Tag Archives: mother earth

News, Spotlight

In Colombia, Kamëntšá women maintain their ancestral culture through music

Leave a comment

Native peoples have their own sound

Photo of the group Jashnan, used with their permission.

In the Sibundoy Valley, a mountainous zone of the department of Putumayo in southwest Colombia, Jashnan, a music group composed entirely of Indigenous women of the Kamëntšá people, uses music as a form of recuperating their ancestral culture and strengthening the Kamëntšá language, a language isolate unique in the world.

The Kamëntšá are the ancestral inhabitants of the Sibundoy Valley, which they call Tabanok, meaning “sacred place of origin.” Since time immemorial, Tabanok has been a place of intercultural exchange and contact between the Andean highlands to the west and the Amazonian lowlands to the east. This has given rise to the highly syncretic and unique culture of the Kamëntšá, which features Andean and Amazonian roots as well as unique local elements. Perhaps this is the reason for the high degree of preservation and cultural survival of the Kamëntšá compared to other Indigenous peoples. Even after 70 years of indoctrination and misrule by Capuchin missionaries, Kamëntšá culture remains vibrant today. However, the community continues to face cultural, political, and ecological threats on multiple fronts, such as the construction of roads and extractive infrastructure in the community’s ancestral territory.

One of the ways the community has resisted external threats and reaffirmed its right to cultural autonomy and difference is through its colorful musical tradition, part of the Andean-Amazonian genre that combines melodies and sounds typical of their territory.

Read more about female and non-binary musical figures singing about their identity: Five songs to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day

In this interview, Kamëntšá musicians Natalia Jacanamijoy and Angela Jhoana Jacanamejoy share the history and cultural significance of Jashnan—a Kamëntšá word meaning “to heal”—in the context of Kamëntšá cultural survival, the role of women in Kamëntšá society, and the revaluation of ancestral wisdom.

Rowan Glass: When and for what reason was Jashnan formed? How has the group developed since its founding?

Jashnan: This process was born within the ancestral territory Tabanok (Sacred Place of Origin of the Kamëntšá people). It began in 2021 and was formalized in early 2022. The group was formed for several purposes: as a tool to strengthen unity within families and our Kamëntšá people and as an instrument for strengthening our ancestral forms of knowledge, including music. We are Kamëntšá women, of different ages, with different backgrounds, and this process of weaving has allowed us to recognize our essence as Kamëntšá women, heirs of a great legacy, which speaks of caring for ourselves, for the territory that is life itself. We have banded together along the way. Now we are seven women who make up the music group Jashnan.

RG: What is the importance of music within Kamëntšá culture?

J: Native peoples have their own sound. Music is in every moment, it is in the spaces we inhabit, even in the sound of our steps, in the beating of our heart. That sensitivity makes us musical beings.

The Kamëntšá people are sonorous and colorful. Music is present in everyday life, in rituals, in the territory, in the chagra [garden], in the singing of birds, the sound of animals, the wind, the rain.

It is important because it is part of ourselves. It allows us to connect with our heart, our body. From an early age we have been related to music: in the womb listening to our mother’s heartbeat, with the sounds of the territory in the walks that our mother made through the chagra, listening to her singing on the Great Day Bëtsknaté [a Kamëntšá festival celebrated on the Monday before Ash Wednesday] and during Uacjnaté [a Kamëntšá festival related to All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day]. We experienced it later in the healing songs of our grandmothers. In other words, music has always been present and is important to connect us with what we are, a sonorous people.

Photo of the group Jashnan, used with their permission.

RG: Can music be a way to strengthen and recover the Kamëntšá culture and language?

J: Ancestral knowledge has been transmitted orally and has been shared from generation to generation. Music and song are bridges of orality that wisely allow us to strengthen and recover the ancestral legacy of the Kamëntšá people: memories, words, weavings, experiences, feelings, rituals, sacred places.

