sharonkallis
sharonkallis
| Forum role | Member since | Last activity | Topics created | Replies created |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Member | Feb 9, 2009 (17 years) |
- | 1 | 0 |
- Forum role
- Member
- Member since
Feb 9, 2009 (17 years)
- Last activity
- -
- Topics created
- 1
- Replies created
- 0
Bio
My ancestral roots are tied to Scotland, Wales, Ireland and unknown parts of Germany.
My ancestors were settlers - disruptors - acknowledging they too were disrupted.
Abusive behaviour carries forward, one generation receives and carries that damage with them wherever they go: blowing like seeds to the wind.
My move to the west coast 30 years ago continued a nearly unbroken seven generation tradition in my family of a youngest child picking up thin roots and moving far away from home and trying to ‘settle in’ to a new home,
perhaps a new skin.
So how do I grow roots and be here in a good way?
How do I build respectful relationships to the land - and all the species impacted by my presence -?
One not based on greed or consumption.
Nearly 30 years I have been learning about the land and seasons, building strong relationships with the plants and animals with whom I find myself in relationship and collaboration such as stinging nettle, flax, dogbane
and wool from sheep I know by name.
I am teasing out the stories of my own ancestry and gently walking my way forward of learning the stories of where I live.
Some stories are lost, some are not for me to know, but having strong supportive and respectful relationships and collaborations with people whose roots ARE connected deeply to this place is a beginning.
I work this all out through the spinning of threads.
Tying knots, weaving, knitting, dying, stitching.
With a deep materials-based practice in understanding the language of the plants from a seasonal fibre lens, I work to clothe myself slowly over time from this place.
A nettle vest I imagine conjures me closer to the ancestors whose names I will never know who walked from Alsace Lorraine to Hamburg, fleeing the Franco-Prussian war and eventually migrating to Canada. Nettles after all, are the fibre of the landless.
a woolen jacket, sweaters, shoes…Six generations removed from shoe makers in Fyvie and fisherpeople in Helmsdale in the Highlands of Scotland. Salmon leather shoes seem a natural eventual progression.
As the founding lead artist of a non-profit organization called EartHand Gleaners Society, and with the EartHand community, I create the space for social containers of shared experiences to help us all relearn being in relations of reciprocity and empathy for these plants and animals to whom we are reliant.
The plants guide my path of planning seasonal activities and I unpack my process of constant discovery in a public way through workshops, conversations, and larger theme-based areas of inquiry usually hosted with other skill and knowledge holders.
I am both humbled and privileged to call the unceded, ancestra and contemporary territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil Waututh) Nations my chosen home.
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