September 20th, 2021
Last night I dreamed of a procession of Black people dressed in loose gold and coral dresses. They walked serenely down a sandy river, surrounded by tall leafy trees and conifers. The small group moved in a straight line, marching towards a sunny mountainous horizon, going deeper into the river. After observing them for a moment, I went to meet them and to my surprise, a member of the congregation greeted me. Overwhelmed by their beauty, I asked my interlocutor if the assembly were the children of the goddess Oshun, Orisha of freshwaters who originated from the Yoruba spiritual realm. They nodded, then after a short pause, they said: your soul has been here for a long time.
The appearance of Oshun’s children prompted this post after a momentary absence. This dream was a gentle reminder of the spiritual grounding inherent in water and its timeless memory. Being the point of origin of all beings, water is rich in metaphors and sensory experiences. To explore the flow of divine and terrestrial connections stemming from our hydrosphere, I wanted to share a few poems by visual artist and author Abenakis-Wandat, Christine Sioui Wawanoloath. Christine’s writing straddles space and time, allowing readers to travel across dimensions. In her poems, the past and the present are united metaphysically and spiritually. Water’s soul is unravelled through her lyrical texts, which captivate our imagination and underline the undeniable ancestral connection that we inherited.
Christine generously accepted my invitation to contribute to the exhibition catalogue and offered texts from the collection Dans l’œil du lièvre and unpublished writings.
Here are some excerpts.
Red coral
from a
distant and
warm sea
ancient
stony
animal
suspended
in time
like a diviner
heart
Once a stream
Today a river
Soon the Sea
Let us leave
These petroglyphs
with serpentine shapes
would they suggest waterways
seen from the sky?
Rain mixed with plants
and peat
Spreads in a woody perfume
