by Diane Roberts
Founding Artistic Director
Whose idea was this anyway?
Here I am standing at a crossroads about to take a step into the unknown. One foot after the other. I hesitate, leaning back and stretching forward on this precipice called art—no, life—no…art! Sometimes the lines blur especially in the work of Arrivals.
Having recently moved through two important rites of passage—a decade older and grieving the unimaginable yet inevitable loss of my mother—the first leg of my Sacred Wandering journey takes on a whole new meaning.
The notion of sacred wandering is anchored in the writings and philosophy of French Caribbean poet and thinker Edouard Glissant whose concept of errantry (loosely translated as wandering for a sacred purpose) captured my imagination. So, after 20 years of leading Arrivals journeys for others, I embark on my own sojourn to unravel not only the legacies that made me who I am, but also the origins of this work; re-rooted, like the mangroves, in my Afro-Indigenous Caribbean heritage.
I am reminded of one of the founding principles of Arrivals: the seeking is more important than the finding.
On my sojourn, I wander to catch story seeds while retracing my connection to my Garifuna lineage. This is an embodied process of being, living, learning, and making in relationship with the Garifuna community members living on the edges of the Caribbean sea and the Atlantic Ocean.
This seed gathering process allows me to fill my ceremonial garden with images, reflective writing, sounds, songs, oral histories, and other materials. I travel ancestral pathways tracing recorded histories and inviting oral and memory sources from the sea and the land.
So where am I now? In gratitude. First, for the privilege to process my grief through creative means; second for the extraordinary circle of collaborators, supporters, and cherished colleagues who are on this journey with me.
The Arrivals journey is about seeking our Ancestor’s stories through the process of re-rooting/routing memories stored within our own bodies. This is done in a spirit of reciprocity, curiosity, patience, and generosity. We create the conditions to draw these stories out, awakening a deep inner witness that allows us to face difficult or challenging histories. I invite you into our witness circle as we share the intersections and divergences in our upcoming webinar series.
You can also follow my sojourn in the Sacred Wanderings Project and experience other artists’ work in our SeedPool Gallery.
Peruse some of Diane’s photos from her sojourn in Belize:
