Migration

Migration

World Migratory Bird Day was set up in 2006 by the United Nations. It was initiated to highlight and celebrate migratory birds and the phenomenon of bird migration. A friend told me about WMBD,about a year ago and showed me the marvellous posters that advertise it.

An image from the WMBD website.

We decided to work together on some ‘birdy/journey’ artwork that we could then exhibit and bring this event to the attention of a wider set of people. We thought we could make some sellable artwork too, as the posters were well designed and a marketing tie-in would help us all. Over time this led to another couple of artists joining us and we excitedly watched ‘Winged Migration’ together.

This clip is one of my favourite parts of the film, along with the eerily beautiful vocals from the ‘Le Mystere Des Voix Bulgares’.

It is called 'The Return of the Cranes’,

After watching the film, all of us more deeply appreciated the beauty and resilience of birds and the incredible journeys that they take, it  was staggering to realise that some birds fly for thousands of miles at heights of up to 3000 feet!

The Easterly direction from which the Brent Geese came.

We have continued to work together and I feel our artwork on display now, as part of the Canterbury Festival, reflects this wonder of birds, journeys, connectedness and resilience.

As I continued to work on my 'People-to-Place' project, I recognised that the bird/journey artwork was very relevant as I had, in my MA research touched upon human migration and the paths they took to move seasonally from one place to another. These routes were what I was now looking for in the environment, in my bid to reconnect people to the places that they live in. Native peoples would have been more aware of migrations as they had to be more connected to where they lived, for their very survival and so, observed and understood seasonal changes in their environment.  We may have lost that knowledge and understanding as we have ‘evolved’ as a species, but, birds and the sheer endurance required to complete their long migrations filled me with awe.

Brent Geese

On Monday this week, I went with a friend for a long walk along Seasalter beach.

Looking towards the Isle of Sheppey, Seasalter Beach.

As I was walking on the foreshore, I thought I could see the white tops of waves towards the estuary, all along the horizon. It was only when we got closer that we saw the white shapes were in fact white tails of numerous floating birds.

Brent Geese, close to the shore.

They were facing due West, into the wind and were fairly quiet. As we walked back to the car, I asked a birdwatcher what they were. ‘Brent Geese’, he said. ‘All the way from Siberia, they prefer our winters.’ When I looked them up this morning on ‘Google’ that I realised they had flown 2,500 miles, following the coastline from northern Russia.

Could this be their tracks?

They will now be our guests, increasing in numbers up to January, mainly eating the inter-tidal eel grass, Zostera spp. leaving our shores in late February; they fly for over 3 months, to return to the Arctic tundra in June.  My father-in-law regularly digs along the intertidal area of the north Kent coast, (for archaeological finds, not bait), and often tells me of the birds he sees.

Looking for clues.

He goes out when the tide is right, all throughout the year and has become very aware of the passing through of many species of birds. Through his passion for archaeology, he is deeply connected to the tides, seasons and migratory habits of the birds in that area. He knows where the eel grass grows that the Brent geese favour, whether it’s a good year for it and all the other plants that live on the marshes. His regular connection with the landscape has given him specific knowledge of the area.

The sign for the 'Saxon Shore Way' path, leading around the Kent coast.

Journeys

I have always loved a journey; it is the path to the destination and a part of the whole experience. I like to explore a map and plan a route, look for landmarks and feel confident I can find my way home/back. I use the same method whether I am driving a car or walking. (I don’t use sat-nav.)

Sheep following a well worn path.

I feel that movement in itself can be remembered, sometimes as much as the physical landmarks. Walking up a hill will be remembered in the muscles of my body, where it felt easy, where I overstretched, where I rested etc. I wonder whether the physical act of walking along a route regularly enough physically and mentally connects us with the environment.

The choice of paths at Seasalter, along the grass or walking along the seashore.

 

Walking along the beach means having to step over every groyne.

I remember reading while researching for my MA that there is a link with movement and body memory. Just as we know that people can learn in a variety of ways, including kinaesthetic, then the act of walking may in itself allow us to learn whilst moving. I will experiment with this, in the next week I may try to learn a new poem whilst walking the same route regularly.

Close up of a groyne post, often holding small pebble treasures in its weathered wide grain.

I know, as a keen dancer, that the more I know a piece of music, the easier the moves within it become. The journey of the dance is led by the music. The music reminds my body of what way to go and what to do. Again, I think back to the ‘Songlines’, the navigable but invisible tracks in the land that allow Australian aborigines to walk for many hundreds of miles through their homeland.  These Songlines were memorised in an oral and aural tradition and used to tell stories of the earth’s creation. The people would walk the path and journey along the Songlines to a piece of narration in the form of a song, importantly the song is set to the speed of the walk itself. This reminds me of my body’s awareness when I dance. Subconsciously it remembers the music, the movements and the full dance. It is in the physical muscle of the body and in the memory of the sound. The dance movements release or realise the journey of the music.

Journeying

This is something I like to do; it is a deep, rewarding human activity and common practice to all indigenous societies throughout history. To journey in a shamanic way is to visit other landscapes, where the destination is unknown, but a clear intention can bring you to the right place. Shamanic journeys stay vivid in your mind, unlike a dream which is intangible and easy to forget. Listening to the sound of the drum which accompanies journeying allows for a more intense experience which gets into our subconscious mind. I may write more about this another time.

Big sky.

(I completed my MA in September 2014 and recorded the last two months of it in another blog called www.thesaltwayfarer.blogspot.co.uk

Please feel free to look at that anytime, as it is from that, that I am where I am now.)