(m)Other Tongue

(m)Other Tongue emerged as a fragment of a collective show, shaped alongside The Little Wild (m)Others collective. I seeded it as a prayer, sparked by an initiation on Dartmoor—where I came across the skeleton of a Dartmoor pony. I felt called to gather some of its bones and carry them with me on a two-day hike through rain, mist, and bog. As I walked, I listened to the spirit of the moor—the echo of the pony carried on the wind through that ancient, untamed land.

I was drawn to the archetype of the shaman—one who communes with the Otherworld through deep psychic training and initiation. While I acknowledge this is not a lineage I can claim through Indigenous inheritance, I felt compelled to explore what it means to be in relationship with the more-than-human, to listen beneath the soil, and to use my voice as a conduit for prayers from the unseen.

At the time, I was reading The Madonna Secret by Sophie Strand, a reimagining of Mary Magdalene—known as both sinner and saint—told from her own perspective. Strand roots Magdalene (Miriam, her Hebrew name) in the ecology of place, myth, and the natural world. I was struck by the possibility of her holding power equal to that of her lover, Jesus/Jeshua—a symbol of lost narratives and untold lineages. Magdalene as mystic, shaman, wild woman—cast out yet deeply in tune.

A gentle but insistent question rose within me: How can I embody both the masculine and the feminine? That question echoed through this work. I composted my readings, my encounters, my longings—into the fertile ground from which this piece grew.

I translated this prayer into spoken word, sound, live performance, moving image, and installation. Storytelling, myth-making, and deep rooting in place are at the heart of my practice. I built sacred altars from objects gathered along my path—such as the horse bones from Dartmoor. Horse skulls were historically hidden in the foundations of buildings to amplify sound and offer protection—a folk practice found across the UK and Ireland. These objects became spells of protection for the chthonic womb/tomb: a soft cave, an echoing space to listen to the whispers of (m)Other.

My costume became a portal—expressing both masculine and feminine energies outwardly. Inspired by folk heritage—Morris dancing, handmade ritual attire—and genderqueer figures like Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, I began stitching together a Funga-worshipping character. Opulent and otherworldly, yet grounded in the earth, this being emerged through reclaimed fibres, re-spun into a story of renewal.

This prayer was birthed in a grandmother’s garden and echoed through a small village in West Cornwall. The journey was held by The Little Wild (m)Others, a collective of companions who supported and witnessed each other’s work—bound by a shared vow to the Cosmic Earth (m)Other.

m + Other = (m)Other

(m)Other is a term we created to move beyond the gendered expectations of “Mother” and honour our queerness—our resistance to the binary imposed on female-presenting bodies.

The Cosmic Earth (m)Other is wild, fluid, and ancient—beyond gender, beyond culture. She/He/They live in each of us: a wild seed longing to grow, to die, to rebirth.

This is an invitation to the underworld—the sacred womb, the chthonic tomb—where language is not yet bound to name, and prayer moves in sound, gesture, and breath.

I enter the forest as my temple and descend into the underworld/innerworld—(m)Otherworld—communing with kin, forming relationships with the more-than-human and the mycelial web, breaking the boundaries imposed by man.

I am a changeling child.
I speak my (m)Other Tongue to liberate our bodies.
I entangle myself in the dirt, return to the void, and express what has been silenced.
I reach toward healing—through body, through cosmos, through heart.

My prayers are not about the (m)Other.
They are for the (m)Other.

They are for a wild, multispecies world—a world that serves not one, but ALL.