The desire for this retreat always comes from the same place: to offer a space for dialogue, nourishment, listening and healing for all those who suffer from the disappearance of their language. This is the 3rd retreat already! And this time it is my peasant roots from the province of Lleida, Catalonia that inspire the proposal.
One day, while I was reading the poem Terra Fèrtil by Marta Coll Autet (in Catalan), I discovered a very personal, metaphorical meaning of the verb “Assaonar”:
Assaonar
“nodrir la terra perquè hi creixin plantes”
(to fertilise the land so that plants can grow in it)
[Assaonar also means ‘to season’ (food) in Catalan]
It is in the fertile land of our culture where we can nourish ourselves as individuals.🌱 We are born into a culture: whether it is the Catalan, Aragonese, Friulian, Jerriais, Occitan, Breton, French, European or global culture... the tensions, pressures and trends of modernity can distance us from the sense of belonging naturally to a culture, and all cultures are born in a land. All cultures are indigenous to some land. All of you who read me know the dynamics of oppression and colonisation to which our lands have been subjected, which make it difficult to enjoy culture and identity in a natural way.
Marta Coll Autet made me remember my peasant roots (because of my family), she made an inner, latent connection with the land resurface in me.
I amMESMERISED by the verse:
“ l'amor només creix en aquelltros assaonat de terra fosca i fèrtil
on han passat coses ”
("love only grows in that seasoned piece of dark and fertile soil where things have happened")
I interpret "the dark and fertile soil"in my own way🔎: as the collective linguistic trauma transmitted to our generation, that of people who have been involved in one way or another in the political process of our nation, in the revitalisation of our culture, etc. It is taboo to talk about the emotions that arise linked to the minoritisation of our languages, the “dolor de llengua” - which I translated as language grief (a term originally from the book Dolor de llengua by Enric Larreula). A friend of mine calls it ‘mal de país’ ('nation grief' might work as translation). Recently I have heard of it with a slightly different concept: ‘identity schizophrenia’. If we talk about this topic, it's in the context of intimate conversations, and it is not being talked about in an open way in social networks or mass media. That is to say, it is completely invisible.
Language grieff, linguistic trauma, language sensitivity - are all variations of an indescribable unease, which is hard to say, hard to find, hard to put words to.
What if we assumed that this grief which the minoritisation/erasure of our language causes in us is the prerequisite for a deeper kind of love to sprout - to be born from the ashes of our rage, sadness or powerlessness?
The approach:
WHAT IS THE POINT of DOING therapeutic work to HEAL LANGUAGE GRIEF?
Enric Larreula, in his book Dolor de llengua (2002), explains that “dolor de llengua (henceforth translated as ‘language grief’) is experienced in silence. Despite being very common in our society, it has not been studied much: how does one suffer from a dying mother tongue and why does one suffer? There are several consequences that this supposed language grief, both from an emotional, somatic and social point of view, can produce in affected people”.
The emotions that are most common associated with language marginalisation, i.e. everything we feel when we perceive that our language is in the process of extinction, are sadness, frustration, anguish, anger, guilt, helplessness, resentment...
When we cannot / do not let ourselves feel and we repress an emotion, it does not go away, it grows. The BODY ACCUMULATES emotional memories of experiences that we have not resolved or integrated, reliving the past in the present, and this makes it difficult for us to live fully and peacefully.
The retreats I organise, for both speakers and activists of minoritised languages, are designed to create a safe space where people who suffer from this pain can acknowledge and share it. Through a holistic approach that combines body movement, expression and self-awareness techniques, participants can EXPLORE their emotions and beliefs in a non-judgmental space and CHANNEL THEM towards their well-being and personal development.
Romance language intercomprehension
The retreat will be facilitated in Catalan, but each person can speak their mother tongue or language of activism.
