In Partnership with VT Advisory Board
Banner Art detail: Sadiq Somjee, "Map"
Storytelling
In many Indigenous cultures, peace is sensed in the body through stories embedded in the beauty of the language as in proverbs, metaphors and parables. Figurative language brings feelings to the body, through associations and pictures in the mind.
“Peace was brought to us by the Forest People. One day, a long, long time ago, they left a child under the Red Stemmed Peace Tree by the river. When a fisherman found the child, he picked him up. The child smiled like the sun at Dawn bringing joy to the fisherman for he was filled with beauty. When the fisherman took the child to his wife, she too was filled with joy. They decided to adopt the child. They had no children of their own. Men and women from distant villages came to see the child as he was growing up. All were filled with beauty. It was peaceful just to be near him.
Later, when the child learned to talk, he told them stories about the beauty of Dawn, of all the birds and animals. He also spoke about the rivers, the sky and trees. He spoke about wisdom of the elders. The people were astonished when they heard him speak about the community’s memories that they had forgotten, and traditions of the ancestors that they did not practice anymore. His voice was so gentle and charming speaking in parables, proverbs and riddles that the people were attracted to him. That is how he filled them with beauty of peace and wisdom of utu”.