|
|
Click here to view a map of my journey so far
The first leg of my long ride is done for this year. I decided to call a halt at the end of July near Wideview in south Saskatchewan.
Please stay tuned for the continuation in the spring of 2012.
I will be starting where I left off near Grasslands Nat'l Park heading due west with thoughts on connecting with The Frenchman River, Old Man on His Back, The Cypress Hills, The Milk River, Writing on Stone, The Porcupine Hills and foothills and frontranges of The Rocky Mountains. Maybe I'll even make it up to Banff!
updated - Sept 18, 2011 |
|
"In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive and what people wanted to happen could happen – all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this.
That’s the way it was." |
 |
|
 |
::::the journey begins::::
As everything in my life is about 'journey', so it will be within this project that represents my life and my perspectives on the world that I live in. I am a few weeks now away from starting on this new phase of journey-ing; of walkabout-ing.
A good deal about this trip feels very changable at this point: Will I actually do any music performing; I have a route traced out but no doubt that will change; will I even enjoy this kind of travel? ... and on and on. The things that I do know is that I am getting to know my horses and they me; that the spring is coming and it gets warmer as the days go on; that the prairie skies and the birds and the grass and the wind are around me and it feels very good.
::::the following may be::::
|
|
|
::::the root of the Sun and the Wind project::::
To search for a deep and sure connection with the natural world through the motivations and perceptions of Skuld; of mythic imagining and re-vision-ing. The character Skuld and her kind have been amongst us humans for all remembered time. In the earliest days when all spoke as one – the animals the humans the trees the earth – their presence was known. As time wove on and the humans decided that they were different from all tho others and of primary importance. Believing that all the Earth was made for them, when they forgot the language of all, Skuld and her sisters found themselves forgotten and yet still pulled along with the people and their myths to their great distress. The Skuld Project is about the search and struggle to find the state where all spoke as one, when all were as one. It to find a place where the term nature means nothing, for it can only be truly within us, around us a part of us. Please click here for a piece written a few years ago about how The Skuld Project connects with modern issues of human/nature connection/disconnection.
::::the journey::::
Long distance travel on horseback that incorporates music, song and storytelling.
This mode and method of horse travel plays with time – moving slowly, away from the industrial clock; follows musical and storytelling tradition – traveling minstrelsy, the troubadour, the ancient celtic harpers, poets, na filí; plays with ideas of myth creation – do we create our myths or do myths create us?
The journey explores a deeper connection with nature represented through the world of the long rider.
This website, the Sun and the Wind webblog, podcast and videos shall be presented on the web to chronicle the journey when possible. An obvious contradiction to the basic premise of the project and it's presented idea that modern civilisation must be dismantled. Perhaps the contradictions also help to define the path. I don't know.
Travel is to be light and free, with two horses as companions following new and worn trails, open range, atv/snowmobile trails, dirt roads, paved roads when necessary.
While traveling, I will camp as I go and take hospitality as it graciously presents itself.
In addition to making the musical instruments, travel/performance clothing and gear is being made using traditional materials and techniques, such as brain/smoke tanned hides, gathered and spun fibers etc.
My horses will be 'barefoot' ie. will not use horseshoes. In September 2007 I studied barefoot hoof trimming at Equinextion and continue to work and learn so that I may maintain my horse's feet myself while I travel.
Horse care and health is of primary importance.
::::the music/the story::::
Everything about this journey is connected to the character Skuld. Skuld spins around the work and gives it a context though it is not her 'story' per se. Performances are in the form of the storyteller, the seanchaí. Story, song, music merging together.
Movement/travel informs story which informs path which witnesses the lie of the land which creates the line of the music. The path isn't just about performance. The whole is a living piece. Art in motion. Informed by travel, the nature of the music and the story grows with motion and absorbed experiences; a direct representation of the journey.
Traveling through rural and remote areas, playing and talking at house concerts, rural festivals and similar small & intimate venues.
At first, performances may be in the homes of friends and other known people who wish to host a house concert, trusting that other places will present themselves through word of mouth, this website and publicity. If you would think you would like to host a concert, please email me at catherine.fiain@gmail.com. I will spend more time organising performance aspects later on in 2010/11.
Musical instruments are of my own making and rooted to the earth. gourd instruments, bone flutes, deer hoof rattles.
Music is available through this web site and will continue to be added as they are recorded. Downloadable online with a free will offering. Click here to go to the sonic page.
::::a rough timeline::::
Autumn 2010 & winter 2011 will be spent creating the final aspect of the music and storyline for the project. I will be attending a small residincy program in the north of Thailand (compeung.org) and will focus on creating a cohesive performance line at that time.
