Dispatch: Leanne Betasamosake Simpson
viscosity
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson with Sandra Brewster
one
calling out
calling in
you’re not fooling me
tethered to the kinship
of disassociated
zeros
and ones
shining your crown
of neoliberal
likes
yelling the loudest
in the
empty room
gathering
followers
like berries
feeding
fish
to insecurity
sliding
into
reckless moment
after reckless moment
we witness:
too many holes in your hide
the broken skin of a canoe
the tightening of a mind
tracks, leading nowhere.
at the
beach
we build a fire
sit in our
own
silence
peel off
blue
light
lie back
on
frozen
waves
breathe
in
sharp air
warm
into
each other
careful moment
after careful moment.
two
Photo: Sandra Brewster. Courtesy Sandra Brewster
three
four
Image: Nadia Myre, Orison #1. Album art. Courtesy Nadia Myre
In Nishnaabemowin, March, where we are right now, is known as Ziizbaakdoke Giizis. It begins with the new moon, shki-giizis. Seven days in, it’s Aabtawaadbkizi-giizis or half moon. Fourteen days in, it’s Mooshkneywaabkizi-giizis, the full moon. All of the phases of Ziizbaakdoke Giizis last twenty-eight days. The sugar moon is when Nishnaabe are with the maple trees in the sugar bush. When the snow is melting and the world is filled with water. Where sap is moving through tree trunks and where trees are sharing their lifeblood with me, so that I, too, can begin again. The third of thirteen moons.
The second time around the sun in COVID-19 times.
This is not the first time my people have experienced a great upheaval or a great sickness. This is just a new iteration of the colonial machine that rips our bodies from our lands, steals our thoughts and languages, and fills our bodies with sickness. We are not the only ones. The parallel genocide of slavery and its afterlives.
In times of great upheaval, my ancestors turned to the bush, the lakes, and the rivers for solace, healing, and comfort. They turned to the trees, the plants, and the animals for knowledge and medicines. They turned to the spiritual world for the wisdom of their ancestors for vision. They intensified their practice of love and their practice of commune. They made it better.
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson is a Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg scholar, writer, musician, and member of Alderville First Nation. She is the author of seven books, including A Short History of the Blockade: Giant Beavers, Diplomacy, and Regeneration in Nishnaabewin and the novel Noopiming: A Cure for White Ladies (both 2021). Simpson has released four albums including f(l)ight (2016), Noopiming Sessions (2020), and Theory of Ice (2021). Her latest book, coauthored with Robyn Maynard and entitled Rehearsals for Living is forthcoming in 2022. For more of her work, visit leannesimpson.ca and leannesimpsonmusic.com.
Born in 1973 in Toronto and based there, Sandra Brewster is a Canadian visual artist. The daughter of Guyanese-born parents, she is especially attuned to the experiences of people of Caribbean heritage and their ongoing relationships with back home. Sandra holds a BFA from York University, Toronto, and an MA in visual studies from the University of Toronto. Select solo exhibitions include Token | Contemporary Ongoing (2019–20), a traveling show that debuted at A Space Gallery, Toronto, and Blur (2019–20) was held at Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Brewster’s work has been shown in group exhibitions including Identity in Flux, organized by VISART, Rajko Mamuzić Gallery, Novi Sad, Serbia and traveling to National Gallery of Macedonia, Skoplje, and Centar za kulturu Tivat, Montenegro; and Here We Are Here: Black Canadian Contemporary Art (2018–19), Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto, and traveling to Musée des beaux arts, Montreal, and Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax. For more of her work, visit sandrabrewster.com.
Cover image: Nadia Myre, Orsion #2. Album art for Leanne Betasamosake Simpson’s Theory of Ice. Courtesy Nadia Myre