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‘In any creative work, be it the artist or the artisan, the creatve person unites with the material they are working with, which symbolises the world outside him/herself. The worker and the artefact become one. The human being becomes one with his creation. ‘ Erich Fromm

The word Poiein in Ancient Greek (ποιεῖν) means making. It is where the word Poetry comes from. Plato had pointed at the connection between craft-making and poetry, calling us to gaze at the rich worlds of form and meaning that come to life when we take raw material from our landscape and create with it. It is possible, when we look at a handcrafted object, to appreciate the emotion and soul life that the maker had infused in it.

Sefrou is located in the heart of the middle Atlas. Traditionally, a market town located amidst fertile farming lands, it is known for its fruit orchards, cherry festival and the large Jewish community that lived there up until the last century. Sefrou is still home to a large community of local artisans, metal smiths, woodworkers, weavers and button makers. Though the community is still thriving, few are the ones of the young generation who wish to learn these skills.

Visiting local crafts people in their workshops, we will learn about their work and daily lives as a way to get a sense of the place through the people and their working spaces. An orientation of the city from the inside out hosted by Culture Vultures, will lead us into a deeper relationship with Amazigh women who spin and weave and we will participate in a hands own textile workshop.

We will be introduced to ‘The Loom in Local Rituals’ and how women used the loom as a sacred medium for protection. On Sunday we will make a day trip to a mountain market town in the Middle Atlas where the wool comes from, to meet women who practice unbroken textile traditions in the region.

Alongside these visits our work will consist of listening to the stories that emerge from our activities, as well as engage with traditional stories from around the world to bring into clearer focus the role of craft-making in the life of the Soul. On our last day we will share these stories in a storytelling evening (no previous experience necessary). Daily shamanic practices will help us access ancestral knowledge and seek healing for modern day’s rupture between skill and community, craft and Time.

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Voices of Nature

Karmit EvenZur
Jun 6, 2014
2 min read

By Roi Gal-OR

Last month I contributed and performed in a wonderful storytelling festival in a place called Skellefteå in the far north of the Swedish Lapland.

One of the highlights of the trip for me was meeting with and learning more about the Sami people, the natives of that land and their traditions. It was also the first time in my life I had a chance to hear a live Sami yoik.

A Yoik is a form of traditional Sami singing and one of the oldest living music traditions in Europe. I learnt that when a Sami baby is born, the people around the baby will sing to the baby a yoik – a spiritual tune that captures their impression of the essence of the child. As the child grows older they will be able to change, add and improvise around, their own yoik. Sami people can sing and dedicate a yoik to another person, to an animal or to the landscape around them.

The yoik is sung as an inspiration to evoke or portray that person or place through song – and the singer will yoik the place itself, rather than about it. There are no words but only sounds in a yoik and the man I heard yoiking sang with a voice that was deep, grounded and as ancient as the Earth herself.

It was an incredible experience to listen to him and one that connected me to the present moment and the landscape around me in a way that is hard to express in words (though may be possible if I found a way to Yoik it myself…). I was deeply moved by this ancient practice of connection, uniting people with the land through using one’s own voice to sing a place to life.

I find many links between Yoiking and the experiences I had listening to and speaking from the landscape during the ‘Earth Speaks’ course which I led last year at Emerson College with my colleague Karmit Even Zur.

On the 21st of June 2015 Karmit and I will offer a week long course called ‘Earth Speakers – Earth Keepers’ at Emerson College and I sound here a great call, an ‘invitation Yoik’ to all those who care for the earth and wish to lend their voice to the land to come and join us!

#storytelling #geomancy #performance

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