1 Introduction
“We need acts of restoration not only for polluted waters and degraded lands, but also for our relationship with the world”
(Wall Kimmerer, 2020, p.195).
This work is an effort to respond to the call made by Potawatomi botanist and author, Robin Wall Kimmerer (2020). Here I explore how song composition and performance can become an act of restoration for our relationship with a damaged planet. At this stage, it's hard not to be familiarized with this damage. As I write these words, I sit and observe the wounds caused by ongoing crises. As stated by Greta Thunberg “genocides, ecocides, famines, wars, colonialism, rising inequalities and an escalating climate collapse are all interconnected crises that reinforce each other and lead to unimaginable suffering” (Thunberg, 2024, para. 4). This epoch of damage has been named as the Great Unraveling by Joanna Mayce and Chris Johnstone (2022), as well as by geologists and social scientists Anna Tsing et al. (2015) as the Anthropocene: “a geologic epoch in which humans have become the major force determining the continuing liv-ability of the earth. The word tells a big story: living arrangements that took millions of years to put into place are being undone in the blink of an eye. The hubris of conquerors and corporations makes it uncertain what we can bequeath to our next generations, human and not human.” (Anna Tsing et al., 2017 p.G1)
Angela Francisca Valenzuela Navarrete (Loica)
Global Music Programme, Sibelius Academy of the University of the Arts Helsinki
Work submitted for the fulfillment of the BA Degree
31.07.2025
This suffering is sometimes unbearable to witness, but then, when everything seems lost, a song comes back as a gentle reminder of humanity. I have the living memory as a teenager, singing in my high school choir at Pearson United World Colleges, Canada. We sang a song by Argentinean songwriter Leon Gieco (1978). The lyrics struck me forever:
“I can only ask God
that I am not indifferent
to the suffering of others,
that death does not find me
alone and empty
without having done enough.
I can only ask God,
that I am not indifferent to war
war is a big monster
that stomps on the innocence
of poor people.”
(Gieco, 1978, track 1)
This song invites the listener to stay in a path of empathy and not to be indifferent to the suffering of a damaged planet. I accepted this invitation, and since, I am constantly exploring life and songs as places to restore balance within and with the world. Fortunately, I am not alone, and there are millions of people and more-than-human beings mobilizing in their own ways for this same purpose. Macy and Johnstone (2022) call this movement the “The Great Turning” (Macy and Johnstone, 2022, p.26). Donna Haraway (2015) names it as a new epoch, the “Chthulucene” (Haraway, 2015, p.160). All of these are similar invitations to what Wall Kimmerer (2020) is asking for: acts of restoration for the renewal of the world. For Wall Kimmerer (2020) restoration is an antidote to despair, because it offers “concrete means by which humans can once again enter into a positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world.” (Wall Kimmerer, 2020, p.328) This is the type of restoration that I am interested in exploring through song composition and performance.
My artistic research, song composition process and final Global Music Bachelor performance were framed as an act of restoration. In my artistic process, I understood song composition and performance as a sonic space where poetry and music are woven together (from now on referred to as Song). This sonic space can become a pedagogical space where both the performer and listener access and learn about their emotions. During a Song, performers and listeners can connect with their sorrow, love, anger, curiosity and hope in the phase of a damaged planet. I will refer to the emotions that emerge during a Song as emotional geographies. I pay special attention to environmental or climate grief, defined by Leela Viswanathan (2021) as “the emotional response to the loss and anxiety associated with the overall effects of climate change” (Viswanathan, 2021, para. 4). As I will argue in the coming pages, providing a space for grief will be crucial for the restoration of our relationship with the world, and hence, the restoration of hope.
I draw inspiration from different authors to expand my understanding of hope. I was particularly influenced by the methodology Geographies of Hope in Praxis as described in the work of A. Hazelwood (2023). While inspired by A. Hazelwood’s work, I drift and present a musical and sonic approach to the understanding of Geographies of Hope. I focus on emotional geographies and how they can be affected by Songs. In this context, a Song must be grounded in the pain caused by a specific issue that affects a particular person, community or more-than-human being. I will discuss this later as “Sonic Geographies of Hope,” a compositional methodology of restoration where Song-composers-performers and audiences can engage in more hopeful ways of being and experiencing the world.