RG: Jashnan is composed solely of women. Why is it important to make music from the perspective of Kamëntšá women?

J: Leadership has been more associated with the male figure, but with the participation of women we begin to revive the love for what we like to do. As women we exist in various roles: caring for the home, in the chagra, weaving, serving the community, and all these spaces are not always available for us to claim our voice. It is important to listen to us and sing what we carry inside. It is a way to support each other, to break the mold and inhabit different spaces.

RG: Jashnan sings sometimes in Spanish and sometimes in Kamëntšá, and the lyrics often represent the Kamëntšá cosmovision. What is the link between language and music?

J: Music is a fundamental part of ancestry; in it is the identity of the people. There are lyrics in Spanish because you cannot deny a feeling if it is in one language or another; what matters to us is the expression. We also sing in our language as a way to revitalize the Kamëntšá language. We also work in a communitarian way among ourselves, learning and sharing this knowledge with other people, with more of the women and girls of our community.

RG: Today many groups in the Kamëntšá community use music as a form of cultural and linguistic strengthening and recuperation. What is the impulse behind this movement?

J: The struggles that we Indigenous peoples have had to confront at different times in our history are not at all unknown. Colonization brought about a territorial, spiritual, and cultural rupture, with stories of dispossession and violence. It is very important to ensure that the present generations, in the midst of so much information and external factors, have the opportunity to know and strengthen the Kamëntšá legacy.

Jashnan is a part of this new musical commitment, taking our successes with gratitude and humility. Many of our Indigenous brothers and sisters are looking for the same purpose and are promoting it through music.

“Jashnan” is a word which in Kamëntšá means “to harmonize.” It is the path of connection with the spirit. From the moment you arrive to the territory of Tabanok, you feel the spirit of the territory, compounded by the mountains, animals, rivers, streams, plants, and the ancestral memory of the Kamëntšá and Inga people who have inhabited the territory for millennia.

RG: What do you want people unfamiliar with the Kamëntšá community to know about it? What impression do you want to leave through your music?

J: As women of the Kamëntšá people, we feel that the most important thing is to recognize ourselves as the children of mother earth—that she is the source that gives us life and we are beings in constant change and connection with the spirit.

Our project was born in the territory of Tamabioy. In its lyrics and songs are carried the essence of women, weaving, care for plants and seeds, care for the territory, and the work of our community.

We would like the whole world to know our sonority, our color, our weaving, our territory.

Jashnan’s first studio recording was recently posted on YouTube; listen to it here.

This article was written by Rowan Glass and originally published on the Global Voices website on 20 December 2023. It is republished here under the media partnership between Global Voices and Shouts – Music from the Rooftops! and a CC BY 3.0 Deed license.

News

Feeling Powerless As A Musician In The Face Of The Climate Crisis? 6 Ways To Take Positive Action

Leave a comment

Musicians are in a unique position to make a difference in the face of climate and ecological breakdown, writes cellist Sophie Gledhill

Sophie Gledhill (photo courtesy of the artist)

This article, by Sophie Gledhill, was originally published by The Strad on 22nd of April 2022 and is republished here with the author’s permission.

It’s easy to look at the news of climate and ecological breakdown, feel overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis and then resign ourselves to helplessness in our capacities as musicians. But there are always things we can do and, as musicians, we can choose to recognise our unique position to make a difference. 

Be yourself and play to your strengths 

If you’re open and vocal about your interests and the causes you care most about, the ‘right’ projects often have a way of finding you. As a cellist who is passionate about the environment and working in theatre, it perhaps wasn’t a coincidence that I found myself in the cast of a new production in 2016 called Opera for the Unknown Woman, an eco-feminist multimedia piece of theatre which explored the importance of international and inclusive collaboration in tackling the environmental crisis. Engaging with these issues in this way has also had a lasting effect on me long after the final show of the tour.

Last summer I was invited to be a coach at Festival of Chapels, a chamber music course in the Swiss Alps – near the shrinking Aletsch glacier – with a focus on appreciating and protecting the natural environment.

