|
Elizabeth-Anne Stewart’s connection with Malta goes back to her very early years and she has remembrances of being in the countryside at the age of two and much more recently meeting Fr Peter Seraccino Inglott for long discussions on her recently published book ‘Jesus the Holy Fool’ – which caused a rumpus in some countries - at his farmhouse.
Elizabeth-Anne Stewart is one of those multi-talented persons who slips easily between being an poet, an author, a university professor, a conductor of retreats and workshops, an alternative healer and a promoter of spirituality through tango. She holds a theology doctorate from the university of Malta and returns to the island to visit her parents on a yearly basis. Born in England but a US resident, Stewart has published ‘Dragut’s Galley’ based in contemporary Malta, and Julian Manduca caught up with her this week.
You speak about Malta being a sacred landscape, what are your early memories of Malta?
I lived here as a child every two years till I was 12, and went to university here. All my sensory data has been coloured by Maltese flowers, the sea, the scent of sea spray, wild thyme and the rocks. I feel very centred here and there is a theory that Malta was a site for pilgrimage for goddess worship and that explains the preponderance of temples on the islands. I feel a sense of connectedness in Malta – a sense that something historically important has happened here – a connection with something cosmic and deep, and I don’t have that connection in Chicago.
Being out in the fields, the combination of the honey coloured stones, the redness of the hibiscus and the geraniums. I remember when I was 3, we had a maid, Giovanna, and I had my first theology lessons from her. She said that if I dropped a piece of bread I would violate Jesus. There I was, basically accused of causing the passion, and I developed this very strong sense of Catholic guilt.
As an author do you see yourself as someone creating art, changing the world or writing to give pleasure and entertain?
When I studied literature we were always told that literature should exist as an art form before propaganda and that if a book happens to have a message, that is secondary.
I think my work is a message for transformation. My background is theological and spiritual and if I sum up what I do, it is transformation of consciousness. Even Dragut’s Galley, although fiction, was written to increase tolerance. I feel that we live out only a fraction of our potential and most of us live a life through limited lenses, we see the obstacles, but it is my belief that limitation is an illusion and everyone has the capacity to move beyond our barriers into something phenomenal and new.
Can you tell me something about your tango classes?
I only help with the tango classes, but I will be giving tango retreats and using Argentine tango - which is a very sensual dance - as a means of becoming centred and focused on the present. The woman has to follow, which for feminists is hard, and that is something I have had to learn to do. The males do dominate, but if you have a male who cannot lead or a woman that cannot follow, then the dance cannot happen. The idea is to use the dance as a means of connecting the masculine and feminine in a way that is not competitive or submissive, but mutually supportive and complementary.
Do your spiritual messages fit in, or contradict those of major religions?
My messages are the thrust of the major traditions. I come from a Catholic background and Jesus talks about liberating captives and those who are imprisoned. I don’t thing he was talking about people in a jail cells, but those that are imprisoned by attitudes, by lack of forgiveness, by resentments, by failure, by fear. It is my message to liberate ourselves.
What would be your message to those that are using religion to get at others, or in the extreme case, being violent?
The worlds religions all have their a path to spiritual freedom, for Jews it is the path of law, for Christians it is love, for Muslims it is surrender, for Hindus it can take many forms, but when the path of spiritual liberation becomes obliterated by age old hatred, by stereotyping, then the core of the tradition is actually negated and it is no longer religion anymore. In Chicago, since 9/11, anyone who wears a veil is a potential target, anyone who looks like they come from the Middle East is a target of verbal and physical oppression, even a Maltese person could be discriminated against. The media has to take some of the blame because of the clips that are chosen for viewing, but also the lack of education in the US, there is a lot of ignorance.
Beyond personal transformation what can one do to combat ignorance?
Political engagement is important, with grass roots movements, like Din L-Art Helwa – which I was involved with - for example. That to me is a step in the right direction. But inter-religious dialogue and looking at the rights of immigrants are also important. In Chicago there are now streets where there were Muslin vendors and now they are all vacant, people have been deported or fled.
What has changed in Malta over the years?
A lot of the sacred landscape is being desecrated.
It is so sad to see concrete blocks, hotels eating up the landscape, buildings that tower over what was once a quiet bay, there are no quiet places anymore. One of my fondest memories was waking up at four in the morning and hearing the sound of carts going to market on the country roads and looking out of the window and seeing this long line of carts. There was fig tree I used to climb and sit up there and read, but it is gone, it was knocked down for a road to be widened. That was a 500 year-old tree; it is like losing a family member.
Can you tell me something about Dragut’s Galley?
It is about two children that come from the US to visit their grandparents in Mdina and a ‘political’ event takes place. A British historian maintains that the raid on Gozo in 1551 by Dragut really was not by Dragut at all, but that the Knights of St John pillaged the island and took the wealth for themselves. And so anyone remotely related to the Knights gained their wealth in an ‘illegal’ manner and would have to give up their titles and wealth.
The grandparents are from one of these families and the children are upset, but while it starts out as being ‘Oh, our poor family,’ it turns to ‘lets find out the truth here.’ A saint keeps on appearing to the family and it is revealed to the young girl that what happened to the Turks was a cause for concern, as well as what happened to the Gozitans.
I would hope that the story opens our eyes to the way Maltese now look at foreigners including Libyans. If one meets Libyans on the street do we see them as different or somebody we might have something in common with? Or are they the enemy? It seems very easy to be Muslim here and not part of mainstream society, but remain very separate.
|
