Week 8 - Narayan

Pryanka Narayan

ASA 148

Week 8

            The article Earth song as storywork: Reclaiming Indigenous knowledges is a highly intriguing article as it discusses how essential songs are. For instance, many believe, especially women from the Indigenous culture, that songs are used as forms of connection and storytelling. As messages and historical stories can be passed down to descendants, and songs allow us to connect to the earth and spiritual world. For example, Indigenous people are always listening to the earth through the form of trees whispering or through the call of birds. The article mentions the story of a professor who decided to listen to the songs of the earth as she was leaving the university. She heard and could feel her emotions as she took in the earth, and through this she was able to feel the distress of a student. She was able to take time and let the student tell her of her bothers. The article also mentions several other stories and urges us to take time to listen the songs and stories that nature tells us. Nature is always talking, whispering, and singing, but we must take the initiative to listen and allow our mind to open. I really enjoyed reading this article, as my mother always told me a story that trees could always talk before humans roamed the earth. Though after humans began to have disbelief that animals and plants could talk, they stopped. She always told me, if you listen hard enough, you can still hear them whispering.