LAOCHRA AG FANACHT - WARRIORS IN WAITING Réamhrá - Preface
FÍRINNE NA SAMHLAÍOCHTA - The Truth of Knowing
“Is é an chumhacht é ainmniú agus athainmniú a dhéanamh, bhí sé ar cheann dena honóracha a ba mhó ag impireacht, mar go chruthaigh sé an scafalra den mhodh ceannasach atá ann anois le bheith bainteach leis an tsaol beo”
Amitav Ghosh ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse’
Tá ga le ath-shamlú a dhéanamh ar ár Scéal bhunaidh mar pháirt de thionchar an dúchais ar gach rud a bhaineann lenár n-intinn chun go dtabharfar sinn ar ais chun bisigh.
An Scéal seo, ár Scéal ó thús, ní fhoghlaimíonn muid seo ar an scoil. Nascann an dlúthcheangal leis an nádúr agus an éiceachóras muid de réir mar a bhí roimhe seo.
Tá ár gcoirp, ár n-intinn agus ár n-anam le cuir ar ais ina n-áit sa nádúir, mar aon leis na Dúile, na Dúile sin a thugann an Baile ar an áit chéanna ina bhfuil muidinne ag baint fúinn agus a chuireann tús leis an turas ar ais as an mheon ná an cineál saoil nach ndéanann freastail ar ár sláinte.
Ag gabháil siar ar an Scéal seo a bhí ann ó thus, is proiséas é ina léiritear smaoitiú glan, trí spéis a mhúscailt sa Dúile arís atá thart orainn lenár gcoirp, ath-mhúsclaíonn muid leis an nádúr riachtanach atá acu – a chothaíonn an beatha agus an folláine ionainn.
Inár Scéal ó thús tá muid suite go héiceolaíoch in áit a bheith leagtha síos go hordaithe, an ego mórchúiseach gan teorann. Tá ár sásamh agus maireachtáil nasctha lenár gcomhoibriú, ní coimhlint, le Neacha mothaíocha eile inár n-éiceachóras. Is obair saoil dúinn é dlúth-eolas a chur orthu trí nascadh leo agus iad a thuigbheáil.
Cuireann ár luath-theangacha, Gaeilge san áireamh, mór-dhlúthchaidreamh agus eolas ar an nádúr in iúl. Is iad an tairseach chuig an sean-chaidreamh a bhí againn leis an tsaol nádúrtha.
Bhí ár gcuid luath-theangacha déanta go sonrach cruinn lenár scéal bunaidh a inse, thig linn toiseacht agus an todhchaí a fheiceáil go soiléir a bhí geallta dúinn inár stair ársa. Mar a deireann ár colceathracha a Maoiri linn in Aotearoa, thig linn amharc ar ais go dtinár dtodhchaí.
Thug ár sinsear aghaidh ar imeagla agus crualacht as cuimse, ag teacht slán ar eachtraí tubaisteacha a d’athraigh an sochaí. Le linn na dtréimhsí athlonnaithe seo a tharlódh go cinnte in dhiaidh chíor thuathail ollmhór, rinneadh iarrachtaí tromchúiseacha chun cuspóir eile a chur ina luí anuas ar an fhirinne: scrios a dhéanamh agus athainmniú i bhfocla Amitav Ghosh.
Sna claochlaithe corracha seo chaill muid na scéaltaí a shamhlódh an Nádúr mar chomrádaí againn, b’éigean dúinn éirí cleachtaithe le iad súid ag déanamh cur síos ar an Nádúr ag an rud is fearr, gan corp, agus ar an rud is lú mar bhagairt agus mar rud urchóideach.
Buíochas leis an déithe, tugann athbheochán agus maireachtáil ár dteangacha dúchasacha ar ais sa Ciall muid. Thig leis an dearcadh atá againn orainn féin a bheith tugtha ar ais in éineacht le hathbhunú na teanga ag tabhairt ciall do dhíriú isteach ar an nádúr dúinn. Athbheochán ar ár dteangacha dúchasacha ár dturas ar ais. Mar aon leis seo tagann scaoileadh ar an chumhacht agus tchí muid físeanna dúinn féin agus muid faoi ghlas ag an mhéid gortaithe intinne a d’fhulaing muid.
Má shamhlaíonn agus labhraíonn muid go soiléir faoinár ngaol go dtí seo leis an talamh,uisce, aer, tine agus na Dúile uilig san éiceachóras, dhéanfaidh seo tine a lasadh faoi thréithe denár Bheith a bheadh mar mhacalla denár Scéal bhunaidh.
