Our mutual (his)story had been incited by destruction – “a curse” that “cannot be reversed, only transformed” (from the film “The Eternal Song”). The Talking Mats project is an attempt at such a transformation that needs continuous care and collaboration.
The Bajuni agricultural vave song with the title Tadhikwaye (How shall we bury) alludes to death, loss, and sorrow that comes along with the fierce fire of the Bajuni slash-and-burn cultivation method which produces new fertile farming ground, but at the same time destroys small bushes, large trees and extinguishes every creature within the part of the field that is to be burned; sometimes even a fellow farmer in an accident. As yet, for the Bajuni farmers this deletion is not the end, but just the beginning.
Voice: Vave community 2010
Image credits: Jasmin Mahazi, Liese Hoffmann
Video editing: Rebeca Ofek