----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- I. “How am I supposed to hold this?” I asked, as my hands came together and my fingers uncurled, exposing both palms to the bright hovering sun. He met my nervousness with a confident gaze and tone, “It begins with an open heart, which you have.”
But all I felt was doubt. In a flash, a barrage of troubling images colonized the theater of my mind: mascots in headdresses performing tomahawk chops; tall and musty wooden figures staring out of cigar stores; drunk Europeans dancing in salacious leather costumes, adorned by turquoise and feathers… Was I about to betray the principles I claim to value so deeply by committing a dreadful act of appropriation? My lungs lured an excessive piece of the atmosphere into our body’s center, and held it there, paused, until the mind refocused on our worldly task. Slowly returning air into the biosphere, I let those awful images go, too. It was no longer a time to worry. Being present with him and the fruit tree was already a commitment to the ritual. He gently placed a piece of asemaa into my palms and directed my fingers to cover it, tenderly, protectively. For a moment, the weight of my arms was not mine to carry. He held my hands and my gaze with intense familiarity, a reminder that he is the person I know and love most in the world -- the person with whom I have built a life and a family, in the aftermath of estrangement from the people who raised me. I was doing this for him and for our kin -- not for myself. Closing my eyes, I took another deep breath. Then I looked down at our hands as he explained how to pray to Gitchi Manitou and make an offering to the plants who give us parts of their bodies so that we may be nourished. Like the elders taught him to do. After quietly listening, I nodded, and slowly stepped forward under the canopy of the tree to make an offering of my own. “Miigwech, thank you, ….” _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
