JANNIE SCHJØDT KOLD – The Wind is My Mother

Writing down the voice of the place
What words exist for nature in this particular place? What dialect? What emotions?

A nature memory is played through a speaker in the landscape. It is recorded by a local from the area. We hear the dialect in the landscape it belongs to. The sound sets the mood for us to write our own text. By writing ourselves, we uncover childhood memories and language we didn’t know we had stored away.

What if we were forced to leave our homeland? What would we write down to capture how we were connected to the landscape—so it wouldn’t be lost?

The work enters into dialogue with Bear Heart’s book The Wind is My Mother. Bear Heart was a member of the Creek tribe, which was forcibly removed from their homeland in 1832 in one of the most notorious acts of violence against the Indigenous population in the U.S. The tribe’s relationship with the landscape formed the basis of a unique language, which was also subjected to erasure. Bear Heart seeks to mend this loss in his book.

What if we were forced to leave our homeland? What would we write down to tell the story of how we were connected to the landscape there?

ABOUT JANNIE SCHJØDT KOLD
Jannie Schjødt Kold is a playwright and screenwriter with several book titles to her name. She has written award-winning audio walks on South Funen and develops new formats and ways to connect with nature and cultural history through sensory and interactive storytelling. She teaches creative writing and facilitates collective writing and knitting processes. www.janniekold.dk / www.skrivogstrik.dk

PRACTICAL INFORMATION
Duration: 60 – 90 minutes
Participants: 12 – 20
Age: 12+
Language: Danish

CREDITS
Photo: Palle Peter Skov