Late Spring 2011 – The four to five month journey presenting the Sun and the Wind in performance in intimate venues. This period will include audio gathering - concerts, sounds and music from the land, spoken word - to be presented as podcasts during the following winter.
|
At this point in time the route is looking to go south from Craik SK towards the Montana border then west through Saskatchewan and Alberta, connecting wih Grasslands Nat'l Park, Frenchman River, Old Man on his Back, perhaps the Cypress hills, into Alberta and Writing on Stone, the Milk River, Waterton/Pincher Creek then north through the Rocky Mountain foothills/front ranges to the Banff area.(many thanks to Edward Poitras for the sugestion of following the Frenchman and Milk rivers. My route is based on his thoguhts on this)
Late Autumn 2011/Winter 2012– Taking note of experiences of the trip from the summer to prepare for the next stage. Part of the winter may be spent at The Banff Centre as well as at ComPeung, Thailand where new music will be created and podcast material edited and prepared for broadcast, all inspired my the trip.
Spring 2012 – If this kind of travel suits me, I may well continue my long riding in 2012 and on. How long? months, years ... with the sun and the wind as my guide. Early spring through late autumn laying over through the winter perhaps. Who knows who knows and as always ... All Willing! |
 |
As skuld/sun and wind has progressed over the last few years, I have spent a great deal of time exploring how the project could take form ... music, story, myth, graphic novel, film, imagery. Though all these could be a part of the project, I had trouble taking these thoughts/ideas anywhere with real clarity. The realisation of what could be has come about from looking at my own life and how i live it. Through the earth, the physical, the do-ing, a quest for clear seeing. Things cleared up considerably with this realisation and in truth i can see that i have been heading in this direction all along.
Below I will give a brief description that I have used for various purposes of how I envision the character skuld and the project in general. Though at present Skuld as a being has moved from a strictly norse/valkyrie/norn character into one that crosses many more cultural transformation myths (celtic, norse, native north american and others), I believe that the description below does give a sense of where I'm heading with all this. Thanks for reading! Catherine. |
|
|
"In the very earliest time, when both people and animals lived on earth,
a person could become an animal if he wanted to
and an animal could become a human being.
Sometimes they were people and sometimes animals and there was no difference.
All spoke the same language.
That was the time when words were like magic.
The human mind had mysterious powers.
A word spoken by chance might have strange consequences.
It would suddenly come alive and what people wanted to happen could happen –
all you had to do was say it.
Nobody could explain this.
That’s the way it was." |
|
So spoke Nalungiaq, an Inuit woman interviewed by Knud Rasmussen early in the 1900’s (source: The Spell of the Sensuous by David Abram) Nalungiaq’s words illustrate perfectly the feelings and motivations of Skuld.
I quote this once again as I did at the beginning of this page. It moves me and speaks eloquently of the need for a new, or rather a very old way of speaking with the earth.
Taking my own spin on already existhing myth, the character Skuld is a Valkyrie/Norn of Northern European mythology. The name Skuld means ‘she who is becoming’ or possibly 'she who becomes' (Thanks to Monica Meneghetti for suggesting the name) and has appeared in numerous tales in written and oral forms for more than two millennia. In the very earliest times, the Valkyrie were emerging within northern European myth as shape-shifters, moving in form between human and raven states. Only in later times do they emerge as the bourgeois warrior maidens serving Odin/Wotan as presented in Wagner’s Ring Cycle in addition to other stories of that period. As society changes so goes us all in spite of whatever our own desires and wishes may be and Skuld has, over time, lost her ancient connection to the natural world. The project story line concerns her quest to find these roots of her kind and in turn rekindle her connection to the natural world. The story parallels our own human loss of oneness with the wild and the modern realities of human–nature conflicts that are creating havoc to all living things in our modern world. Countering the tide of the group is a major component to the project. Can it be done? Can the momentum be shifted? what loyalty can there be to the group when that group follows a perceived false path?
Skuld’s story, journey and motivations are closely reflected in my own. Working from the context of a mythical character, Skuld is a being that can go beyond my own dreams and abilities and yet can also express my own deeply held beliefs beyond the apparent fixed world around me. A shape-shifter of sorts myself, my own connection to nature is deep and essential and much of my work is centered around creating as full a dialogue with the wild world as I can. This has been a reality for me since childhood and will continue to be so throughout my life. I see the world shifting to an ever more precarious place and I feel a responsibility to represent my perspective of the importance of interconnectedness with nature to the community that I create in.
Musically, voice is at the root of Skuld. Raw and direct, the animal and the human, it is Skuld’s exact point of expression and involves traditional and extended vocal techniques and textures. Instrumentation will be primitive in concept using flutes, percussion, bowed and plucked string instruments. Such sounds that have been a part of her experienced existence through time in nature reflecting through into this newly created project. In addition, a number of instruments will be created for this project some primitive/traditional (eg. bone flutes) and some original in concept. |
|
|
| Illustrations above shamelessly gathered from Arthur Rackham's series of Ring Cycle illustrations |
|
please go to the skuld weBLog – fiain-skuld.blogspot.com for ongoing words and images from a deepening wrapping with the natural world |
| |
|
|
|
Subscribe to the an stiúideo fiáin newsletter
|
|
