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Spoken Word: The Grief of Belonging

Sun, 10 Sept

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East Side

Grief brings us home, this Spoken Word evening is a journey exploring belonging to the land and grieving the loss and devastation of human impact.

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Spoken Word: The Grief of Belonging
Spoken Word: The Grief of Belonging

Time & Location

10 Sept 2023, 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm ACST

East Side, East Side NT 0870, Australia

About the event

“When we return to our belonging to the earth, we return to our responsibility to her. In belonging there is reciprocity and a deep feeling of care.”

Grief brings us home, this Spoken Word evening is a journey exploring belonging to the land and grieving the loss and devastation of human impact. It’s come form seven years of sitting with First Nations elders of this country, of hearing and feeling the impacts of colonisation. It’s come from feeling country and seeing more and more clearly our daily impacts.

These poems have also come from ancestral memory of a life lived in harmony with the lores of nature, the cellular memory of being Indigenous to country in deep belonging and reciprocity. That life now thousands of years in the past. In grieving we can empty ourselves out, unravel from the colonial imprint of conquering and separation and come back to the bare earth, come back to belonging.

This is the last of a trilogy of writings that has come from my devotion to being a voice and a messenger for country and for the feminine. Most of these spoken word pieces have come from my time in the central Australian desert, those red sands infused into the words of these poems.

Through all of this journey, I came into a place of deep grief for all that we have lost. It’s not just what we have desecrated in Indigenous culture of this land, it’s also what we have lost ourselves. As Arrernte elder Chris Tomlin’s says “you’re people were colonised once too”. It lives in our blood, in our DNA. The invasion, displacement and desecration of our ancient language and ways. Uncovering the truth of our history hurts, but it is in this place that we find healing, not just for ourselves, but our whole family lines, the land and the whole of humanity. Every small step we take ripples, and so it is our responsibly to come into right relationship in reciprocity. It’s remembering our soul home to this body, calling back all members of our self into wholeness. For me, it’s those tears of grief that bring me back home. There is pain in belonging, because belonging brings a depth of connection that we feel to the depths of our soul. In that deep feeling you can no longer close out the pain or discomfort, the only way is through. This is my journey of walking through the grief of what it really means to walk the world awake and connected.

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The Journey

5pm - Opening and Acknowledgeing country

THE GRIEF OF BELONGING - the poetry series

5.30pm - Open poetry circle for anyone to share their own words or songs

6.30pm - Closing with music and story round the fire to the setting sun

I acknowledge we gather on Arrernte country, an ancient land that holds the grief of her people. I acknowledge the custodians of these lands and the culture and grief rituals that they have carried forth. May we respect this ancient culture and find our own way of gathering to grieve. May we recognise the shared grief and the shared responsibility that comes with belonging. May we walk gently together and listen to the cries of the people, of the land and of our own ancestors.  …

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About Karla

Hi, I had the privilege of growing up in remote Australia, on Kamilaroi country. It is these beginnings, in the bush that continue to inform me as I walk through life… mostly barefoot.

Healing is in my bloodline. We may have lost a lot of this knowledge from our ancestors, but in my short life I feel like I have already gone back through the timeline a bit. I began as a Paramedic, then transitioned to Hawaiian healing and on the side learnt about herbalism and alternative medicine from my sisters. Went on my own quest for Shamanic ceremony… then some where in there I got to a point where my soul was calling for something else that I had not found in my ten year quest. I didn’t want to “copy” other cultures and I didn’t want to adhere to modern day spirituality... I didn’t even feel called to be initiated into another culture … so I just started creating my own events, my own ceremonies. First came Earthdance, which came to me (and my partner at the time) in central Australia, with the basic principles of circle, dance, music and sometimes singing. Then came the six day women’s gathering in the Kimberley, bringing in these same basic rituals that we as people have been practicing since time began. So it is a journey of remembering our power and our connection as women. And finally came a collective ToGather, were we come together to ask the difficult questions as “colonisers”, to do our work, to remember our own way home to connection, and walk with the people of country.

Since 2016, I have had the privilege of sitting with First Nations elders in central Australia. These last five years have been an incredible time of humbling, of stripping back, of decolonising. And still, I have so far to go… but I got to a point in 2020… when I was in central Australia and everyone else (it felt like) was in lockdown. It was a real time of realising the only way forward was together. The hype of indviduality and personal growth can only get us so far. Our ancient roots are in tribal living. Now I get to gather people in all of these different ways, and I have never felt more in my element. But the thing that makes it most rewarding is when we go right into the heart of the current injustices to the ancient people of this country. They are the grandparents of civilisation, we have so much to learn. Now that, that is what I take responsibility for… to walk with that message. “It is time, for people of my kind, to listen and learn from oldest living culture on the Earth.”

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Testimonies

"Karla writes from a place of purpose. You can feel, in the soft and formidable presence she holds in her words, her connection to healing our relationship with country. Her message is one to deeply hold and one we all need to learn." ~ Ren (Australian poetry slam champion 2020)

“Karla mesmerised us with her thoughtful, calm cadence. She grounded us with her story about real, visceral relationship with nature. We all walked out feeling part Earth.” ~ Jarrah Story

Tickets

  • Spoken Word

    Text me on 0437525448 for details of location. Meeting point is Kurrajung Drive, East Side (opposite number 60)

    Pay what you want
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