editor’s note - issue n°3
The canelo, o foike in Mapudungun, is a sacred tree back home. Known for its healing powers and spiritual importance, it is said that under a canelo only truth will be spoken. On our last page, we pay homage to our Palestinian friends with a photo of an olive tree, symbol of their resistance, resilience and the land that they will return to. Our truths, knowledges, experiences and resistance are expressed in the coming pages, as always without pretence or artifice. We welcome you, dear reader, to Issue n°3 of kindling & sage magazine.
The theme of this issue is joy, focusing on stories of food, love and community. When I started kindling & sage, fires were raging across the continent. By the time we published our first issue, the pandemic had spread across the world. Issue n°2 came out in the middle of intense and prolonged lockdowns. It felt necessary to remind ourselves of the joys that can still be found and created, because how can we keep resisting and working towards a better, more just future, if we can’t remember what we’re fighting to preserve?
Joy is generous, and allows for many other feelings and emotions to join her. In this issue, joy is accompanied by nostalgia and longing (by saudade), by hope, pride in sovereignty, even by righteous anger. It is found, in lingering moments and memories, and created, in self-care, in community care, in the connections we form and hold dear, with our family and our culture, our community, in the spaces where we are our true selves. For many of us, it is also found in cherished moments with our elders. The act of honouring their teachings and love, their strength and fight, is also a source of joy.
Solidarity fuels joy too. Recognising that our liberations are interwoven, that we are stronger together. Without a doubt, across these pages are many different realities, backgrounds and experiences. What brings us together is solidarity, as a deliberate and ongoing choice to work alongside each other, to genuinely support one another in our efforts to build a new reality. Our magazine is not just a celebration of our differences, we’re not here just to applaud and encourage, we’re not sharing empty, cliched words. As bell hooks has said, we affirm our differences to shape how we live in the world. And it’s a political choice, as most things are.
In the pages that follow, it is my truest hope that you will see yourself reflected, reminded of your own moments of connection and joy, that you find solace in these printed words and feel a little less alone, part of a community of shared values and aspirations. May solidarity imbue our hearts and guide our paths.
With love,
natalia
