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At the Pace of Mule
A cultural illumination journey,
moving at the speed of relational wisdom
At the Pace of Mule is an overland journey of the eastern sierra high desert by mule*. The 350 mile trek is an immersion into primal experiences of a slower and more interconnected life way, centering the pace of relationship.
The journey engages with postcolonial influences upon land, people, culture, and, ultimately, consciousness.
The project is a deep inquiry into ways of life that nurture access to relational wisdom and Indigenous intelligence, while revealing contemporary cultural ways that conversely limit or obscure these paths of remembrance needed during these times.
THE JOURNEY /
*mule, horse, burrow, or “pony”.
The journey explores how placing our bodies in the patterns, movements, shapes, and lifeways of ancestral rhythms and relational webs awakens our own ancestral consciousness and memory from within.
Through the abstinence of mechanistic transportation, technology use, immediate water and food accessibility, material excess, and modern conveniences, I will open my experiences to the pace and purpose of travel that keep my senses engaged with the the natural world, moving at the speed of relationship with biological intelligence and the inner navigational capacity that arises from this nurtured belonging.
The journey will also be a study of the effects of land privatization and industrial extraction on the ability to access ancestral relational wisdom, as my route interfaces with many land-use boundaries.
Giving life into the entire journey is the meaningfulness of storytelling. When deep listening becomes a kind of embodied remembering and the stories that come through elders, water, intuition, vision, land, and others, that ultimately give rise to attuned instructions and guidance for restoring our right place within the living world.
In its essence, the journey is a dedication to our collective futures and the resilience in remembering our greatest generational wealth is that of relational wisdom and its potential to heal original wounds of colonization.
At the Pace of Mule is an artistic demonstration and hopeful articulation intended for various publications that describe the confluence of past and future, and the significance of our present moment to choose to remember.
THE GENESIS /
“At the Pace of Mule” is the phrase my elder has carried meaning into, that describes the max speed at which humans can travel while continuing deep communion with the intelligence of the natural world. Any faster, we over-stimulate and atrophy our multi-sensory capacities and potential for felt interconnection.
This phrase came from a vision she received of ancestral peoples journeying through and with the Sonoran Desert sentience. It is likely that her remembrance of this “pace of relationship” is influenced by her former experiences traveling by mule, horse, or “pony” into Supai village of the Grand Canyon, to work with the Havasupai nation, people of the blue green water.
"The Storm", Apache. Edward S. Curtis, circa 1900.
THE ROUTE /
The journey will trace the eastern sierra mountains from Payahuunadü (Owen’s Valley, CA) to Kooyooe Pa’a Panunadu (Pyramid Lake, NV) in the high desert regions of the Great Basin. Guided by water, the route is determined from one natural waters to another, while also intercepting food resupply caches along the way.
The route is also intentionally shaped to visit tribal lands/reservations to gather ancestral experiences and stories of pre-colonial consciousness and ways of cultivating embodied wisdom in relationship with land.
KEY PLACES
The journey will pass through Tuvogatudu, known as "where the teachings abide" and sacred lands of four bands of Nüümü (Paiute), to deeply listen and hear what guidance the lands may offer. Here is also where exploratory mining has been proposed, and I hope to bring awareness to protection here and ally in tribal protection.
Further northbound, I will journey near some of the largest growing data centers, called USA Parkway, that are being developed by tech companies to keep up with the rising use of technology and artificial intelligence. I will be witnessing and documenting its effects on water, ecology, and potential global and future impacts on ancestral wisdom.
CULTURAL THEMES /
These themes are like constellations in the night sky: main points of focus but a part of a greater interconnected understanding. As the journey unfolds and the articulation comes alive, how these themes relate with each other and even birth nuance will reveal themselves.
+ Biological & Ancestral Intelligence vs. Technological & Artificial Intelligence
+ The Pace of Living Relationship vs. Vehicular/Mechanistic Speed
+ Land Communion & Protection vs. Privatization & Extraction
+ Elder Storytelling, Earth Receptivity, & Future Generation Service
+ Feminine Wisdom & Relational Ways
INDIGENOUS STORYTELLING /
This trek will guide me primarily through bands of Nüümü (Northern Paiute) and Newe (Western Shoshone) homelands. Contemporary reservation boundaries still reflect the conquest of the past by colonial-governmental resource and racial ideologies, compared to prior times of how the Nümüü and Newe lived freely within the interconnected intelligence of the non human-centric ecology and cosmology.
As the preparation for the project develops, I have begun connecting with tribal friends to ask permission and invite to connect along the trek and gather some of their stories of pre-colonial interconnected consciousness. I believe their storytelling safe-keeps imperative memories to a consciousness we need to reawaken within ourselves as participants in postcolonial value systems. By hearing and protecting these wayshowing narratives, in our own collective timing we may remember a way of being to live within the diverse intelligence of this world and refind our right place within it.
"The Blanket Weaver", Diné/Navajo. Edward S. Curtis, 1904.
Melle North is a cultural illumination artist whose work centers the remembrance of earth’s living wisdom. Her work explores relational consciousness and both its endangerment in colonized culture, as well as ways of regeneration that guide us in returning to our belonging within the intelligence of the natural world.
Living in the wilderness for eight years, Melle studies culture and listens for the medicine of these times, tracking for root disconnections and then creating inclusive ways to bring awareness and healing. She lives, thinks, and creates at the threshold where ancestral wisdom meets the relatives of our futures, and where human meets ecosystem, occupying the responsibility of the living fulcrum between these relationships.
ABOUT /
SPONSOR
For those desiring to offer funds of any amount.
Goal is to raise $24,000. Please see fundraising details.
SUPPORT /
To steward cultural illumination work requires a kind of abstinence from contemporary systems to go beyond those bounds and share with you all what lies therein at the edges of the undomesticated world.
As artists focus on ensouling the world and greater transformation, this is our trade. To continue to evolve and refine how to guide others into deeper places of meaning, substance, and remembrance, patronage is imperative for this work to come alive.
And any good work is woven with the care of many.
Thank you sincerely for your support.
"Nature's Mirror", Diné/Navajo. Edward S. Curtis, circa 1900.
PUBLICATIONS /
This journey is to be articulated in a book, as well as other publications. As potential publications arise, links will be listed here. If you feel strongly that this journey should be published in a specific magazine, journal, or publication, please get in touch to share with me.
For pre-journey essays and creative pieces, see muskofanimatierra.substack.com
CONNECT /
To connect directly, please email mellenorth22@gmail.com.
To stay connected with the project's evolution, please enter your email below.
"Women of the Desert", Diné/Navajo. Edward S. Curtis, circa 1900.
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