September 28, 2024

Quote of the Week

"Ko au te maunga, te maunga ko au: I am the mountain and the mountain is me" -- Maori saying

Remember

By Joy Harjo

Remember the sky that you were born under,
know each of the star’s stories.
Remember the moon, know who she is.
Remember the sun’s birth at dawn, that is the strongest point of time.
Remember sundown and the giving away to night. Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath.
You are evidence of her life, and her mother’s, and hers.
Remember your father. He is your life, also.
Remember the earth whose skin you are: red earth, black earth, yellow earth, white earth brown earth, we are earth. Remember the plants, trees, animal life who all have their tribes, their families, their histories, too. Talk to them, listen to them. They are alive poems.
Remember the wind. Remember her voice. She knows the origin of this universe.
Remember you are all people and all people are you. Remember you are this universe and this universe is you. Remember all is in motion, is growing, is you.
Remember language comes from this.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Remember.
___

This week we invite you -- parents, elders, mentors and children -- to read this poem by Joy Harjo, an Indigenous poet, musician and the 23rd Poet Laureate of the United States. In a sense, this poem reflects on the vast animated web originating in the civic, planetary, biological, land, historical pasts, and ethnic realms - that we are constantly in communion with. This poem emphasizes knowing the individual and collective aspirations and memories that we actively hold, and more so children going into early teens.

Feature photo: Aboriginal artwork by Ronnie Tjampitjinpa from 1960, from a collection titled Remembering Forward that also inspired the title of this newsletter. 

Reading Corner

Title: The Whale Rider
Author: Witi Ihimaera
Ages: 12+

"On the east coast of New Zealand, the Whangara people believe their presence there dates back a thousand years or more to a single ancestor, Paikea, who escaped death when his canoe capsized by riding to shore on the back of a whale. From then on, Whangara chiefs, always the first-born, always male, have been considered Paikea's direct descendants.

Pai (Keisha Castle-Hughes), an 11-year-old girl in a patriarchal New Zealand tribe, believes she is destined to be the new chief. But her grandfather Koro is bound by tradition to pick a male leader, and is still upset that her twin brother died along with her mother in childbirth.

Pai loves Koro more than anyone in the world, but she must fight him and a thousand years of tradition to fulfill her destiny."

We hope you will invite children to reflect on this mythological novel weaving together themes of courage, gender-diversity, as the young protagonist challenges norms and long-standing collective memories, particular to her context. 

PS: Gather with children and watch the movie adaptation of this novel also. Get a glimpse. Enjoy!

Be the Change

Inspired by the feature poem 'Remember': get together with children and reflect on how to create a practice of 'pausing' in your mainstream lives to remember your origins and see how they influence and energise your unique human roles and values.