Sound Sto­ries from the Land

okâwî­mâw askiy is Mother Earth (nêhiyawêwin/Plains Cree lan­guage), always pro­vi­ding for us in ways beyond our wil­dest ima­gi­na­tions. This work­shop pro­vides an ope­ning for us to streng­then our connec­tion to earth while acti­va­ting our voices and bodies through sound and movement.

As we move through prompts based on tea­chings from the medi­cine wheel, we dee­pen our pre­sence with our four bodies (men­tal, phy­si­cal, emo­tio­nal, spi­ri­tual) and the four ele­ments (earth, fire, wind, water) and we acti­vate our senses. We work in a circle, whe­ther actual or per­cei­ved, in an on-going ack­now­led­ge­ment of our rela­tion­ship to the many earth and sky rela­tives that are beyond our two-leg­ged (human) realm.

Loo­king at concepts :

medi­cine wheel : in an nêhiyaw/Plains Cree pers­pec­tive we all have four bodies ; phy­si­cal, men­tal, emo­tio­nal, spi­ri­tual. When we consi­der all four bodies in the way we voca­lize and respond to the world within and around us, we can find balance through sound. We also ack­now­ledge the four ele­ments and the four direc­tions as inte­gral aspects of this balancing.

mis­kâ­so­win : fin­ding one’s sense of belon­ging, loca­ting one­self within the circle (of life). We conti­nual­ly work in rela­tion­ship to one ano­ther where all voices matter.

wâh­kôh­to­win : kin­ships beyond our imme­diate fami­ly ; an ack­now­ledg­ment of all of earth’s crea­tion as mem­bers of our exten­ded fami­ly, as relatives.

nika­mo­tan : let us sing toge­ther as crea­tive medi­cine to help us grow and streng­then our capa­ci­ties for lis­te­ning, mir­ro­ring and living a good life together.

nanâs­ko­mo­win : gra­ti­tude. We give thanks through music and sin­ging. In a simple way, we say “hay hay” as a way of ack­now­led­ging all the rela­tion­ships that uplift, ins­pire and help us grow.

What place or land­scape is home for you ? How do you ack­now­ledge your body as home ?

1. Coming home through breath :

Fol­lo­wing a simple count in a cir­cu­lar pat­tern, we explore the cycles of birth, growth, death and release. We inhale and take in the air around us, this air ignites the fire inside, war­ming us and filling our bodies with ener­gy. We hold this air inside in awe, fee­ling into where space is being made with new breath. We release this air and we calm the waters in our bel­lies. We feel the emp­ti­ness of release. We repeat. Each time we cycle through breath, we engage with dif­ferent images, thin­king about the ele­ments, the cycles of life, of sun­rise and sun­set. We use our body as a map to connect with land­scapes and remem­ber that our body is our ter­ri­to­ry. Once you are fini­shed cycling through this brea­thing exer­cise a few times, take a minute to sit quiet­ly and notice if there are subtle changes in your inner world. Then ask, what has shif­ted in your per­cep­tion of your rela­tion­ship to the world around you ?

2. CALL + RESPONSE. Lis­ten, Reci­pro­cate, Respond :

What sounds, sights, smells, fee­lings, tastes ins­pire you to sing and to call into exis­tence the sounds alive inside and around you ? We explore how our voices blend, echo and mir­ror the world around us and invite new sounds and lan­guages for connec­tion. You can work with images, sounds from nature and other found objects or memo­ries to create the acti­va­tion for call and response.

3. GRATITUDE song :

Through song we give thanks to all the beings, people, places and gifts that sup­port our exis­tence. Loo­king around and within you, we sing out, name and cele­brate these gifts together.