Iymex, yqwlha, Y: Wqwlha, Language as Musical Space An Aesthetic Approach to Research
Introduction
Language represents the most creative, pervasive aspects of culture, the most intimate side of the human mind. The loss of language diversity will mean that we will never even have the opportunity to appreciate the full creative capacities of the human mind (Mithun, 1998, p. 189).
Language is the most massive and inclusive art we know, a mountainous and anonymous work of unconscious generations (Edward Sapir (1921, p. 220 quoted in Crystal, 2000, p. 40)
Mithun (1998) and Sapir (1921) refer to language as one of the greatest expressions of human creativity, an art. Halqemylem represents St:lo peoples linguistic representation of creation, an art that expresses the deep interconnectedness between the St:lo and their Riverworld. Halqemylem binds the people and Riverworld into an indistinguishable whole, into a Riverworld aesthetic. What does this Riverworld aesthetic mean in St:lo peoples lives today?
We are the Upriver Halqemylem people. Our language is one of three dialects of Halkomelem, a member of the Salishan language family. The Upriver dialect is spoken from as far as Yale down to Matsqui in the lower Fraser Valley of southwestern British Columbia. The Downriver dialect is spoken in the Vancouver Metropolitan area, and the Island dialect is spoken on southeastern Vancouver Island. Halqemylem is used when referring to the language from the Upriver perspective (See figure 1). The following map shows the communities within the traditional Halqemylem speaking area.
Figure 1. Halkomelem Territory (Gerdts and Compton www.sfu.ca/halk-ethnobiology)
Figure 2. Upriver Halkomelem Territory (Halqemylem) (Gerdts and Compton www.sfu.ca/halk-ethnobiology.) Index: 1 Chawathil, 2 Skawahlook, 3 Ohamil, 4 Peters, 5 Seabird Island, 6, Popkum, 7 Cheam,8 Skway, 9 Squiala, 10 Skwah, 11 Aitchelitz, 12 Kwawkwawapilt, 13 Yakweakwioose, 14 Skowkale, 15 Tzeachten, 16 Soowahlie.
This article explores aesthetics as an approach, or method, of research. I draw on Kennys (1989) concepts of "humans as aesthetic" to establish the nature of the relationship one can establish between researcher and research participants. In 1983, Native scholar, Kenny, began to envision her practice in aesthetic terms. She perceived an improvisational music therapy context as a reflection of a deep value comparable to the Indigenous value of relationship with Mother Earth. She designed a theoretical model, the "field of play," imagining the human person in ecological terms, as a field, a bioregion with all its interactive components of condition as in any Earth space.
Similar to my own notion of Halqemylem language as art, Kenny described music as the expression that was key in sustaining our connection to the land, in music therapy, or any experience potentially reflective of this dynamic aesthetic link between the Earth and the human person. In her theory, Earth places and the human being are both forms of beauty aesthetics.
In this paper, I use Kennys theoretical principle, the assumption made that "as one moves toward beauty, one moves toward wholeness, or fullest potential of what one can be in the world." This befits my research on language revitalization. I use the example of research I conducted on what Halqemylem means in the lives of people who are working to revive their language to bring wholeness to their lives (Gardner, 2008).[1] I explore my own understanding of aesthetics from a St:lo perspective, where I arrive at a definition of aesthetic as an "intuitive synchronicity," meaning that a thing of beauty creates an awareness of resonating with wholeness. An aesthetic attitude of empathy and respect describes the kind of relationship that I established with my research participants, or co-researchers, in my interactions with them, and how I presented what they shared in my research report. My methodology was highly influenced by the work of Lawrence-Lightfoot and Davis method called The Art and Science of Portraiture (1997), which seeks to blend art and science to capture the richness, complexity and dimensionality of human experience (p. xv). In particular, I was drawn by portraitures focus on a narrative style and its intention to make the research accessible to a wider audience (p. 10). In portraiture, empathy and reciprocity with the co-researchers is central to representing their lives as authentic and legitimate to the participants themselves (pp. 148-149), and portraiture data is presented in a way in which the participants can proclaim, "This is who we are. This is what we believe. This is how we see ourselves. (p. 193)" In my research, I used creative expression, such as "poetic monologues[2]" which served to keep the co-researchers close to their shared experiences. In this way, I aimed to involve the reader in a dynamic of "play" to convey coherence in the interconnectedness of our St:lo worldview, or Riverworldview, of theoretical aspects of Indigenous discourse, academic and theoretical knowledge, and the expression of my research by means of an aesthetic research methodology.
