Memory Craft by Lynne Kelly

Author:Lynne Kelly
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2019-04-16T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

When art becomes writing

I adore my second lukasa. My lukasa for birds worked wonderfully well but I knew that I was not taking full advantage of the lesson from the Luba experts in terms of the shape and design. I had held the genuine article at the Brooklyn Museum in New York—so Tom Chippindall replicated the style for me as he had done with the carved wooden balls. My second lukasa had the same weight and shape as the real thing, but the beads and shells were arranged to suit my needs. As Tom drank his tea and ate his chocolate cake reward, I fell in love with the way this lukasa felt. It was so light, and curved to fit my hand. Tom had even added a tiny bead representation of a khipu in exactly the right place. I was delighted.

Ironic, I know, but I have encoded the story of writing to my second lukasa. Tom had placed the beads in a general shape representing the knowledge I wanted to encode. He placed enough beads and shells to enable me to expand my associations as I learned the details. The Luba would have already known their knowledge when they made their lukasas, and their design would have evolved over a very long time alongside their performances. I didn’t have that advantage. Two real lukasas and my two lukasas are shown in Plate 13.

This chapter is not a complete history of the evolution of writing—that would take many chapters, many books—but it gives a foundation on which to build. As you read on, you’ll be able to see the way my second lukasa was designed to tell this story. Figure 6.1 is an annotated image of it.

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