Hidden Hearth has a spirit of its own. We, as curators and guardians of this vision, are doing our best to listen. Over the past 2 years of our festival (particularly last year after we had rebirthed as Hidden Hearth), a common theme that arose in various ways was the unease around the lack of acknowledgement around the colonial roots of Lisnavagh and many lands across Ireland. We have no doubt that many gentry estates in Ireland are calling for the reconciliation and healing that will act as a catalyst for union across the land of Éireann. Throughout both years of our gathering at Lisnavagh House we have welcomed the theme of decolonisation through various talks, workshops and choice of artists, but we never named it openly to explore what that truly means in this place and context. It was still “hidden” so to speak.

This year, in communion with the sacred fire, we are daring to illuminate the shadows and create a space to unravel the threads of colonisation that have affected, and still affects, us all. We hold this space with the prayer to bring tenderness and love to these wounds in order to reconcile, heal and move forward together, as one collective community. The systems and structures that were created through the colonial lens are currently supporting NO ONE - not even those who think they may be gaining something, whether that be power, wealth, or land. We are all painfully aware of how this storyline is very much alive across the globe as we witness ecocide, war, racism, genocide and famine in our lives and through our screens. It is easy to get trapped in helplessness and despair when feeling into the collective grief of this violence we are committing against ourselves and eachother. Creating this space is our form of sacred activism to take action toward the world we wish to live in. We are curiously coming together to explore what dismantling this intersectional web of oppression truly looks like in Ireland in 2024.

Honestly, we don’t fully know what we are doing - in the sense that we are human and admit to not having answers on what the best way forward is, but we trust that the answers lie within horizontal, inclusive community spaces. All we do know, is that there needs to be a disruption in the current operations of everyday life. We know that our regenerative and creative capacity as humans to build something different is needed now more than ever. We know that community is the medicine of our time. We hold the intention of coming together to truly share, listen and receive from the heart without having an agenda of being “right” or “wrong”, without an agenda of even needing a certain outcome. We simply want to open this space of acknowledgement and healing,  which welcomes the energies of the land to resolve through us all.

So, what does Roots, Fruits & Future mean?

‍‍Roots - A chance to acknowledge the past of this land of Éire. To feel and honour the grief and pain of forced culture and language loss. To tend to our most tender ancestral wounds that are woven into the story of colonisation.

‍Fruits - A chance to question the narrative, are there any hidden gifts from this collective story? Is there any post-traumatic growth worth acknowledging and celebrating amidst the pain and grief? What are we harvesting and carrying forward? What are we letting go of?

‍Future - A chance to reconcile the past and tune into our descendents, to call upon the future ancestors of this land for guidance on how to come together in union as sovereign guardians of this land before it is too late. 

What are we welcoming in this space?

• ‍‍This is not a space to bash the Brits / perpetuate violence.
• This is not a space to get lost in the pain and trauma.
• This is not a space to create further division.

• This is a space to root deeply into individual and collective responsibility for change. The time is now. 
• This is a space to celebrate the gift of being alive right now. 
• This is a space to welcome reconciliation and healing.