Rhiannon Giddens Instagram – Working on a project that is centered on place at the moment and it’s making me think alot about what’s going on in the world. This is a peaceful water place in North Carolina, and it reminded me how much of North Carolina I am, body and soul. Even though I have chosen to live in another land, NC will always own the majority of my soul, and I am at peace with that. Sitting by the water, listening to the birds, feeling the spirits of generations of folks who have sat right in this spot to enjoy the air, the water, and the wildlife, even in the midst of so much adversity and hard times, connects me in a deep and soulful way to my ancestors and my history. Its a privilege to have the space and the place.
Thinking about what is happening right now in G@z@ is heartbreaking on so many levels and has been for months, just as Oct 7 was heartbreaking. Humanity has lost, and is continuing to lose, in this conflict, as thousands of fellow souls have their lives taken from them by empire. As I sit on this land that was once occupied by Native community, and then owned by a Native individual who was then pushed off of it, and then owned by Gaels who themselves had been subjugated in their own homeland, who then themselves participated in subjugation by owning enslaved African people taken from their own homeland, and thinking about the fact that it’s still in private hands today, made me think about the complicated layers that are present in any conflict, and the inability to solve anything that doesn’t center generosity, community, humanity, and a different and older way of looking at the gift of mother earth.
I have no answers. I just grieve.
photo by @karencoxphotography | Posted on 11/May/2024 20:14:22