An áit a bhfuil easpa taithí againn ar dhlúthchaidreamh leis na Dúile, caithfidh muid féacháil le muinín a chur inár samhlaíocht le muid a threorú. Thig linn a dh’iarraidh air bheith chomh fíor lenár gcéadfaí agus a bheith ina lámh tharrthála ar muid a thabhairt ar ais. Treoir a thabhairt dúinn fríd an chaill agus scrios. Treoir a thabhairt dúinn fríd an dí-ainmniú agus an t-athainmniú. Treoir a thabhairt dúinn fríd an éiginnteacht i dteannta a chéile.
Sa dóigh seo thig leis an tsamhlaíocht athmhúsclú a dhéanamh go bunúsach ar ché muid le chéile.
Is é an macalla a mhothaíonn muid go smior ionainn nuair atá muid amuigh sa nádúr an bronntannas is fearr a fágadh againn, bronntannas a thugann saoirse dúinn óna slabhraí dofheicthe an choilíneachais agus an choilínithe.
Mar sin, go díreach cosúil lenár gcolceathracha na Maoiri agus go leor ciníocha dúchasacha ar fud an domhain, sé, ba Laochra sinn lá den tsaol. Le fírinne, mar a d’fhéadfadh muid a shamhlú, b’iomaí Duine muid lá den tsaol.
Anois, dálta ár ndeirfiúracha agus ár ndéartháireacha, na Dúile den Domhain Nádúrtha ina gcuireann muid fúinn ann, na Dúile a fhosclaíonn amach chun éirí agus soilsiú nuair atá an uair ceart ann, tá muid go cúramach ag fanacht.
“The power to name, or rather rename, was thus one of the greatest privileges of empire, because it created the scaffolding of what is now the dominant mode of relating to the living world” Amitav Ghosh ‘The Nutmeg’s Curse’
A re-imagining of our Story of origin is a necessary part of re-indigenising our mindscape and restoring ourselves to health.
This Story, our original Story, we do not learn in school. It intimately connects us with nature and ecosystems as we once were.
Re-aligning our bodies, minds and souls with nature, including the Beings, or Dúile in Irish, that also call our place their Home, begins our journey back from a mindset or lifestyle that has ceased to serve our health.
Re-tracing this original Story is an embodied process. By re-engaging with the Dúile around us bodily, we re-awaken to their essential nature- one of nurturing us to life and wellness.
In our original Story we are ecologically located as opposed to ego-logically prescribed. Our fulfilment and survival is linked to our cooperation, not competition, with the other sentient Beings in our ecosystem. Our intimate knowledge of them is a life-time’s work in connection and understanding.
Our early languages, including Gaeilge or Irish, express a greater intimacy and knowledge of nature. They are a gateway to our past relationship with the natural world.
In our early languages, specially crafted to tell our original Story, we can begin to see with clearer eyes what future was contained in the promise of our ancient past. As our Maori cousins like to tell us in Aotearoa, we can face backwards into our future.
Our ancestors faced extreme duress and hardship, surviving catastrophic, societal-transforming events. In the resettlement periods that inevitably followed such immense upheavals, there were serious attempts to re-purpose truth: to erase and to ‘re-name’, in Amitav Ghosh’s words.
In such fraught transformations we lost narratives envisioning Nature as our Companion, our Container. We have had to become accustomed to others depicting Nature at best as disembodied, and at worst as threatening and malign.
Thankfully, the survival and revival of our native languages restore us to Meaning. Our vision of ourselves can be restored alongside the restoration of language making naturo-centric sense. The restoration of our native languages is our journey back. With it comes the loosening of power to visions of ourselves contained by the trauma we have suffered.
Imagining and articulating our prior relationship with land, waters, air, fire and all the Dúile in our ecosystem will ignite the very qualities in our Being that resonate with our original Story.
Where we lack the experience of intimate relationship with Dúile, we must learn to trust our imagination to be our guide. We can ask it to be as real as our senses and to be our lifeline leading us back. To guide us through loss and erasure. To guide us through un-naming and re-naming. To guide us through collective uncertainty.
In this way the imagination can help rekindle the essence of who we collectively are.
The embodied resonance we experience when in Nature is the greatest gift of inheritance, one that sets us free from the invisible chains of both coloniser and colonised.
So, like our Maori cousins and many indigenous people world-wide, yes, we once were Warriors. In truth, as we can imagine, we once were many People.
Now, like our Sisters and Brothers, the Dúile of the Natural World we occupy, who unfold again to rise and brighten when the time is right, we are attentively waiting.
*Laochra Ag Fancacht is a new Indigenous Ireland Publication being serialised on Instagram, Facebook and Substance over Mí an Bealtaine- the month of May 2025
This is the 1st post in a series of 26 each illustrated by an Irish artist or an artist living or connected to Ireland with a unique response to the text written as Bearla/ in English by Lorcan MacGiolla Bhrighde and translated go Gaeilge/ into Irish by Aobh MacGairbhea
Artist Brendan Farren
Title Oak YinYang