Remembering

My people are Mvskokvlke (the Mvskoke people). We look towards 7 directions: North, South, East, West, Above, Below, and we dwell in the 7th direction, Within. Wherever we are is the centre of the world.

There are no New Worlds or Old Worlds, there is only This World.

I stand in This World.

I carry the history of all my ancestors, Mvskoke, British and Austrian-American.

I am the rooted and the rootless.

I am the one who emerged from the earth and dwelt always in that very place.

I am the displaced, the relocated, the seeker, the searcher, the exiled.

I am the one who has been two times severed from my place/culture/people. First from our Homelands and then from Indian Territory. I can never go back to the time before we were torn from our lands, when we were held by the earth, surrounded by the forest, and spoke the language of the rivers.

But the connection can be found and the circle can be mended if I have the heart, the courage, to reach beyond my pain and fear and gently cradle what has been broken.

The Mvskoke Way is to bring Order to Chaos and to restore Harmony and Balance.

Due to the effects of over 500 years of Colonisation all Indigenous people of North America have had our deep connection to our land, our culture and our language severed.

The Mvskoke tongue was ripped from the mouths of my father and grandmother in the early 1900s. Today I attend a Mvskoke language class via Zoom where I hear, and remember how to speak, our beautiful language.

My tongue remembers.

On Dartmoor, I have been learning traditional brain tanning to produce buckskin. I am the first hokte (Mvskoke woman) in several generations to do this work. My hoktvke ancestors come to life in my body as I scrape, soak, twist, soften and smoke the hide.

My body remembers.

I have relearned how to make fire and to gently blow the embers into flame. Hesaketvmesse, our creator, the Master of Breath, dreamed the first world. Hesaketvmesse exhaled and breathed our world into being.

My breath remembers.

As I walk the footpaths and deer trails of Dartmoor, I find Mvskoke ground beneath my feet. The rivers and woodlands come to life as the terrain of my original Homelands. This is now my Home.

My feet remember.

On winter nights, when I look into the Southern sky, I see the Path of Souls that my ancestors walk and Great Hand which holds them. The place where I will one day dwell.

My Soul remembers.