WATER AND STORIES
“This is not just our story, this is the story of me, you, the planet, the story of our past, present and future, the story of the whole universe’ Stories for a better world, Nene, generator, 2015
“Every story is a story of water” Natalie Diaz, Native American poet
Water is central to creation myths of every indigenous culture, from Osun, Goddess of the Yoruba people of West Africa, to Tangaroa and Kiwa, deities of the Māori of Polynesia, and it is crucial in the story of Sky Woman of the Patawatomi people. Mermaids, wells, shells, fish, waves, rivers, sea dragons, teardrops, and more, become symbols in stories and tales from all over the world.
On this Pale Blue Dot suspended in the immensity of the universe, Water is Life and a metaphor of birth, formation, transformation, wisdom, beginning. Water is also a metaphor for resilience and adaptability.
The Māori mythological story of Taniwha becoming the dragon of the river Fleet has been central in the Voices of the Water project, providing a doorway into local history and an exploration of our relationship with the land and its resources.
“Knowing where you are by knowing where you’ve been” guides our work in the Story Garden and throughout Somers Town where, thanks to Gilbert Bayes’s work, representations of water creatures are everywhere.
A look at the estate’s laundry circles takes you back in time, right to when stories were told orally. We navigate the local and the global, from folk tales of local Bengali communities to young people’s personal stories and collective memories. We immerse ourselves in the past and envision a better future.
Notes from the Garden
I wake to a bright crisp winter’s day. Finally … after weeks of storms ravaging the country.
As the year ends we are reminded of the magic and beauty that our gardens bring, as places to come together and celebrate, even in difficult times. This year it has been challenging not to be taken over by fear and despair, with extreme weather events being mirrored in different ways across the world, from floods to droughts; with the most recent political events; with wars destroying land and displacing entire populations; and with the constant increase in the cost of living creating ever more inequalities between those that have and those that do not.