"Its Really Beautiful"
"yqwlha" is the St:lo Halqemylem interjection for "Beautiful." Another word is "Iymex," which means "beautiful" or "good looking." "Y:wqwlha" is the Halqemylem word for "How Beautiful!" or "Be Really Beautiful!" Good is inherent in the word yqwlha, where "y" is the word for "Good." "Y:w" is the root for Y:wqwlha. -qwlha is a suffix meaning (emphatic admiration), wonderfully, how (emphatically), really! Y:w is an interjection (like all the words formed here with qwlha) and is used when praising something beautiful. Iyomex is the ordinary adjectival verb for "good-looking," "beautiful," "handsome," from y or iy for "good" and omex for appearance (Galloway, 2002, p. c) [3]. When I examine our Halqemylem word for "Beautiful" in this way, I am inclined to agree with Wittgensteins idea that the structure of the world is mirrored in the logical structure of language. Wittgenstein opposed philosophers who he believed were trying to create a new ideal language to explain the world and reality, and rather felt that ordinary language was adequate for this purpose (Hunnings, 1988, p. 1). Wittgensteins idea for the work of philosophers was to clarify our use of language,
The task of philosophy is not to create a new ideal language, but to clarify the use of our language, the existing language. Its aim is to remove particular misunderstandings, not to produce a real understanding for the first time.(Hunnings, 1988, p. 211)
Wittgenstein reflects my own skepticism of what philosophers try to do in their quest for rendering intelligible the nature of what is real. However, my own skepticism stems from my belief in what the elders mean when they say, "Our cultures and our worldviews are embedded in our Aboriginal languages." What I call my "healthy skepticism" of philosophy is a skepticism of Western philosophy which does not represent St:lo Halqemylem language, and therefore, cannot easily represent St:lo Halqemylem thought. However, we need not throw out the baby with the bath water, so to speak - because we all love the baby. We can use the tools of Western Philosophy to see our Aboriginal world in a new way, to accentuate and reveal our own distinctive worldview. Phenomenological inquiry, for example, focuses on personal experience as one of its primary goals to understand rather than explain the real world, to understand human experience as it is experienced (Bentz & Shapiro, 1998, pp. 96-104). In this light, I will examine how Western Philosophy can help us understand world(s) of "beauty" or "aesthetics" through the Aboriginal scholarship of Carolyn Kenny. I will present an exploratory piece synthesizing my understanding of aesthetics, and show how I developed an aesthetic approach for conducting my research on how the Halqemylem aesthetic manifests in peoples lives today.
Kennys Aesthetics
Carolyn Kenny (1989) outlines the philosophical views that form the foundation for building her concept of "aesthetics," and this is where I begin to develop my own deeper understanding of the term. Kenny builds her concept of "aesthetics" on the works of Polanyi, Kuhn, and Eisner, and on Phenomenological Inquiry, Hermeneutics, Heuristic Inquiry, Systems, and Fields. In particular, Kenny resonates with the Navajo worldview of hzho, or beauty as a way of life. Indeed, her exploration of a field theory was inspired by the following Navajo prayer.
With beauty before me, I walk
With beauty behind me, I walk
With beauty above me, I walk
With beauty below me, I walk
From the East beauty has been restored
From the South beauty has been restored
From the West beauty has been restored
From the North beauty has been restored
From the zenith in the sky beauty has been restored
From the nadir of the earth beauty has been restored
From all around me beauty has been restored (Witherspoon, p. 153-4)
This important prayer, used so often in Navajo ceremony helped Kenny to imagine the human person as a field or environment as an "aesthetic," a form of beauty. Witherspoon (1977) elaborates the core of the Navajo worldview in his work, Language and Art in the Navajo Universe. The value for living in beauty is described at length. In this important work, as Mithun and Sapir, Witherspoon (1977) situates language within the context of art, and therefore germane in the aesthetic discourse.
