Inspirations from I Write What I Like
A people losing relationship with history
are moving without an engine.
Within Indigenous cultures,
ways of living are continuing to carry
something worth noticing:
community gathering at the center,
people meeting people,
life moving through relationship.
We are placing community at the center.
We are meeting one another
without turning another person
into a stepping stone.
We are moving together.
We are listening for a shared rhythm.
Songs are gathering through voices.
Voices are answering voices.
Words are moving with rhythm,
while shared experience is shaping the song.
During conflict,
singing is steadying frightened bodies.
During suffering and enslavement,
voices are gathering together,
breath is joining breath,
rhythm is carrying weight,
and people are drawing strength
from one another.
Community is forming the ground.
Villages are gathering
around the needs of people living together.
Land is being held through relationship.
Cattle are moving across open veld.
Families are tending fields.
Neighbours are arriving to work beside them.
Hands are meeting soil.
Bodies are working together.
Help is moving outward
and returning again.
When hardship is arriving,
people are turning toward neighbours.
Support is passing
between people,
between communities,
between leaders,
even while conflict is unfolding.
Community is continuing
through reciprocity,
shared labor,
song,
rhythm,
and the tending of life together.