There is a meeting place:  Mati Zemlya ~ Mother Earth.  We are all born of the earth, within Nature, part of the land (waters, sky…).  The land, the Mother, is a living entity.  She breathes.  She dreams.  She remembers.  Like blood and bone memory stored within you, the land also stores memories – traces or “footprints” of your time spent here, on shared lands.  We co-influence one another through the land, in helpful and not-so-helpful ways.  Where there is trauma held in the history of the land, it affects us all.  And it is the responsibility of each person to do their part to support its healing.

So that’s where I began.  Taking care of my own messes.  My own unconsciousness.  Retracing the steps of all the places I have lived and worked on Vancouver Island.  Campsite clean-up.

Through Ukrainian folk-knowledge and -crafts, along with ceremonies timed by the old calendar (moon cycles – misyats’), I explore the intersection of “tradition” with “direct relationship” with the land, and what it means to root ancestral knowledge in a “good way” in territories where I am an uninvited guest. My methodology includes: deep listening; reading the symbols and signs; dreams; research; relationship-building; mentorship and apprenticeship. 

This exhibit documents my experiences, the resulting crafts, and the progression of personal land reparation ceremonies.  And it asks audiences to engage in the questions and material for themselves.