From Polanyi, Kenny draws the idea that "we do not have knowledge outside of our experience," and from Kuhns development of the concept of community intuition which reveals itself in similarities of thought (Kenny, 1989, p. 48). From these ideas I glean that my own personal experience can be understood within the context of a community, such as St:lo and other Indigenous communities. Eisner, Kenny states, claimed that an artistic approach is associated with the discovery of meaning, while science is associated with the search for truth. Eisner stresses that it is important to create images people will find meaningful "from which their fallible and tentative views of the world can be altered, rejected or made more secure" (Kenny, 1989, p. 49). The artist creates images subjectively, and presents it as an object to the audience as a reference. In this way, the sensibilities of artist and scientist are utilized, concerning both truth and meaning, objectivity and subjectivity.
Phenomenological inquiry suits artistic research in the creation of images because it is concerned with direct experiences of a phenomenon (Kenny, 1989, p. 50). In this light, Existential Phenomenologists define a link between sensation, or direct experience, and perception. Sensation is direct experience because of its relation to physicality, and translates into mental constructs such as perceptions, thought forms, and feelings. Sensations connect mind and body (p. 53), and when this happens we become conscious of the world, of things of beauty. Kenny defines consciousness as the space between self and the world, and sees this dynamic as the gateway to change in human development and healing (p. 55). The heart of the phenomenological method is in the examination of examples, pictures or images of a phenomenon to determine its essential elements (p. 58), in as much as they "bring to the light of day" the phenomenon being examined.
While phenomenology seeks the essences of a phenomenon, hermeneutics poses a science of interpretation, with the assumption that one cannot understand a phenomenon or an act without understanding the context in which it occurs, including historical and cultural considerations (Kenny, p. 59-60).
Heuristics is a search for the discovery of meaning and essence in significant human experience with a belief that self-experience is the most important guideline in the pursuit of knowledge. One only knows what one has experienced in the self. The researchers perch is of special significance in this line of methodological thinking. Any research project can be considered a design of the researchers world-view, or some aspect of that view, because one can only create out of what one knows to be true and meaningful in the self, then in relation to the world (Kenny, p. 60-61). Heuristics encourages the researcher to go wide open and to pursue an original path that has its origins within the self and that discovers its direction and meaning within the self. It guides human beings in the process of asking questions about phenomena that disturb and challenge their own existence (p. 62).
Systems thinkers accept wholeheartedly the challenge to view the universe not as a collection of physical objects but rather as a complicated web of relations between the various parts of a unified whole (Kenny, p. 62-63). Kenny cites Eliade who articulated the link between phenomenology and systems in that one is constantly asking oneself about the essence of a set of phenomena and about the primordial order that is the basis of their meaning. In response to Eliades primordial order, Arguelles contended that we have lost the sense of the natural order through a state of holonomic amnesia, amnesia of the order that existed before technological advance. He stated that we can recover our sense of the natural order by allowing our consciousness to travel through aboriginal continuity, an intuitive level of awareness which retains the sense and structure of the primordial order. Arguelles saw art as representing the mode of aboriginal continuity and attached great importance to the activities of art and creative process in order to do away with holonomic amnesia. Arguelles saw aboriginal continuity as a critical complement to the civilization advance, which reflects our logical and technological knowings (pp. 64-65).
Field thinkers, Kenny states, carry the imprint of the holonomic design from the general systems tradition. However, their discrete characteristics have to do with their tendency to view boundaries as unnatural, and as mere assumptions created for the convenience of understanding and articulation. Because the field is considered infinite in many ways, field theorists believe that only aspects of it can be described and their influence articulated at any point in time and space. Field thinking represents the position of maximum interdependence among elements. The field is always an environment in which any point can represent the whole through the vision of an organic creative process. Field theory is expressed in formative terms, that is, in terms of patterns, relations, ratios as opposed to numbers, and processes as opposed to objects affecting each other (pp. 65-66).
Humans as Fields.
