Aya & Luca listen to the land
Aya and Luca were sitting by an old tree, drawing lines in the dirt with a stick.
“What’s that?” asked Luca.
“A map,” replied Aya.
Luca looked closer.
“Where are the borders?”
Aya nodded.
“I don’t know where to put them.”
An old village woman approached.
She looked at the drawing and smiled.
“Long ago, my people learned the land differently.
Before drawing lines, they listened to it.”
Luca frowned.
“Hmm? Listened to what?”
“To where the water flows…
where animals walk…
where trees grow...
where the wind talks.”
Aya erased part of her map.
“So the land tells us how things work?”
The woman nodded.
“Yes. It tells us how to live.
And if you listen well… it also tells us how to live with each other.”
The wind moved gently through the tree above them.
Luca dropped his stick.
“Maybe the map was already here!”
Aya smiled.
They both looked down.
For the first time, nothing was missing.
🌍 9 August, International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
