Stories Are Us
There is a lot of conversation these days about story telling, places, placemaking and community. There is a lot of putting the cart before the horse, trying to replicate something from a false motivation. It can get quite confusing. But actually it is quite simple. Stories are important. Stories are everything. Stories are us. Without them we do not really know who we are, what we are doing, why we are doing what we are doing and where we should be going.
Stories are inextricably linked to place. Which is why I find it dumbfounding when a “creative placemaking” initiative seeks to create a place with no acknowledgement of the existing story. There is no place without its story. When I try to fathom the endeavors in a community that don’t acknowledge this, there is a blank spot in my brain circuit. It just does not compute.
“What many Native peoples see extends beyond the overt surroundings. Our perceptions are often shaped by the knowledge of collective memory, by the traditional knowledge that tells us what our places really mean. Across the Native universe, memory conveyed in different forms exists as one force strong enough to peel back concrete and steel. In our mind’s eye, many of us imagine even urban landscapes in this hemisphere as our ancestors saw them. Regardless of modern urban surroundings, Native lands persist as sacred places and must be properly cared for by all of the people who now live upon them.”
Times change, buildings will be built, and buildings will be torn down. But it is our responsibility as people, as humans to listen, remember and become caretakers of the stories that are our places, that are us. It is also our responsibility to stand up against those that wish to destroy and erase those stories. Not because we are afraid of letting go of the past, but because without the link to our past we may get lost in our future.