The concept of "the field" allows focus and appreciation of that which is in the field, including the conditions and relationships among the participants contained within this space. Kenny states, "We are prisoners of our conditions - limited and bound. Yet conditions are also paradoxically what allow us to grow, expand and change." (Kenny, 1989, p. 73) She then frames the human person - the researcher or co-researcher, in my application of this concept, as a field full of conditions, - an environment - "similar to the alpine meadow, the swamp, the prairie, and full of beauty, surrounded by beauty." Finally, co-researcher, being a field of beauty, is whole and complete, unique, an aesthetic (p. 73).
Fields of Beauty: Humans as Aesthetic
Kennys Definition:
The aesthetic is a field of beauty which is the human person. This field contains all non-verbal cues, which are communicated by the individual in being and acting and are perceived through the intuitive function. The aesthetic is an environment in which the conditions include the individuals human tendencies, values, attitudes, life experience and all factors which unite to create the whole and complete form of beauty, which is the person. (Kenny, 1989, p. 75)
Kenny further elaborates her definition of aesthetics, which applies to the researcher/co-researcher context of my method of research based on an aesthetic process.
Principles of Aesthetic
- An aesthetic represents that which one carries and communicates into the world based on the screening system of choices and judgments regarding that which one considers to be "beautiful." (Assumption: As one moves toward beauty, one moves toward wholeness, or the fullest potential of what one can be in the world.)
- An aesthetic represents the conditions one establishes by "being one who is" in relation to self and others.
- ...[the researcher] invites ... [the co-researcher] into her field to engage in actions designed by the [researcher]. Since expression is the creative force, the action actualizes the aesthetic. (Kenny, 1989, pp. 77-78)
The music therapist uses musical space as the medium for formative creative expression which is shared between therapist and client. My and my co-researchers love for our Halqemylem language and discussions of our efforts to revive it serve as our musical space. Our interview sessions on this topic are our actions toward creating a deep understanding of our process of language revival, and what it means in the contexts of our everyday lives.
Kennys philosophical foundation for the development of her theory of aesthetics begins with Phenomenology, which is the study of the essences of a thing, and then to hermeneutics, the interpretation of a thing, which considers contexts such as history and culture. Heuristics emphasizes the importance of the researchers own experience in understanding challenging human phenomena. Systems theory takes us beyond the thing itself and has us consider its relations within an integrated whole. Here we are introduced to the idea of an intuitive level of awareness of a primordial order. Finally, fields theory represents the position of maximum interdependence among elements, with conditions. The following is a synopsis which illustrates how Kennys Theory of Aesthetics develops from the philosophical foundations she uses to build it.
| Navajo worldview | walking in beauty |
| Phenomenology | study of a thing, its essences |
| Hermeneutics | an interpretation of a thing in time and in culture |
| Heuristics | an individuals role in understanding human experience |
| Systems | a thing as part of an integrated whole, intuition implied |
| Field | maximum interdependence among elements, conditions |
| Aesthetic | field of beauty, (w)holistic form of energy (i.e., a human) |
St:lo is the Halqemeylem word for "river," the source from which our Riverworldview is derived incorporating Slh Tmxw (land), Halqemylem (language), Sxwoxwiym (story, or cosmology) and Xwlmexw (St:lo people) into an aesthetic whole. The following excerpt is an exploratory piece, or heuristic, derived from my personal and direct experiences with ideas of beauty and from this St:lo persons perspective having read and assimilated Kennys and others ideas of aesthetics.
Personal Reflections on Aesthetic
I assume myself to be St:lo. When I know who I am as a St:lo person, I feel like a whole person. When I assume myself to be a whole person, I am healthy, vibrant, I know who I am, and can reflect a vibrant, healthy self-knowledge back to the world.
If I see the world, and I do not see myself reflected there, and I do not know what my reflection should look like, my image is fractured. I need the tools to become enabled to see myself whole.
Is there nothing more beautiful than a new born baby, fresh and innocent? When I see a thing of beauty, my emotions are stirred. There is a recognition, an insight, a re-patterning, a perfect fit. What is it about a new born baby that stirs the emotions so? Baby soft, cuddly, cute, warm, needy. Does the baby remind us of ourselves, a wish for a fresh start, a clean slate, hope for the future? Survival of the human race? Newness? Freshness? taking me beyond my self?
