Damara

The photographs are a contribution to a UK academic project, Future Pasts (futurepasts.net). The project explores understandings and practices of sustainability in west Namibia and is funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (ref AH/k005871/2). The series relate to a 2016 event held around the Brandberg mountain in west Namiba, in which community members shared their histories and stories about their local landscape. Future Pasts is working with the community to both archive their history and produce books, pamphlets and exhibitions to feed into local education and tourism initiatives. ________________________________________________________________ It is time to say goodbye. So many moments, so many stories, so many lessons that I would like to share with you. But not here and not like this. I would like to tell you of them in the same way I heard of them, sitting next to you, looking at you and seeing you thus. I wish you could see them in the same way. Around a fire would be even better. But for now I ask only that you look into the others and let them be your mirror. Recognize them and respect them for who they are. I have seen how a person is a person through others. I have learned about humanity in its purest form, in the purest form there could be. I have felt their happiness and their kindness. I have felt their worries and their pain. I have felt their desires and their beliefs. They let me in with no reservations as I have let them in too. I have understood and accepted that we are one. Sylvia Diez