Field Notes: The Strength of Narratives
I had a chance to speak to Leslie Ruckman from the #ArcticCircleFamily / #EndOfTheWorldFamily this week. Leslie recommended the Kinship Series to me while we were aboard Antigua and I ordered the set a few weeks after I returned. I was a bit sceptical because Robin Wall Kimmerer, one of the editors, also wrote Braiding Sweetgrass. I don’t recall taking to Braiding Sweetgrass despite my GoodReads Rating for it being 5 stars.
I thoroughly enjoyed the Kinship series, though. I liked how it was broken into different themes: Planet, Place, Partners, Persons and Practice. The Practice and Planet Volumes are my favourite because they are the most holistic, most encompassing volumes (they also technically start and end the series so that makes sense). That doesn’t mean the other volumes aren’t great. As I explained to Leslie, I struggle with collections like this one at times because the stories and connections people have to the landscape or the elements of nature around them are not the elements of nature around me.
I understand that does not necessarily mean that there is nothing to take away from someone else’s story. I do think that when some stories are at the forefront of these conversations, it is very easy to be drowned out when you are not the dominant narrative.
Something that we need to recognise is that certain elements of American pop culture and news make their way internationally. American media is pervasive in so many different countries, including my own. This says a lot more about the distribution of some media over others than anything else but I do ask that my international friends consider the impact the stories told over their radiowaves have on the ears of others in other countries.
I also know that there is this trend (at least in Singapore) where we borrow or copy from this media and attempt to insert it into our context. I struggle with these attempts because I am not convinced that there has been enough work done to contextualise these concerns in a local context. When I read these works, I don’t ask questions about how we can change our systems. I ask why are they not critical of our systems and consider what could have been done to make them more true to my home context.
We don’t need a homogenous narrative on this. We need nuanced stories so that we have context to provide specific and targeted solutions. I don’t think we should allow our good intentions to wash over who we are.
I wrote this poem aboard Antigua. I thought it would be apt for this week’s newsletter.
For the podcast. I’ll find people whose work fit the national narrative.
When the national narrative
is so powerful, it influences the world,
recognize how your speech
moves in waves, pushing your concerns
to my shores and leave my countrymen
asphyxiated by your agenda.
I dare you to name three South East Asian Artists.
I’ll give you the first one:
me.
This week’s curiosities:
I enjoyed this episode of No Stupid Questions about stories being sticky and its very reaffirming for me: a storyteller. (No surprise).
I LOVE this poem about how personal science can be to the non-scientist.