By Emily Johnson and Karyn Recollet
We ask of this collective work, how do we make consensual, nurturing, respectful, and loving relationships with one another, the lands we occupy, our more-than-human kin on earth, with stars and constellations, ancestors, and beings yet to come? Our collaborative process is rooted in the understanding that we do not activate land, rather, land activates us—therefore curation[1] is light and open to possibilities. What are some points of departure kinstillatory gatherings can offer to activate territories and explore dialogical, movement-based spaces? And further, what have we been learning and witnessing as part of this process?
Our intentions are to think with fire as a technology and be-ing that embodies and explicates forms of Indigenous sociality, a concept whose inspiration was drawn from Ashon Crawley’s insightful writing in Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility[2]. We ruminate on the possibilities of fire as a conduit for expressions of love and intimacy toward place and each other. We describe the potential of fire as kinship—a be-ing that renders possible futures for Indigenous folx; and we evoke a conversation which centers kinstillatory gatherings as a methodology.
[1] For us, the act of curation is a space of care, tenderness and keeping, in relationship to our activations of kinstillatory ethics that encompass witnessing in our gatherings.
[2] Ashon Crawley, Blackpentecostal Breath: The Aesthetics of Possibility (New York: Fordham University Press, 2016).
Published in Movement Research Performance Journal, Issue #52/53, Fall 2019: https://www.movementresearch.org/publications/performance-journal/issue-52-53
Excerpt Featured in ArtLink Issue 40.2, Indigenous Kin Constellations, languages, waters, futures, 2020: https://www.artlink.com.au/articles/4842/kinE28091dling-and-other-radical-relationalities/