Drums of Solidarity: SMB Mountain School (성문밖 학교) Travel Journal

Gwon Jae Hyoung and SMB Mountain School travel journal, from Korea to the (US) Pacific Northwest

“Native Americans and Koreans are friends. We are both fighting for our land, our people, our culture, our religion, our history": SMB Mountain School travel journal, from Korea to the (US) Pacific Northwest
  
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A journal entry and speech from a Fall 2015 tour of the Pacific Northwest (US) with SMB Mountain School (성문밖 학교), an alternative school in Korea focusing on peace, ecology, and traditional culture. Originally published in Looking for Loowit, a collaborative journal project between students and teachers about their experiences on the tour.
  
  
  
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19th, 2015
We spent the day in Portland, Oregon, in a large cathedral-style church building. Inside the old church, there was an unusual and very important meeting happening. It was a gathering of leaders and folk from many different American Indian tribes, as well as non-Indian people. They were there to share their stories and to talk about the history of American Indians and the ways they suffered from the US government and the American Churches, in the past and also now.
  
The main conversation was about the Doctrine of Discovery [see https://doctrineofdiscovery.org/what-is-the-doctrine-of-discovery/], a legal system used to justify colonizing the Americas, which mixes Christianity and government together, and originally decreed that non-Christian people do not get to keep their land [when challenged by Christian settlers and “discoverers” who claim it in the name of a “Christian” nation or leader]. The US government used this precedent to take away land from tribes, and they used the ideas in this law to help justify the horrible violence and genocidal actions they took against native people all across the continent. This Doctrine of Discovery still has power today and is the reason that many non-native people and companies can continue use and keep land that was stolen from the tribes [For example, in 2005 the DoD was invoked by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in her legal opinion for City of Sherrill v. Oneida Indian Nation of New York (2005)]. We heard so many sad and terrible stories about colonization and native peoples being forced from their homes by the US and Canadian governments, militaries, and settlers—as well as having their cultures destroyed and being forced to speak English, go to US schools, and stop practicing their original religions and rituals.
  
There was salmon and other traditional northwest Native American food for everyone, and several tribal leaders and elders shared beautiful traditional songs and stories.
  
Our friend Randy Woodley [who hosted us during part of our tour] was a moderator and planner for the gathering.
  
The night before, after Randy heard the students play pungmul [a traditional form of Korean drumming and dancing, directly grown out of communal farm practices, land-based religious ceremonies, and integrally interwoven in past and present Korean resistance movements, against both oppressive Korean rulers and Japanese and US colonizing powers], he was deeply touched and invited them to share their music with the Indigenous elders and other folks the following day at the meeting. This was a huge honor.
  
So, just before dinner, after listening to many Native speakers tell their stories, Randy invited Mr. Gwon and the students to come forward and share pungmul and a story about Korean history to the people there.
  
It was a beautiful and touching moment. The students wore traditional pungmul clothing, and as they prepared to share their music, Mr. Gwon shared a short message to the audience. Here is the English version of his speech:
  
MR. GWON'S SPEECH:
[*Spoken in Korean, with Seth Martin sharing alongside as English interpreter.]
  
Hello and thank you. We are from Korea. There is no North or South Korea—only Korea. I will introduce to you Korean traditional instruments, pungmulnori drums.
  
There are four instruments. The first is kwaenggari and it is the sound of thunder. The second instrument is the janggu. It is the sound of the rain. The third instrument is the buk, and it is the sound of plants growing up through the ground after winter. The last instrument is the jing. It is the sound of the wind.
  
When we play pungmul, the forces of nature are connected and we are connected with them, with nature.
  
Korean people love nature because we love peace. In Korean history, we have fought in many wars to protect our home from invaders (Japan, China, Mongolia, USA), but we have never started a war with another country.
  
In our history, Japan fought us, attacked us, and tried to take our land. For 36 years they stole Korea.
  
And they destroyed our culture. They cut our hair and we could not have traditional Korean hairstyles. They made us use Japanese names. We were not allowed to speak Korean.
  
We were not allowed to play our traditional music. Japan took our metal instruments (kwaenggari and jing) and melted them to make bullet shells.
  
When the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, so many people died, Japanese and Korean people.
  
In 1945, we suddenly had freedom. But the US Army was not in Korea for our freedom. There was a different reason. The US Army became another destroyer and was in Korea for its own benefit.
  
Then US and Russia divided Korea in half.
  
So many tanks and bombs and military came into Korea and even now the massive US Military Team Spirit training operations still go on in Korea every year.
  
The military campaigns and camps pushed out the farmers from our lands. These days it is very difficult to celebrate our real culture, our tradition, and our music and religion.
  
