Follow the Fishing
An ‘Ei Ja Nai Ka’ Ripple
in North East England
BY HANNAH-JASMINE BRUNSKILL
“We taught Ei Ja Nai Ka to loads of people in our area and it was great and so much fun and we decided that we wanted to create our own kind of Ei Ja Nai Ka to represent our community.”
Gyoko Taiko’s Emma Middleton and Lisa Oliver were so inspired by PJ Hirabayashi’s song ‘Ei Ja Nai Ka’ that they were moved to create a song that captured the history, energy and spirit of their local community in North East Lincolnshire, England. And so I was invited to visit to co-create a new song that could one day be played and danced as a recognised act of celebration by the local community. Working over six days and engaging 40 members of the community I travelled almost 700 miles to co-create “Follow the Fishing” a taiko song which, to date, has been shared with over 1,000 local school children.
“Breaking stereotypes, celebrating diverse environments, and re-creation” emerged as the message from the community that gathered to be part of the experimental process of co-creation. We went into the locality talking to artists and shopkeepers, museum volunteers and residents, we visited churches, studied local folk songs and poems, and talked to young people about new pastimes and future dreams…nothing was missed out and everyone was represented. We explored movement that represented the landmarks, pastimes, commerce and beauty of the local area. It was clear that for the people involved in its creation, local identity was important as was breaking through negative stereotypes and a need to celebrate and feel proud of their area and community.
“Invoking the essence of the TaikoPeace movement, it was important that this creation was accessible to all, that it reflected the spirit of the area, and that it communicated from the heart. ”
The title 'Follow the Fishing' refers back to the fishing heritage of North East Lincolnshire as well as forwards in terms of 'What comes next?'. It is a full-bodied celebration of taiko: taiko rhythms, soundscapes, poems, flute melody, chants and a dance had been created in just a few days. Invoking the essence of the TaikoPeace movement, it was important that this creation was accessible to all, that it reflected the spirit of the area, and that it communicated from the heart.
We had not just represented an existing community – a new one had been formed in the process.
LYRICS FROM “FOLLOW THE FISHING”
With the Dock Tower watching
Beneath wide open skies
With the river still flowing
The fishes still thrive
With a-heavin and a-hauling
With cleaning and packing
While tourists arrive
With the strength of the Viking
From the sea to the sky
With windfarms a-turning
With freedom to fly
NOTE: Follow the Fishing was such a successful project that the funders agreed upon a further project, entitled “Steel Town”, which brought the same approach to another local area and another co-creation emerged from the same team.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hannah-Jasmine Brunskill is the Founder and Director of Taiko Journey, leads a community taiko collective, and Zasso, a performing taiko group in Devon, UK. HJ was a 2012 recipient of the Winston Churchill Fellowship to deepen her taiko knowledge and experience taiko around the world. She brought the first TaikoPeace workshop to the UK in 2012, and Ei Ja Nai Ka to the UK Taiko Festival for the first time in 2013. A School for Social Entrepreneurs graduate in 2014, HJ committed to make Taiko Journey's social objective to nurture and sustain the wellbeing of individuals, organisations and communities through taiko.