During lockdown I launched my own project, CelloTrek: my ongoing mission to record a piece of music from every country in the world in order to shine a light on a sustainability issue in each place. The more research I do, the more I realise that environmental and cultural sustainability are inextricably linked and, if we destroy our natural surroundings, we also destroy the places where unique cultures are born, grow and thrive.

Why am I reeling off my work diary and pandemic activities? A quote from Howard Thurman neatly summarises my thoughts: ’Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.’ We can make the most positive impact when we are inspired, driven and putting our individual skillsets to use.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive

– Howard Thurman

Look after the little things

As musicians on the go, there are choices we can make on a daily basis which can minimise our impact on the planet, such as taking the train over flying and opting for a plant-based diet. While it can feel like our individual actions can’t possibly count for much, and while we know that governments and corporations have a staggering amount of urgent work to do, I always try to imagine my actions being multiplied by the number of people on our planet; 7 billion people eating sustainably grown plants over methane-producing cows suddenly feels significant.

There are also one-off or less regular individual actions we can all take as consumers, such as switching to an ethical bank (such as Triodos) and rejecting fast fashion – either by buying secondhand clothes or choosing sustainable brands. I often check the Ethical Consumer website to find out which brands and services are most environmentally sound.

On an artistic front, it can sometimes feel selfish or pointless to focus all our energy on one rehearsal or concert when news of impending environmental (and other) doom is unfolding around us. But something I heard during the COP26 conference, spoken by young Indonesian delegate Mustika Indah Khairina, has stuck with me: ’You can’t tell youth to have hope. For hope, they need inspiration. And for inspiration, they need culture.’ Your concert may well provide the impetus that someone needs to take their own brand of action.

You can’t tell youth to have hope. For hope, they need inspiration. And for inspiration, they need culture

– Mustika Indah Khairina

Build your network

In 2018 I was a cohort member of the Global Leaders Program, a masters-level certificate for musicians looking to explore impact-focused arts entrepreneurship. While I learnt a great deal about the potential of music as a catalyst for social change and the practical tools needed to launch a socially motivated music initiative, one of the major takeaways from this chapter of my life was the network of people I met along the way.

Fast forward to the first Covid lockdown of 2020 and I found myself organising the Toki Rapa Nui Global Support Campaign, a crowdfunder to support the environmentally sustainable music school on Easter Island where I spent two weeks for my Global Leaders Program fieldwork. I was overwhelmed by the solidarity shown by fellow GLP alumni – from New Zealand to Peru – who came together to perform in the campaign video, lend other expertise and help to spread the word. Surrounding yourself with likeminded people can inspire and propel your next earth-conscious actions.

Remember that you’re not just a musician

You’re a human that plays music. Not everything you do has to be tied to your identity as a musician, however important that facet of your life may be.

In November 2021, just before joining the Les Misérables UK tour in Glasgow, I was fortunate to be able to take three days to volunteer at COP26, the annual climate change conference hosted by the UN. It was refreshing and empowering to leave my cello in its case, throw on a ‘DEMAND CLIMATE JUSTICE’ T-shirt courtesy of the COP26 Coalition and unite behind a common cause without having to remember where I’d left my rosin. We know music can be a powerful tool for change, but it doesn’t have to be the only tool in our box.

Jump on bandwagons

While there can be great value in taking control and crafting your own projects in line with your skills and interests, it’s always worth looking around to see what already exists and could be strengthened by your contributions. I’d recommend reading Tamsin Omond’s recent book Do Earth: Healing Strategies for Humankind, which shares a decade’s worth of wisdom about collective action and community engagement.

A great place to start is Music Declares Emergency, a group of music industry individuals and organisations calling for immediate governmental action to protect our planet. Check out their website and social media to see how you can get involved.

