The Plan Was to Make Us Forget

“The plan was to make us forget.”
-Rosangela Silvestre
Morro de Sao Paulo, Bahia Brazil

Before we had books, we had our bodies.
We had the song.
We had the dance.

We danced for planting our seeds, for rain, for harvest.
We danced for celebration, birth, death, the cycle of life.
We danced for marriage, for union.
We danced our prayers.
Our bodies sang the song and danced the dance of our ancestors.

During my recent study with one of my dance Mentors, Rosangela Silvestre, I awakened to the thing that connects all of us. At the core, at the root of our existence… At one time, all of our ancestors were in deep relationship with the land. We relied on her for sustenance, for life. We dug in her soil, we drank from her waters, we danced with the earth, we made music with the birds. Our bodies were a reflection of the body of the earth. We told her stories, and they lived in us, generation after generation.

Many people living and working in industrialized societies have become disconnected from the essence of our relationship to land. This has increased reliance on many systems that maintain dependency on institutions that are motivated by profit. Our food systems, our water systems, our power grid, our healthcare and educational institutions. Sovereignty has been replaced by dependency. This has been strategic, this has been systematic. It has created vast disparities in access to resources and power dynamics. It has fueled division. Because a people divided is a people without power.

Keep them numb
Keep them dumb
Keep them sick
Keep them poor
Keep them dependent
Erase their history, erase their memories, erase their wisdom.

And yet…Many of us, across lands and seas, continue to live in deep relationship and reverence with the land and her natural systems. Each of us have an opportunity to reclaim and remember this relationship. This is the source energy that we must tap into. This is the ancestral knowledge we need to uplift.

Remembering is an act of Resistance.
Remembering is an act of Resilience.
Remembering is Revolutionary.

Our bodies weave the songs of our ancestors.

We are our ancestor’s joy. Legacy. Dream.
We are our ancestor’s song.
We are the ancestors.

How will you Move Memory Forward?