Now, on Jeju Island, known to the world as “Peace Island”, the US is building a new naval base on top of a farming village, even though the villagers said no. [Editor’s note: technically it is a Korean base, but under current laws and political pressure, it also operates as a port for US warships. Further, according to the Status of Forces Agreement in South Korea which is a product of Korean War power politics, any South Korean military base can technically be used and temporarily commanded by the US if the US President declares need of it in an “emergency.” See also Kaia’s interview with Joan of Arc in this Journal.]
  
We will not give up our peace. We will try harder, more and more, for peace and one Korea.
  
I hope you agree. Thank you.
  
We are struggling to save our history and home.
  
When I see you today, and when I learn about your history, I am very sad. And I think about the similarities in our stories.
  
Native Americans and Koreans are friends.
  
We are both fighting for our land, our people, our culture, our religion, our history.
  
We are both working for peace and truth.
  
Thank you for sharing with us. We want to share our drums with you to show solidarity and to give you hope.
  
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Then the students performed one of their most intense and energetic pungmul performances of the tour.
  
In this setting, with so many Indigenous people from different tribes gathered together to share their stories of suffering under and resistance to empire and Colonizer's religion, it was especially moving to witness the yelling chant by the students during the pungmul breakdown:
  
Open, open, open the floodgate!
Pull the water of the East Sea to me!
Pull the water of the West Sea to me!
The northern waters from Mt. Baekdu!
The southern waters from Mt. Halla!
Open, open, open the gate!
  
Everyone at the gathering enjoyed the pungmul performance and many felt deeply moved. Before and during dinner time, several speakers and leaders shared their thanks to Mr. Gwon and the students for their gift and their solidarity.
  
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SMB Mountain School (성문밖학교) is a Korean alternative school community located in a forest on the side of Mt. Namhan, just outside of Seoul. Every year between 20 and 40 students, from elementary school to high school in age and class level, attend together. SMB Mountain School was created by Korean peace activists with the intent of providing an alternative to the hyper-competitive Korean public school system. The school focuses strongly on teacher-student friendship and personalized learning. It also emphasizes closeness to and knowledge of natural environments and educates as often as possible through travel and/or guest teachers that bring students into contact with people and places with important ties to historical and current struggles for peace and justice. One of SMB’s special focuses is traditional Korean drumming, “pungmul”, and several times a year groups of students take part in various demonstrations in Korea, usually showing solidarity by performing with drums. (Full disclosure: Seth Martin has been learning from and working with SMB as an English, History, and Folk music teacher for more than half a decade).

SMB Mountain School website: http://smbschool.kr/

SMB Mountain School, 2019. Dokdo Island.

RELATED:

1. Gureombi Norae/’I’ve Got to Know” 

By Seth Martin, in collaboration with several psalters and musicians from the PNW US. Illustrations by SMB Mountain School students. Created together in 2016.

2. 6.25 at 성문밖 학교 (SMB Mountain School)
​Summer solstice ceremony (단오) and 6.25 gathering (육이오: the nationally recognized start of the Korean War) to honor and lament the millions who have suffered and died for an undivided, decolonized and independent Korea.
Remembering 70 years of war. Praying and singing for an end to the division. Learning the history behind resistance songs from the Donghak Peasants to war-time guerilla struggles and reunification movements.

Gathering ceremony put together by Mr. Im (임인출), Mr. Gwon (권재형), Gony Kim and staff at SMB Mountain School. June 25, 2020.

3. "미국은 들어라" ("USA, listen to us"). "Get your hands off Korea!"

Im In-Chol (SMB Pungmul teacher) leading a Pungmul drum demonstration, with One Korea flags and dances, in front of The US Embassy in Seoul. The performance included calls on the US to stop treating Korea like a colony, to stop militarizing the peninsula, and to stop obstructing Korean efforts towards peaceful South-North dialogue, ending the war, and eventual reunification. July 21st, 2020.

4. SMB Mountain School Pungmul Drum Performance for August 15 Korean Liberation Day, to call for reunification. 

With Mr. Gwon (SMB head teacher) and Im In-Chol (Korean peace activist and Pungmul drum teacher at SMB school). Recorded August 14th, 2020.​

5. Snapshots of SMB Mountain School’s 2015 travel journal, Looking for Loowit.

6. For more information about the Korean Alternative School Movement and its socio-political-economic significance in Korea today, see the most recent episode of Contemporary Rebellions (August 2020), an English language podcast put together and maintained by a loose-knit network of Korean and foreign anarchists, scholars, and activists based in and around Seoul, who are actively involved in on-the-ground justice struggles in Korea. https://contemporaryrebellions.bandcamp.com/track/ep-5-alternative-education