Bead by Bead: Exploring Time

Bead by bead, linked together with thread, the picture emerges.  It is my exploration of cyclical time.   It feels like a kind of map to me.

After reading, Jagged Worldviews Colliding by Leroy Little Bear, I learned that the Eurocentric idea of linear time which goes from point A to point B, “manifests itself in terms of a social organization that is hierarchical in terms of both structure and power. Socially it manifests itself in terms of bigger, higher, newer or faster being preferred over smaller, older, lower or slower.” 

Little Bear contrasts this with the Indigenous worldview in which everything is in constant motion and one has to look at the whole to see patterns.  For example, the cyclical nature of the seasons is an example of a cyclical sense of time.  “Constant motion, as manifested in cyclical or repetitive patterns, emphasizes process as opposed to product. It results in a concept of time that is dynamic but without motion.”

In an experiment with myself in decolonization, I tried to imagine being in cyclical time.  I got the idea of a tree divided into four quadrants to match the four seasons.  I sketched it on a piece of note paper and then started to bead the tree onto a piece of felt.  In the quadrant representing the east I beaded bright green spring foliage onto the tree.  In the south, I beaded rich green foliage of summer, in the west, the oranges, yellows and reds of an autumn maple tree.  And in the north, the bare branches covered in ice.  A red heart emerged in my mind in the trunk and a raven sitting in its branches. 

While I was beading the winter quadrant and it was wintery outside, I felt comforted by the fact that the spring quadrant was so close by.  Often in wintertime where I live, it feels as though winter will last forever.  Within the idea of linear time, it seems to stretch endlessly back into the past and well into the future.  But in my cyclical time map, winter was in proportion, so to speak.  All the seasons were available to me when I viewed them from within the circle.

I beaded the roots with various shades of purple like the roots of a cedar tree.  And within the roots appeared the white bones of the ancestors cradled within the earth.  New life and death were both present.  Then the sun and moon emerged in the sky showing the cycle of day and night.  These regular, cyclical events felt comforting as opposed to the fear of a linear view in which usually, only human events are time-lined.

As I picked up one bead at a time with my needle, I imagined working with individuals, atoms, pixels, one at a time.  Together, they created the whole picture.  Each one was important, playing its part in the whole.  All were important but none more so than the others.

With almost no training in beading, I place them as though I am painting.  With little planning, I move around the piece, beading various areas as they attract my attention.  My designs get me into beading dilemmas but I stretch the constraints of the medium.  I love the vibrant colours and how they work beside one another.  Some colours bring out the best in other colours but are totally uncomplimentary to others, just like people.  The thread represents the relationships between all the beads.  Each bead is beside other beads. The contrast is what makes things pop and diversity is what creates the beauty of the piece. 

In cyclical time, everything is about relationship.  We create relationships, we strengthen them by repetition, by remembering or we weaken them through neglect.  Spending time, contacting, honouring our relationships with other people, with the seasons, the land, the water, the air, fire, trees, animals or birds strengthens these relationships. 

Our time is marked by our relationships, like thread connecting one bead to another.  When it is broken down like that, it just seems so do-able, so possible.  I hug my partner, I kiss my children, I thank the water, I feed the birds, I listen to the trees, I write to my elected official, I sing to my friends, I receive my food as a gift, love as a gift, the rain as a gift.  There is nowhere to get to, there is no progress to strive for, there is no endless growth to stretch and suffer for.  The past and future are all available to inform the present where I understand my connection to everything else.  I think about how we got to this moment and what needs to be created for future generations. 

I know that I am only scratching the surface of this worldview as I experiment with it. Perhaps this is decolonizing my thinking.  Perhaps this is indigenizing my worldview. I don’t know for sure, but already it feels more sustainable for my well being and for the world. 

Leroy Little Bear (2000) Jagged Worldviews Colliding from Indigenous Voice and Vision by Marie Battiste. University of British  Columbia.