A Personal Dedication to Maroon Preservation
Nichole McIntosh's sharing of how she found out about Proven Sustainable Conversations and why the mission is so important to her.
My interest in the Proven Sustainable community was sparked when I received a letter unexpectedly from Sox requesting permission to include an excerpt from one of my poems on the website that was being developed. I was delighted and enthused that someone so far away, I live in London and Sox lives in New York, could reach out to me in this most conventional way in a world that is hurtling towards digital dominance.
When I visited the website, that at that stage was still in development, I was awestruck by the powerful call to action on the home page with the question:
How might ancestral voices help us take action in uncertain times?
The invitation to use my poem for such a worthy cause will forever be a life moment for me. To understand that backdrop regarding how my poem was published, I need to take you back to my roots.
I was born and raised in Jamaica to a dad who was of maroon heritage.
He would visit the annual celebrations with his family and tell us all about it. My dad’s dad, my grandfather was a true maroon, as opposed to a watered down one I presume. I never had the opportunity to accompany my dad on one of those annual trips because I emigrated to the United Kingdom when I was 21 years old and started a career in nursing. It just was not meant to be and over time, I would come to realise that being away from one’s people and culture can be the catalyst that ignites pride in one’s rich and deep culture. This was the case for me.
As a young nurse of black background, a first generation immigrant in London, my nursing career presented many opportunities for personal and professional growth however it also presented tremendous obstacle and challenges to overcome. As a natural introvert, quiet and observant in nature, somehow when I faced or observed discrimination in any way, I would find the moral courage to speak up and defend myself and others. It was during that period of my life that I surprised myself about how much I could achieve when I found my inner strength and resilience.
During a long distance telephone conversation with my dad, I recounted some of my experiences and how I have managed to navigate the challenges while optimising the opportunities, he calmly advised me that my response is similar to the maroons.
I was intrigued and asked him to expand so I could learn more and tap into this bloodline of courageous warriors even more than I had previously. The game changed after that for me because I could sense a feeling of pride, hope for the future and positivity that I had the requisite temperament, personality and doggedness to aim for self-actualization in a world where very few people of my background excel.
I was battle ready and most of all, I would hold on to the adage that,
He who fights and runs away, lives to fight another day.
Maroons had mastered this many years before.
It is important for me on a personal level to be involved in altruistic work, such as the Proven Sustainable community, because it is important to live a purpose driven, purposeful and legacy rich life.
I strongly believe that we must do all we can to preserve the rich and diverse history that indigenous and maroon people have provided.
It needs to be documented so that future generations will have life maps and life guides regarding their history. If you don’t know your history, you cannot know where to go in life. The lives that indigenous people have lived has taught us how to live.
There is a sense of great injustice regarding the manner in which indigenous people are silenced and wiped out of history. The social justice movement has rallied and we can see that history is sometimes re-written about people such as the Arawaks in Jamaica, the aborigines in Australia and Native American Indians, to name just three.
On reflecting on the barbaric transatlantic slave trade and the apartheid system in South Africa, I am reminded that the inspirational Nelson Mandela said,
Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.
My commitment to the Proven Sustainable community is deeply rooted in this belief that we never allow any slippage back towards that devastatingly, gruesome period of history.
As I continue to work in the Proven Sustainable community, I hold onto my marooness with tremendous pride.
The audacity they had to demand freedom in a system that clearly would not acquiesce, is inspiring. Nothing I could face in this modern life could compare with what they endured and survived.
It is on their shoulders that I stand.
They lift me up in spirit when I am low in spirit and so I have a moral, social and human duty to pass it on. We have proven ourselves to be sustainable and free.
Nichole is a senior nurse, poet, digital broadcaster, motivational speaker, entrepreneur, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and Editorial Advisor of the Royal College of Nursing Institute’s Nursing Management Journal.
Watch her full Proven Sustainable Conversation below.
The Proven Sustainable™ Conversation Series is a fiscally sponsored project of the Center for Transformative Action, a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization.
Nichole, I remember how happy I was upon receiving your response to my letter. You were among the earliest respondents within the assemblies of Proven Sustainable to say, "Yes, here I am" and not long after you were among the first of our conversation partners. And then you became part of our guiding council, always steering us toward the north star and freedom. I am so grateful for your constant presence and wisdom whenever we meet in council. Over and over, you are the one to sound the abeng, urging us to reach farther and to touch more deeply in our shared vision.