The wonder of snowflakes, each one of billions different, yet made of the same stuff, intrigues us, delights us, reflecting our own uniqueness. Taste a snowflake on the tip of your tongue, now water, cool, tickling.
A whole person is coherent, can see beauty reflected in wholeness, can see resonance of self. What are things of beauty? Traffic that runs like clockwork, a balanced pattern, surprise. Words that relate to beauty. "new, fresh, surprise, clean, resonate, crisp."
Beauty touches you deep down inside of you, resonates with the you that is whole. The more you feel whole, the more you recognize the beauty that resonates with you.
Rhythmic Cycles
Natures Cycles
The ultimate form of beauty is non-judgmentalness. Judgment confines, non-judgmentalness frees. That is, to say that openness allows room for more, boundaries limit.
I assume myself to be St:lo. I resonate my St:lo-ness, I resonate with what is St:lo . If I do not have a strong sense of who I am, I cannot function as a whole human being.
When I hear my language, I feel emotional. When I see a St:lo elder speak Halqemylem, my emotions well up inside. Its the coming to be whole, a recognition, a resonance of something deep inside that wants to take form, to understand itself.
Form, Understanding
Yes, tears well up in my eyes at the wonder of becoming what I always knew I was. Its in my blood, its in the land, its in the naming, naming me.
So they could keep on giving... X:ls turned a generous person into a Cedar Tree. The beauty of the concept of a Cedar Tree is in the relationship the St:lo established with it for mutual benefit, a reciprocal relationship. Our relationship is based on respect, reverence and responsibility. For we receive wealth, beauty and protection from the Cedar, i.e.
Brushing with Cedar Washing with Cedar Cedar bough floors Blankets Cedar Baskets Planks Red Yellow Hats Dresses Skirts Capes Bracelets Headbands Rope Bark Aroma Canoe Chips
My Definition of Aesthetic: Something beautiful that makes me laugh or smile, something that is witty, clever, whimsical, spiritual. It is that space, or field which connects the patterns, a recognition of the connections, an intuitive synchronicity.
In a molecule of water, it is not so much the fact that there are two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom that make them interesting, but that when they connect, they become something else - a molecule of water. If you throw in another element, i.e. motion, something new and interesting happens. If moving fast, they become gas, if moving slowly they become hard ice. Many molecules of water moving together is a River, or St:lo. It is the patterns, or relationships, that make the matter interesting. It is the unique patterns, or relationships we encounter that touch our spirit, that is spirit, or is smestyexw.
Smestyexw is a Halqemylem word which means "vitality and thought" together, a quality shared among humans, animals and inanimate things. A world in which vitality and thought are shared requires a protocol of relationship that is based on respect. Matter is physical. Relationship is spiritual, and recalls the teachings of X:ls who was sent to the world "to put things right." Sometimes, it seems, that when we recognize the aesthetic in something, our only way of understanding the phenomenon is that it "feels right," resonates, fits.
And so it is, an artistic approach to research allows the broadest of possibilities to emerge in moving toward wholeness, toward creating meaning in ones understanding of a phenomenon, a process, a field.
Metaphor: The Artistry of Lived Experience
A few of the ideas outlined have been tentative, i.e. Why are images useful in moving toward wholeness, understanding? What is an intuitive level of awareness? What does Polanyis statement mean when he says, "we do not have knowledge outside of our experience?" Why is an empathetic, or respectful, regard in research so important rather than a detached objective view? Lakoff and Johnson (1999) provide ground-breaking insights into these kinds of questions. They outline three major findings of cognitive science which challenge Western philosophical views of how we think about the world and about reality:
- The mind is inherently embodied.
- Thought is mostly unconscious.
- Abstract concepts are largely metaphorical.
An embodied mind means that reason is shaped by the peculiarities of our human bodies, by the remarkable details of the neural structure of our brains, and by the specifics of our everyday functioning in the world (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 4). Unconscious thought, or "cognitive unconscious," constitutes our unreflective common sense, and shapes how we automatically and unconsciously comprehend abstract concepts and other aspects of our experience (p. 12-13). Abstract concepts such as love, causation and morality are conceptualized using multiple complex metaphors. Each complex metaphor is built up out of primary metaphors.
