Building the Fire: Music as Ancestral Skill

Blowing a coal to life

I'm starting to document my creative journey in real-time - not waiting until ideas are fully formed, but sharing the process as it unfolds. This reflection on music and voice is where the fire is burning right now. If you're curious about where this work comes from, read on.

I'm curious if you consider singing an ancestral skill. I'm curious if you consider music making and cultivating authentic expression with the voice an ancestral skill?

I sure do.

The more I can work through the layers of conditioning, the lingering but still very present effects of colonialism on our relationship to music, on our relationship to our own voice and our right to express ourselves. What does it mean to express ourselves authentically, especially in the context of music and singing. For me, it's about finding ways to bypass those layers of restriction, those inhibiting beliefs that we've inherited, that are so deeply embedded in the culture around us that we forget to question them sometimes.

It may not seem like a priority if we don't consider ourselves a musician, and yet in a tribe, in an intact culture, everybody participates in the music. A few may be specifically dedicated to the path of being a musician, just as a healer would be, even though everyone holds some potential for helping others heal. But the deep work only happens when everybody participates and when people step up and give of themselves fully - full presence, full commitment.

I see singing in this way, making music together in this way, as one of the most powerful mediums that we have - a true gift. To use music, to ride on the waves of rhythm that music offers us, to get into the grooves, to come into harmony together, to synchronize our heartbeats and our breathing in an experience of total unification. An empowering experience as a group, as a tribe. An empowering individual experience to feel that connection with Spirit and with the source of creativity, our own unique connection, our rope of connection to our creative source, to our Muses.

The ability and the opportunity to channel that and let it speak through us, to let our soul sing its song through us, to use our voice as an instrument, as an empty reed to bring that song into the world, into the community… to be received, to be shared, to be supported and celebrated.

The effort and the perseverance and the intention is in our power. But ultimately the spirit is not. The spirit comes when it comes. The more consistently we do it, the more consistently we will be supported.

And in this way, I hope to start building this fire with a committed group of people and returning to it regularly and deepening this practice, so that we can start to really hear the voices of our ancestors, those lost voices. Some still exist in songs that have carried through, and others - much was lost. But the Spirit can be accessed. I really believe, because I've experienced it enough to know, that we can access that spirit. Sometimes through existing traditional songs, sometimes through my own songs, and other times when bypassing all the cultural layers and the traditions and accessing the essence, that universal place. The place where it all comes from, where our ancestors are waiting for us to sing the songs - the old ones, the new ones, and the ones waiting to be created. There is a place where the songs are still playing.

The Shona people of Zimbabwe who play the mbira music say that the songs are always playing, and when we pick up an instrument to play, when we sing, we are tapping into that song and joining it and bringing it to life for a while. I want to connect with my ancestors in this way, with my own lineages; despite that the lineage was broken, traditions broken or outdated, this broken culture we've inherited. We can do deep healing work in this way and build our communities strong. I want to be part of building this from the ground up, to keep rubbing these sticks together and bring these coals to light, to go deeper and deeper. I want all-night rituals and celebrations where we can sustain this fire - this specific musical fire, this authentic vocal expression and channelling - through the night and see where it takes us. I want to reclaim the power of music to do deep healing work.

With humility, I ask for grace and support. I ask for strength and clarity of vision to treat this process with an upright mind, with courage to follow my calling, my soul song and my vision. And confidence to lead where and when I'm called to lead, and always to remain open, to listen to the spirit of the music and where it wants to go.