Also head to Harmonic Progression, a place for classical musicians looking for ways to do good for people and planet. You can join one of their campaigns or take on a task, including donating any unwanted strings through their Strings4All initiative.

Embrace the power of conversation

When work and life take over, especially as the performing arts industry returns to some kind of ‘normal’ following a string of lockdowns, it can feel like we have limited time, space or resources for meaningful engagement with environmental issues. But I am coming to realise that good old-fashioned conversation, as well as the example of our actions, can have a ripple effect beyond what we might initially assume; there’s certainly been an increase in vegan food experimentation within the Les Mis touring orchestra, in any case!

In short, if there’s anything I’ve learnt from my engagement with environmental issues and activism over the past few years, it’s that doing something is always better than nothing, no matter how small. (If nothing else, I plant a tree once a day through an app appropriately called treeapp.) And, as musicians, it pays to remember that we have have readymade audiences and platforms at our disposal; let’s make them count.

Sophie Gledhill is a London-based freelance cellist and currently holds the cello chair on the Les here.

Interview

A Protest Music Interview: Steven Sedalia (Plus New Single)

Leave a comment

“Is community now a form of protest?
Is expression a symbol of sovereignty?
Can a drum solo bring us closer to peace on Earth?”

Young Steven Sedalia is digging deep into important questions with his new single that drops today, September 12th. In the song, Children of the Land, Steven explores the lifestyle of “shamelessly expressing compassion and love to everyone and everything”.

Steven moved from sunny North Carolina to even sunnier Hawaii because he felt called to the island. In order to explore deeper ways to express himself through his music he needed to explore alternative lifestyles as well.

From the farm where Steven lives on the island of Kaua’i he answered some questions of mine about the new single, the nature and people of Hawaii and the current protests taking place at Mauna Kea.

✊

“She gives us shelter, we give her songs.”

What motivated you to move to Hawaii?

I moved to Hawaii because like many people, I felt called here, well what is it that called me? I’ve come to know it as the aloha spirit, a guiding intuition that moves through everything. I came to Hawaii because I wanted to cultivate my musical expression in a deeper and more thorough manner, so in order to do that I needed to move further into an alternative lifestyle.

So by that I mean I wanted to stop the cycle of paying rent and bills, and relocate to an organic farm where I could invest my energy into the music and into the land as an exchange for a roof over my head, and I could learn how to grow my own food.

Has your music always had a specific, earthly message?

Yes, my first love and fascination was nature, I was always outside as a child exploring and just being in the woods and the wonder, ya know. So as I got older my fascination admittedly expanded to include romantic love, and this emotional exploration was the initial guide of my writing, primarily through poetry.

Through change and heartbreak, universal love began to guide my expression and on these new horizons is where I discovered my songwriting. So my songs have always naturally combined organic imagery of the earth, the beauty of a lover, and the love that lives in all of us and guides us.

It seems to me that a lot of music out of Hawaii features stories and lyrics about the earth and natural powers. Why do you think the island brings out that energy?

Oh wow yes well these islands are extremely full of creative power, in Hawaii, we call that mana. I mean it is literal and figurative, the Big Island of Hawaii continues to create new land, and there is a new island in the process of being formed under the ocean surface right now! So this creativity resonates strongly through all of the islands, and that translates into the creation of song and dance through the humans!

Another factor is this land is so young relative to other land on earth, even the oldest island is still far younger than most of Earth’s land. So you have comparatively youthful ‘aina (land) and an ecosystem that is constantly in motion and change, and the tropical climate gives a dense feeling of fullness and life.

On another level, these islands are small outcroppings of land surrounded in all directions by the ocean. From all directions, the ocean is moving toward the center, with everything that it carries, it is bound to bring all sorts of mana that inspires art. So much so that I feel that these islands truthfully love music. They love to be sung to, they pull music from people. I have seen so many people who were never “musicians” learn insanely fast to express in this way.