Lakoff & Johnsons (1999) development of A Philosophy in the Flesh takes Polanyis statement that "we do not have knowledge outside of our experience," and locates our knowing directly in our bodies, and not in some abstract "self" which only has its home in the body. Philosophy in the flesh would say that we do not have knowledge outside our bodies, and that knowledge is created with our bodies as a reference from which primary metaphor is developed. Primary metaphors neurally connect domains of sensorimotor and subjective experience. We acquire primary metaphors automatically and unconsciously through the normal process of neural learning from our earliest years by functioning in the most ordinary ways in our everyday lives(p. 47). The following example shows how metaphor allows sensory domain imagery to be used for domains of subjective experience.
Sensorimotor experience - something going by or over our heads
Subjective experience - failure to understand
Here, we can gain a vivid understanding of "failing to understand" using the image of a gesture tracing the path of "something going past us or over our heads." (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 45) At any point in time, we can draw on a totality of numerous primary metaphors which provide our subjective experience with extremely rich inferential structure, imagery, and qualitative "feel."(p. 59) Our intuitive level of awareness, then, is drawn from the sum total of our automatic and implicit knowledge which is referred to here as the "cognitive unconscious."
Complex metaphors are built up from primary metaphors and into multiple complex metaphors. For example, if the metaphorical ways of conceptualizing love were taken away, not a whole lot would be left. How would we understand love without the metaphors of "physical force, i.e., attraction, electrical magnetism; and without union, madness, illness, magic, nurturance, journeys, closeness, heat, or giving of oneself?" (Lakoff & Johnson, 1999, p. 72) When we reason and talk about love, we import inferential structure and language from other conceptual domains. The cognitive mechanism we use is cross-domain conceptual mapping.(p. 71) Using primary, complex and multiple complex metaphors allows us to use a wide breadth of cross-domain conceptual mappings to create deeper understandings of the meaning of our bodily based and subjective experiences. Imaginative processes, then, of metaphor, imagery, metonymy, prototypes, frames, mental spaces, and radial categories are central to conceptualization and reason (p. 77), and allows our conceptual system to expand into new revelatory understandings (p. 565). Kenny (1999) sums up the value of metaphor beautifully as follows:
Metaphor can bring something hidden to life because it can embody some aspect of our experience which is difficult to name or describe on its own terms. With metaphor, we hope for a referential totality. The metaphor may not be a total representation. However, it has a "sense" of the totality of our expression.
This conceptualization of the use of metaphor from both Kenny(1999) and Lakoff & Johnson (1999) validates the use of an artistic approach to understanding the meaning of a phenomenon such as that of research into what Halqemylem revitalization means to St:lo people in a contemporary context. Metaphor, or cross-domain conceptual mapping, expressed in the words (worlds) of the co-researchers shared experiences can bring to light new revelatory understanding of the phenomenon being exploring together.
Aesthetic Attitude and Indigenous Codes of Conduct
"An embodied spirituality," say Lakoff and Johnson (1999), "requires an aesthetic attitude to the world..." This statement leads me into a new discussion on what is an "aesthetic attitude?" Or, how do we perceive an object aesthetically? How does an aesthetic attitude reflect a protocol of respect and harmony? According to Jerome Stolnitz (1998), our attitudes determine how we perceive the world, are ways of directing and controlling our perception, and prepare us to respond to what we perceive (Stoltnitz, 1998). He suggests a definition of aesthetic attitude, as "disinterested and sympathetic attention to and contemplation of any object of awareness whatever, for its own sake alone." He further unpacks this definition by defining its key concepts as follows:
Disinterested - "the aesthetic attitude isolates the object and focuses upon it - the look of the rocks, the sound of the ocean, the colours in the painting. Hence the object is not seen in a fragmentary or passing manner. Its whole nature and character are dwelt upon. (Stoltnitz, 1998, p. 80) [4]
Sympathetic - the way in which we prepare ourselves to respond to the object. When we apprehend an object aesthetically, we do so in order to relish its individual quality, whether the object be charming, stirring, vivid, or all of the above. If we are to appreciate it, we must accept the object "on its own terms." To be "sympathetic" in aesthetic experience means to give the object the "chance" to show how it can be interesting to perception (Stoltnitz, 1998, pp. 80-81) [5].
