How I imitate nature's voices | Snow Raven (re-release)

0:14You're listening to TED Talks Daily, where we bring you new ideas to spark your curiosity every day. I'm your host, Elise Hu. And those sounds you just heard were not a series of recorded bird sounds. That's actually music producer and singer Snow Raven, who is a member of the Saha people from the Arctic Siberia. Born and raised in one of the most remote cold places on Earth, she was only three years old when she started to learn the language, as she calls it, of the birds and the animals around her. The first thing I did when I arrived was drop into silence and listen. Listening is one of the powerful gifts the universe has given humans to connect with nature.

1:02Today, we're resharing her talk and performance from 2024, where she shows us how she mimics the sounds of life around her and what all of us can learn if we only take the time to stop and listen a little more. That's coming up right after a short break.

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3:53Neryon Neryuy, this is the way indigenous Saha people greet one another. This phrase has no exact English translation, but it means, I greet the universe in your person. My name is Snow Raven, and I'm from the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia in Arctic Siberia, the most cold, settled place on earth where winter's temperature can drop as low as negative 96 Fahrenheit. So, after six years being away from Sakha Yakutia, I returned this summer to see my family and also visit our ancestral home. The first thing I did when I arrived was drop into silence and listen. Listening is one of the powerful gifts the universe has given humans to connect with nature.

5:23It is by listening that I have learned how to mimic nature. I listen with my imagination and become an animal that I hear. I move like it moves. I seek what it seeks. I cry what it's cry.

5:55The owl, for instance, it has night vision, it can see all around him, and it also flies without making a sound. The Elia brown kite soars on a heated air and with joy announces the arrival of the summer.

6:26When I hear the loon, I feel its longing for its partner alongside its love of the baby it carries.

6:50The crane, the dance of this beautiful bird is so stunning and divine that Saha people believe that the happy are the eyes who even once witnessed the dance of a crane in a wilderness.

7:17The eh, the brown bear. It's so mighty and it terrifies everything all around. him while even he eats but little berries.

7:44The rangers, Tabba, are lords of tundra and they run thousands of miles in huge herds to restore and recover their energy they have a special breath

8:10in a wolf's cry I can hear the loneliness of the hunter and its It's yearning for the freedom beyond the body. It sees the moon and wants to join it in the sky.

8:36So the superpower of listening is that it leaves the room for imagination to dance with the sound. Let's listen, ignite our imagination, and summon our animal superpowers here and now.

9:18... ... ...

9:30... ... hurry

10:00on

10:27Oh, my God.

10:37the

10:49Thank you.

11:34Brazzol. Thank you.

11:41That was Snow Raven at TED Next 2024. This talk was originally published in November of that year. And that's it for today. TED Talks Daily is part of the TED Audio Collective. This talk was fact-checked by the TED Research Team and produced and edited by our team, Martha Estefanos, Oliver Friedman, Brian Green, Lucy Little, and Tonsika Sungmarnivong. This episode was mixed by Lucy Little. Additional support from Emma Taubner and Daniela Ballarezzo. I'm Elise Hu. I'll be back tomorrow with a fresh idea for your feed. Thanks for listening.

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