AfrikaBurn continues to deliver jaw-dropping life-altering moments for me, whether it’s at Stonehenge Private Reserve during the Burn, road tripping Blank Canvas Express or visiting the new land. The Burn reflects and magnifies where you need to be if you are present and ready for its lessons.
I still do not know why I am invited into these privileged events for I am no-one, and so, when the email arrived with the invitation to join these awesome crazy peeps to meet the land, my bag was packed already before I even replied, “Yes!!!”
I find myself split between being embedded with the very awesome DPW crew, the backbone of the Burn, and the Khoe shamans who have come to speak to and heal the waters and the land that is now the new home to AfrikaBurn. This is now my new life – being drawn between two worlds of the applied and metaphysical, the western and the indigenous, and I dance the line in between.
In just a few days on the new land I had the following magnificent experiences with the Burn crew:
Khoe Land and Water Ceremonies: To heal the land, remind water how to flow again, bring the rain and ease the drought in the dry river beds and wells.
Grieving Ceremony: Tears need to be spilled for the water to flow…
Embedded with DPW: The backbone of AfrikaBurn, without these egalitarian geniuses who can fix just about anything, they are also the muscle that drives the rebar into the rock hard ground.
Gender Bias: Any last bits of gender bias I had was dealt a death blow by a 10-pound hammer.
Conscious Cooking: The Kitchen is the heart of all things and the tasty food was made with much love.
Conscious Thinking: The mere fact that the Burners are of such consciousness that they know the land and the water that runs beneath the land needs not only healing but reminding.
The following story played out after the Khoe Land and Water ceremonies at the bottom well. As we made our way back on foot, we passed ancient middens on the old “Trek Routes” left by the First Peoples.
I am honoured to have walked in “lyn”…
I find myself in the most extraordinary situations, crossroads of humanity, that are so remarkable it takes my breath away, leaves me speechless and my western mind confused.
I find myself in the hell-hot dry Tankwa, on one of the ancient trek routes used by the First Peoples for millennia, and now once again those ancient routes to waterholes are walked by the great-great-grandchildren of those who walk before.
There is something to be said about walking in “lyn”…where the individual becomes the whole, where the strongest carries the weakest, as one. Like migrating birds there is no one leader, everyone carries each other guided by some invisible force to the destination far away.
We suddenly stop, in the middle of nowhere, but somewhere. No words talked, as they look to the ground, look up at each other, knowledge is passed, smiles spread across their faces as they look into the distance, a downdraft of hot wind buffets us and, as if by some magic cue, they turn and walk.
I am left standing, wondering at what ancient knowledge and knowing was passed between them? I feel so primitive with my western mindset seeing, and not seeing, as I try make “sense” of what just passed. I scurry after the “lyn”, barefoot, and all across the hell hot ancient Tankwa playing catch-up to ancient knowledge and wisdom we have forgotten.
Once again, thank you, to the AfrikaBurn crew for this incredible experience and facilitating my growth. Thanks to those kind awesome welcoming souls like beautiful Monique Schiess, Loraine Tanner, Robert Weinek, who for some reason allow me into this shared experience.
Thank you too for leading us on this journey: Khieri Khoe (from Cape Town), Gillian Wilton (from Cape Town), Ferdill Vilander (Wos), /Namtakhob Neal (Outinikwe), !Xam (Houtbay), Klintin Vuurklip (Outinikwe).
Gangans Kia aios
Words and pictures by Kevin Rack