We come now to the word attention in our definition of "aesthetic attitude." In taking the aesthetic attitude, we want to make the value of the object come fully alive in our experience. Therefore, we focus our attention upon the object and "key up" our capacities of imagination and emotion to respond to it. To whatever extent it does so, experience is aesthetic only when an object "holds" our attention. Aesthetic attention is accompanied by activity, i.e., tapping ones foot to rhythmic sound, walking around a sculpture to view all sides. To savour fully the distinctive value of the object, we must be attentive to its complex and subtle details. As we develop discriminating attention the work comes alive to us (Stoltnitz, 1998, p. 82) [6].
Contemplation sums up the definition. It means perception is directed to the object in its own right and that the spectator is not concerned to analyze it or ask questions about it. Also, the word connotes thoroughgoing absorption and interest, as when we speak of being, "lost in contemplation." The object of aesthetic perception stands out from its environment and rivets our interest. The aesthetic attitude can be adopted toward "any object of awareness whatever" (Stoltnitz, 1998, p. 83) [7]
Lakoff and Johnson (1999) state that "Empathy the focused, imaginative experience of the other is the precondition for nurturant morality." Through empathic projection, we can understand how we are part of our environment and of how it is part of us. We participate in nature as part of nature herself, as part of a larger, all-encompassing whole through a mindful embodied spirituality, an ecological spirituality. Embodied spirituality, then, is an ethical relationship to the physical world (p. 566), where empathetic projection onto anything or anyone, according to Lakoff & Johnson (1999), is contact with God, and carries the responsibility to care for that with which we empathize (p. 577). How similar is this idea to an Aboriginal conception of our relationship as humans to our environment? Douglas Cardinal (1991) states,
Aboriginal cultures evolved into a way of being in touch with the earth, and experiencing the reality of being part of the earth. For this reason the cultures are based in harmony as a way of being. (p. 12)
An aesthetic attitude based on empathy and respect defines succinctly the kind of approach I assume with the co-researchers in researching what St:lo Halqemylem language revitalization means in the context of peoples lives. This approach is similar to other indigenous scholars ideas for conducting research based on indigenous principles. Linda Tuhiwai Smith (1999) discusses how codes of conduct for researchers are prescribed for Maori researchers reflected in the following Maori cultural terms:
- Aroha ki te tangata (a respect for people).
- Kanohi kitea (the seen face, that is present yourself to people face to face).
- Titiro whakarongo...korero (look, listen...speak).
- Manaaki ki te tangata (share and host people, be generous)
- Kia tupato (be cautious).
- Kaua e takahia te mana o te tangata (do not trample over the mana of people).
- Kaua e mahaki (dont flaunt your knowledge).
Smith (1999, pp. 119-120) states that from indigenous perspectives, ethical codes of conduct serve the same purpose as the protocols which govern our relationships with each other and with the environment, and that respect keeps balance in the world, and involves reciprocity and sharing in all our interactions. Similarly, Jo-ann Archibalds a theory of St:lo and Coast Salish storywork (2008), incorporates principles of respect, responsibility, reciprocity, reverence, wholism, inter-relatedness, and synergy, to get to the "core" of making meaning with and through stories. (p. 212)
Play: "The Intelligence of the Heart"
Kennys theoretical work emphasizes the "interplay" between aesthetic fields. This inter-play establishes the dynamic exchange reflected in the creative process. In order for our Halqemylem language to survive and thrive, there must be such an interplay, such a creative process. This field of play brings growth and change. The presentation of the co-researchers words, using a creative expression format, aims through its process of development, to provide a medium for involving the reader in a dynamic of "play." Gadamer (1998) characterizes the relationship between the perceiver and the work of art as one of "play." He maintains that the concept of play illustrates our experience of works of art because it overcomes the division between perceiver and object of perception and captures the way we become absorbed in art objects. Gadamer emphasizes the cognitive value of aesthetic experience, maintaining that art affords insight and knowledge of the world and of ourselves (p. 75-76). Play, he states, has its own essence, independent of the consciousness of those who play (p. 94), and he calls this change, in which human play comes to its true culmination in being art, transformation into structure. By this, Gadamer means that "In being presented in play, what is emerges. It produces and brings to light what is otherwise constantly hidden and withdrawn (p. 97)."
