when your ancestors are the problem

By Gayano Shaw

‘when your ancestors are the problem’

but you didn’t know

growing up in a world where dead equals gone

and gone means nothing needed

when my ancestors had long stopped being honoured

and none of my culture knew to tell me of the consequence

Emily Rose Michaud, La Foi (Faith), 3'x4', 2004.

I forgot, had never been shown, the so obvious truth that I am the visible part, the living energy, of all that went before me -

and I did not know that the consequences of not caring for everything - tree, river, sea, plant, seed, earth, mountain, air - that the lack of reciprocity and consideration cuts through us all

I didn’t know till too late

the air we breath is now heavy with the mayhem of violence of generations - deep in the cells

to live and not know

to have school and teachers equally blind and subjugated by stories of capitalism and colonialism

to raise humans in fear of one another

of blame and shame and less than

too much othering we craft

so much grief

unattended grief

it is how it is

bearing faithful witness unpracticed

turning away from that which calling for witness much more part of our days

and now

here we are

ancestors not the problem but caught in the same trap as us

what then is asked of us in this time?

gayano... daughter, mother, grandmother, apprentice to grief and love, remembering and villagemindedness, scholar of the orphan wisdom school, living at home in the hills of west wales amidst family, sometimes friends and more as needed...

Emily Rose Michaud is an interdisciplinary artist and educator working at the crossroads of community organization, ecology and civic participation. Her work highlights the social importance of marginal landscapes, engages with land as a living entity, and maintains a practice in ephemeral media. Her body of work encompasses land-based art, installation, drawing, writing, performance, and intervention. Michaud holds a BFA from Concordia University (Montréal) and a Bachelor of Education from the University of Ottawa. She lives in Gatineau, Québec.