between us and other species, helping us to relationally practice what science cannot yet see. We need a movement of collective listening to the Earth, and healing our inherited wounding around creative expression is essential for this movement to grow. Your own expression is essential for this movement to grow.

Just as healing our cultural wounding around expression can increase our ability to create healthy land-based culture, helping to expand the idea of what nature is to include urban areas also feels important to the kind of collective listening we need to heal systems. I aim to increase access by offering donation-based nature walks and song circles in urban and rural ecosystems. Urban ecosystems are so thirsty for our care, and building relationships with beings in cities can help us understand how to live more harmoniously.

As someone who shares nature-connection with others, understanding the complex histories of naturalists and unequal nature access is also part of my ongoing learning. I am committed to continuing to understand what repair I can offer on behalf of my ancestors through embodied conversations with other humans, as well as other forms of intelligence with which we share our sacred planet.