Knee Wounded by Mouth.

1890, Wounded Knee, South Dakota. 300 Lakota Indians massacred, the last in a long line of shameful acts committed by the American immigrants on the indigenous people.  A present day descendant says to camera, “The white man lives by his mouth.” Indians obviously invented sound bites well before TV and radio. Nevertheless this isn’t a great advert for immigration. The immigrant arrives displaced and dispossessed, a self-chosen refugee with their roots elsewhere. Their imperative is to forge something for themselves in this new context, to make use of it as best they can. To the indigenous it is their home, to the immigrant it is simply a new usable circumstance, a sort of holiday hire car. The trusty Renault Scenic lovingly maintained and MOT’d back home is replaced by a sexy Suzuki jeep that can be thrashed without concern for its longevity. It’s quite different. So where the Indians lived ‘’on the land’ the immigrants made a living off it. That’s where the mouth comes in. From assembly line to boardroom Americans, and now the world, are paid for how much they, and now we, use our mouths. Apart from a few super star mime artists, and there aren’t many, it’s a straightforward linear relationship; farmers, postmen, fishermen, assembly workers at the bottom, presenters, salesmen, and market traders at the top. It’s not that we need financial futures more than food and fish, it’s that what emanates from the brain through the mouth we deemed more worthy than the silent use of blood, muscle and heart. It’s as if the creations of our own imaginations have taken precedence over the necessities of our actual existence, living off rather than on the land. The sound bite was well put if a little too succinct.