My expression too has deepened in ways that I know come directly as a result of wanting to give love to this land. People are inspired by shear beauty, we love the feeling of awe, it creates elation and a desire to praise. These islands are alive and though we cannot understand it, they have an expression that is analogous to our emotions, desires, and feelings. She gives us shelter, we give her songs.

“This is the meaning of kapu aloha, to act only from love, similar to the proclamation made by Gandhi, of non-violence. Historically and contemporarily, many musicians in Hawaii use the power of song to express social consciousness…”

Music seems to have been a strong force at the Mauna Kea protests, how is that situation affecting you and the people of your island? Do you feel there are many musicians on Hawaii that use their voice in protest or for good?

Music is the universal uniter, so anywhere people come together to honor the sacred, songs are an integral factor in the community. Mauna Kea is a perfect example of how important music is to hold the human spirit in faith of the good.

What is going on is deep, and really painful for so many of us that love Hawaii. It is another example of the way that colonialism continues to cut and steal and desecrate traditional indigenous land.

I live on Kaua’i, and each of the islands hold several heiau (temples), and certain heiau are connected through the aloha spirit to Mauna Kea, so ceremony and prayer are held at these special places to move mana across the islands to the mountain.

Additionally, there are ocean protests where people paddle out on surf boards in huge groups in support of the Mauna. These kia’i (protectors/guardians) all over the islands gather and simply by gathering and sharing and holding space, the voice of the Mauna is expressed.

This is the meaning of kapu aloha, to act only from love, similar to the proclamation made by Gandhi, of non-violence. Historically and contemporarily, many musicians in Hawaii use the power of song to express social consciousness, for example, the late Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, better known as IZ, many may know for his song “Over the Rainbow,” but not as many know about his advocacy and activism for Hawaiian sovereignty and independence. IZ is a legend throughout Hawai’i, so the activism is woven deeply into the musical culture here.

What do people protest against on the island besides a telescope on a sacred mountain (for the outsider, Hawaii might seem like a blissful and peaceful place)?

It is blissful, and it can also be extremely turbulent. Most people around the world only think of Hawaii as peaceful, gentle, unreal, and as a heavenly paradise. And it can be all of those things! But anyone who lives here will know there is a deep tension that results from hundreds of years of colonialism and oppression.

An all too familiar story, Hawaiians were literally forced by missionaries to quit practicing their spiritual traditions. Not to say that they didn’t practice in secret, they did, but that is just one example of the kinds of oppression that occurred; and the building on top of Mauna Kea is an extension of that destruction of culture.

The telescope represents something more; the protectors are not anti-science, they are anti-colonialism. The widespread activism that lives here is based in the Hawaiian sovereignty and independence movement. More specifically, here on Kaua’i, we have companies that want to divert the sacred river headwaters for profit. The wai wai (water/life) is everything, even the language tells us that water is life.

As a result of our incredible year round growing season and isolation, unfortunately Hawai’i was used as a guinea pig for genetically modified crop testing, beginning decades ago. So there is damaged and contaminated land caused by these GM companies and their pesticides. It has been a direct cause of much sickness and illness, and it continues today.

Photo by David Marsh

Do you partake in any activism outside your music on a regular basis?

Other forms of activism are more personal, so we go into the mountains off of the trails simply to plant the kalo, not to harvest, but simply to give back to the land, and return the kalo to its home. I feel that every organic garden is a statement of rebellion against the industrial agriculture system and a proclamation of self sustainability, and a direct communion with the elements, mana, and the aloha spirit that give us life!

Additionally, I practice what I call emotional and devotional activism, which I define as shamelessly expressing compassion and love to everyone and everything. The song “Children of the Land” is directly inspired by this lifestyle.

Music is a profound expression of sovereignty, a weapon of peace, a tool for togetherness and truth, and a language of sharing love. It remains to be seen if a drum solo can help bring world peace, but if you ask me, I am without a doubt that it can!

Visit stevensedaliamusic.com for more information

Cover photo by David Marsh

✊