TREE STORIES

Métissage

Intention Setting

As we explore this métissage, think about:

How do these different texts inspire you when you think about what your tree’s story might be?

Robin Wall Kimmerer

“I have heard our elders give advice like ‘You should go among the standing people’ or ‘go spend some time with those Beaver people.’ They remind us of the capacity of others as our teachers, as holders of knowledge, as guides. Imagine walking through a richly inhabited world of Birch people, Bear people, Rock people, beings we think of and therefore speak of as persons worthy of our respect, of inclusion in a peopled world. Imagine the access we would have to different perspectives, the things we might see through others eyes, the wisdom that surrounds us. We don’t have to figure out everything by ourselves: there are intelligences other than our own, teachers all around us. Imagine how much less lonely the world would be.”

~Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (p. 58)

Poems by Cheyenne

Listen to the Trees (2019)

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Sometimes I sit beneath a tree

close my eyes

and listen.

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Because every creak of a branch in the wind

and every leafy whisper

is a secret

from something deep within the wood

below the far sunk roots.

Stories are being told every day

unbeknownst to most.

And I live on stories,

devour them

like most absorb oxygen.

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So I listen to the trees

and learn their tales

from yesterday and long ago.

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You should try it sometime.

Very few people stop for a moment

and hear the stories waiting just outside their window.

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Some of our Thoughts:

Ben: Every tree is different and so is every human. Trees teach us to be kind because none of us is the same.

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Abygail: Some trees are old and have rings that show time lines. They are like parents that teach the young ones about what happened before.

Cassia: It’s not just humans that have backstories, it’s trees too.

Some of our Thoughts:

• Peyton: A tree’s story is so long!
• Breanna: When I was looking at my tree I was thinking ‘what has this tree been through? What has it done? How old is it?”
• Jordan: Every tree is different and they have their own story. A human each has a story and we are all different.
• Bennett: I wonder if trees have human feelings?
• Alyvia: Can trees feel jealous? Are trees inspired by each other?
• Abby: Do trees cheer each other on?
• Sophia: I wonder if trees form friendships like we do. I wonder if the trees are reaching out to each other to show some sort of support or to help each other grow in some way.
• Breanna: I saw my tree wasn’t by any other trees. I wondered if my tree felt lonely. Most of the other trees had trees beside it, but mine didn’t.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

“I remember the words of Bill Tall Bull, a Cheyenne elder. As a young person, I spoke to him with a heavy heart, lamenting that I had no native language with which to speak to the plants and the places that I love. ‘They love to hear the old language,’ he said, ‘it’s true.’ ‘But,’ he said, with fingers on his lips, ‘You don’t have to speak it here.’ ‘if you speak it here,’ he said, patting his chest, ‘They will hear you.’”

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~Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass (p. 59)

Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore

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Her Art Piece: Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother.

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She built a huge wooden “megaphone” and invited members of the public to speak into it, amplifying their wishes to the land.

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In Belmore’s words, “asking people to address the land directly was an attempt to hear political protest as poetic action.”

Now, in Belmore’s newest body of work titled Wave Sound, the artist seems to

invert the strategy she made iconic in Speaking to Their Mother.

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Wave Sound invites members of the public to actively listen to the land through objects specially designed by the artist.

Our Thoughts:

Sawyer: [When it’s windy, trees] see their friends get hurt from the wind. They get so excited when they see wind, but if they see their friend go down, they might get scared. So maybe they tighten their roots to make them more stable so they don’t go down. Maybe they are also scared of humans because we might cut them down. Or do they enjoy our company and like us to come around?

Breanna: Sometimes people say that trees are singing in the wind. Maybe that’s them showing their emotions.

Katie: It was really, really windy when we were there. At first I was like, I wish I was back inside, and then I thought, ‘if my tree is out here every day, then I can be too.’

Rheya: Connecting to Katie, when she said, ‘I was thinking this isn’t a great day for us cause it’s so windy,’ but maybe the trees are thinking, ‘yay’ because they get to dance.

Our Thoughts:

Jake: I think that maybe trees are talking to each other through the roots. How do trees teach other trees?

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Lily: I like that all of them are family, no matter how different they are.

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Neelyn: I think that trees are more advanced than us, they accept others and we have difficulties doing that, we still need to learn how to accept each other. Trees live in harmony.

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TREE STORIES

Lyla: My tree is smaller than others, making it grab less attention. That just made me like it more. I like the trees that don’t take too much attention. I like to think of trees like people. My tree would be one that is barely noticed, still young, and new to this world.

Robin Wall Kimmerer

“It’s not just land that is broken, but more importantly, our relationship to the land. As Gary Nabhan has written, we can’t meaningfully proceed with healing, with restoration, without “re-story-ation.” In other words, our relationship with land cannot heal until we hear its stories. But who will tell them?”

~Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass

TREE STORIES

What is my tree’s story?

When you reflect on this métissage:

How do these different texts inspire you when you think about what your tree’s story might be?