1 Either/or and both/and: belonging to land and ancestors
The following video invites further reflection on the relationship between religion and culture.
It is about indigenous people visiting London during the biennial ORIGINS: Festival of First Nations. It includes people talking about musical and other performances that are rooted in indigenous cultures (i.e. those of Native Americans, Māori, Aboriginal Australians and others).
Activity 1
As you watch the video, pay particular attention to what the performers say about their reasons for participating in the festival. Add your notes to the text box below.
Transcript: Belonging to land and ancestors
[MUSIC PLAYING]
[NON-ENGLISH SPEECH]
KELVIN BIZAHALONI: In Arizona, I am a sheepherder, a wood chopper, a hiker, and a lover of plants. But outside, I am a musician, an artist, an Indigenous person. And now I'm a world traveller.
GABRIELLE HUGHES: I've lived in the UK now for four years. And it's very interesting coming from my nation in Canada to sort of the heart of the empire. I think it's really important that the people who live here can see that we are living peoples their living traditions.
DAVID MILROY: It's quite interesting to be here in London and to be performing in the British Museum. People could argue it's one of the bastions of the colonial empire and housed in the catacombs may be things that need to be repatriated to all the colonies and all the other first nations people and Aboriginal people throughout the world.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
ALICK TIPOTI: Yeah, I'm from Badu Island in the Torres Strait. Maluga Nation, Zenadth Kes, that's the language name for where I am, my identity. I am standing in the land of the Christianity where Christianity came to us. But that is not us. Our culture we have our own totems, our own beliefs, our own culture. So we acknowledge our ancestors for I speak my language. And I love [NON-ENGLISH SPEECH].
They are with us. That is my identity, the language. My ancestors come with us. And when we finish perform, we thank them and we release them again.
DAVID MILROY: I'm a Palku man. I'm from the East Pilbara in Western Australia. That's our tribal area. It's on the edge of the western desert. It's one of the most isolated places in the world.
KELVIN BIZAHALONI: I am of the reed people born for the Bitter Water. My maternal clan is the Edge Water people. And my paternal clan is of the Salt people clan of the Navajo Nation. The Diné is what we call ourselves, the caretakers who respect and take care of the Earth.
GABRIELLE HUGHES: And when I identify as a First Nations person, I usually identify more closely with being Wampanoag or from a Mi'kmaq community. To me that means looking to your past, and respecting your past, and living that past in the present, looking to your ancestors where you came from. But it doesn't mean living in the past. It means making sure that those traditions that have been passed down from generation to generation are honoured in the present.
In my community, I'm the drum carrier, which means I carry the songs of our people.
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
People could feel a sense of connection or hope. That's what most of our songs are about. It's really connecting through the drum beat.
SALOMON BAZBAZ LAPIDUS: The ritual ceremony of the Voladores, it's a ceremony. It's a ceremonial dance that started 1,500 years ago. And it has been passed from generation to generation to generation till our days. But it's a great feeling to share this and to see all the people get moving and gets moving not for watching the thing on TV or watching-- for watching a live ceremony and being part of it.
DAVID MILROY: It's always interesting in these sorts of festivals or conferences where you have a lot of Indigenous or First Nations people together. There's always the recurring theme of connection to country. The Earth is our mother.
You'll find in every performance there is always that thread that goes through each group and that longing. And all the politics of being separated from that as well. But that always seems to be the bottom line.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
(SINGING) Feel the waves against your skin. Let those waters flow within.
ALICK TIPOTI: First and foremost, we are raising our flag. It's not a political message. It's nothing political. It's just we are survivors. And we are here to let the world know, let England know that, recognise us. It doesn't bother me if they think this or think that. As long as they know, wow, Zenadth Kes Islanders, Torres Strait Islander people, they exist.
[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]
DAVID MILROY: Sometimes you can see a performance that will go right through you. You really feel it. It really lands heavily deep inside you. And I think that's because of that connection to country, that deep connection.
SALOMON BAZBAZ LAPIDUS: It's a communal ceremony. You cannot fly one person. There's four people flying there. And if there were three, they couldn't fly. It's a ceremony that changes the people, not only the performance. Because the people that sees it and that leaves it-- we as public will also live it.
[APPLAUSE]
ALICK TIPOTI: I actually feel proud when I make people realise that, wow, they just did something that is ceremonial, that is spiritual, cultural. That is them. That is their identity. And then they start looking within. Then they research, and they find themselves.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Discussion
The flow between ritual and performance is an interesting example of a relationship between religion and culture. You might also be familiar with other examples. Music originally intended for religious ceremonies (such as Catholic Masses, Islamic Sufi dhikr, Hindu and Sikh kirtans) is performed in many musical concerts. It can be appreciated for its beauty rather than for more ‘religious’ purposes.
Similarly, people walk traditional pilgrimage routes, like the Camino de Santiago de Compostela in Spain, for reasons other than seeking redemption or specifically religious benefits. But music and pilgrimage routes are also carefully designed and presented for the benefit of religious people. In these and similar experiences, religion and culture inform each other.