Kennys definition (1989) of "Creative process" culminates the development of her conceptualization of the field of play, characterizing it as a self-organizing system, moving toward wholeness:
Definition: The creative process is the interplay of forms, gestures and relationships, which as a whole constitute the context for a movement toward wholeness. It is an existential being and acting which is not product-oriented and which appreciates each emerging moment as the only moment in time, yet acknowledges the past with attention for possible future movement. It is informed by love, the intelligence of the heart, and thus the knowledge of the self-organizing system...(p. 89)
And so it is, with an aesthetic attitude that I enter into conversations with my co-researchers, assuming a protocol of empathy and respect, using ordinary everyday language to extract extraordinary meaning from how people function in the most ordinary ways in their everyday lives. In presenting the research, I craft the co-researchers interviews into a creative expression style, such as "poetic monologues," keeping the co-researchers close to the depictions of their experience, to reveal in their own right what it means in the context of their lives to be involved in Halqemylem language revitalization. The creative expression reflect Gadamers "transformation into structure" and Kennys "movement toward wholeness" and aims to engage the reader in a dynamic of play to bring to light a little understood phenomenon.
My approach as an Aboriginal scholar requires me to see the world through my St:lo eyes and to represent that worldview in my work. Using an aesthetic approach allows me the kind of freedom of expression I need to explore unique cross-domain conceptual mappings, or unique ways of understanding the world, which are specific to a St:lo worldview. One need only to examine the rich imaginative stories and legends of our people to see that the aesthetic approach I propose is culturally appropriate for creating understanding of a phenomenon or experience. My definition below of Aesthetic, I believe, reflects closely the nature of many St:lo stories and legends.
My Definition of Aesthetic: Something beautiful that makes me laugh or smile, something that is witty, clever, whimsical, spiritual. It is that space, or field which connects the patterns, a recognition of the connections, an intuitive synchronicity.
Finally, it is Santayanas definition of beauty in The Sense of Beauty Being the Outline of Aesthetic Theory (1955), which most closely reflects the Halqemylem word for beauty, "yqwlha."
Beauty is pleasure regarded as the quality of a thing... a positive value, that is intrinsic; it is a pleasure (pp. 31-32)
... the clearest manifestation of perfection, and the best evidence of its possibility... a pledge of the possible conformity between the soul and nature, and consequently a ground of faith in the supremacy of the good (p. 164).
Both the "good" and the "pleasure" elements are included in the word "yqwlha," which sums up in a great many ways what this whole discussion has been about. "Y:wqwlha," I say, "How beautiful!"
Notes
[1] This study investigated the phenomenon of how learning Halqemylem could provide a key to understanding St:lo identity and worldview. The co-researchers, nine remarkable people dedicated to reviving Halqemylem, illustrated through their stories how reviving our language could restore wholeness to the St:lo as a people and to the legacy of our entire Riverworldview.
[2] I include an example of my own "poetic monologue" (p. 8-11) under the topic Personal Reflections on Aesthetic to show how this process of connection is developed.
[3] Galloway explanations for Iymex, yqwlha and Y:wqwlha are from his Halqemylem Dictionary. He further explains that Y:w is related to y:wthet , the word for "bragging." thet is a suffix maning "do to oneself," thus y:wthet means "praise oneself bragging."
[4] The Halqemylem translation of disinterested as defined here would be Letselt qesu thyt te sqwlewel xwlm testmes. (Iiterally "(separate it)(and so)(fix it)(the)(thoughts/feelings)(toward)(the)(something).") (Galloway, 2002 p.c.)
[5] ystexw translates as "enjoy and appreciate something" and is the closest to the term sympathetic in the sense defined here (Galloway, 2002 p.c.)
[6] Thyt te sqwlewel means "concentrate, tix ones thoughts/feelings" and this is the same as focus ones attention." (Galloway, 2002 p.c.)
[7] A Halqemylem term for "contemplating" is the root tel- which means contemplate, study; tot:lt is the word that means studying, learning, thinking about something, training for something. (Galloway, 2002 p.c.)
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