An Art Movement Built on Ancestral Wisdom | Jackie Lebo | TED

Where I come from, we greet people: How are you? How are the children? How are the cattle? Is it raining? So, how are you? How the cattle? Do you have moose? Meese? Mooses? No. OK. (Laughter) Is it raining? Though here, I think you should ask for sun. So yeah. So I went to Turkana in 2014 to make a film. Turkana is in the northernmost part of Kenya, and the people there have been marginalized for so long that they don't identify as Kenyans. Post-independence policies had focused all the resources of the new country in the agriculturally rich south. But now, with the discovery of oil, Kenya was laying claim to Turkana. Just one generation before, my family was compelled by the twin forces of modernity and colonialism to transition away from a life of nomadic pastoralism. My grandfather would still tell stories of wandering up and down the Rift Valley with their animals that seemed so far removed from the life we lived now. And he would be like, "This is you," pointing to pictures of Maasai people in full traditional regalia. And I was like, "No, no, those are the guys who live in 'National Geographic. '" (Laughter) So we went into the project believing that people wanted a fair share of the oil revenues, which they did. But they wanted so much more. They wanted water and security to continue with their pastoralist way of life, because it was part of their culture and identity. This forced us to think of new ways of being in the world that we hadn't previously considered. I'm going to talk about how our work in Turkana taught us to creatively collaborate, and then how that taught us to come together, share revenues and share our humanity. Turkana is organized in units called “Ere,” which have rights to particular grazing points and our watering lands. And this is more like a custodianship than an ownership, and it has led organizations on the ground to think of new sharing models that were based on the culture, rather than copy pasting from economies that had been doing this for longer. So instead of putting all the resources into our documentary, which could be made by literally three people, we decided to make something bigger that could bring in many more artists. So we brought together ten artists, five from Nairobi and five from Turkana, and embarked on a tour of the county. We went to the oil fields in the south and danced with an Edong’a group in Nakukulas. We went to Turkana Basin Institute and saw fossils that were millions of years old. We went to Central Island and visited tilapia, crocodile and flamingo lakes. We went swimming in Lake Turkana under a full moon that made the lake look like milk. We were assured that the crocodiles stayed on their side and the people stayed on their side. And anyway, there was the rule of ten. If ten of you were swimming, there was only a 10 percent chance you'd be eaten by a crocodile. (Laughter) We went to a cattle kraal near the River Turkwel and slept on hides on the ground. It suddenly made so much sense to me why we greet the way we do. How are you, how are the children, how are the cattle, is it raining? Those had been the essential elements of our lives for generations. Without cattle, we would not survive. Without the rain, the cattle descendants, who'd tell our stories when we were gone? I felt a deep connection with my grandfather. In fact, we all came out of that journey profoundly moved. Perhaps it was lying down on the sand and watching the flights to Europe and the Middle East pass overhead and thinking that this was the same path our human ancestors took tens of thousands of years ago to populate the Earth. Perhaps it was opening up yourself to the moment in the place where we first evolved connection, cooperation, compassion. The very things we define as humanity. So we started to make work from that basis. And our shared experiences plus the new discoveries made work that exceeded our individual capabilities. This is from our first project. It’s called “The Flyest Wedding in Africa,” and we imagined what the clothes would look like if we took from what we had seen

rather than, you know, white dresses and tuxes. And this is our second project, It’s called “Floating, Flying. ” We shot it in and around Lake Turkana, which is one of our biggest sources of inspiration. And we imagined a muse who was also a guardian of the lake. So what we learned is that through collaboration, we align with higher values. The false notion that we can harm others, or even our planet, without harming ourselves, cannot stand. True connectedness and participation in something greater than ourselves contribute immensely to happiness, self-worth, and reaffirm our humanity. This is our third photo series. It’s called “Oil + Milk” and we are the land of milk so we were imagining the effects that oil would have on our way of life. And this is our first foray into music. You can see Elizabeth and Eddie Gray right there, and we did this during the pandemic, so we were not expecting much, but it has turned out to be our most beloved and successful project to date. So with this work under our belt, we started to look for an agent so that we could showcase the work. And they were like, "Who's the artist? " And we were like, "All of us. " And they were like, "I can't sell that. " So we built our own platform, the Nomadic Arts Festival, to continue this work and to continue sharing with so many more artists and bringing in ancient and contemporary art forms. We will close today with two songs created for the inaugural edition of the festival. "Eloto" is a young woman's plea not to be married off to a man she doesn't love, and “Ateker” is a celebration of our home region. Thank you. (Applause and cheers) (Electric guitar music) (Singing) (Singing and music end) (Cheers and applause) (Electric guitar music) (Singing)

(Music ends) (Cheers) (Applause)