Aslan, November 2024:

Damiá is a Queer constructed language that I began creating when I was perhaps thirteen years old. It has been a part of my life ever since. Sometimes secret, sometimes in the background, but always there. It has been like a radio set that I have carried around with me for most of my life that I can turn down a little but can never, ever turn off. There have been times in my life when it frustrated me. Why did I need this strange compulsion — this odd demand on my attention that I didn’t even really understand how to talk about? I even purposefully deleted all my files on the language, more than once, insistent that it could go nowhere, that I should focus on more important things. But then, days or weeks or even months later, I would find myself piecing things back together again, painstakingly reconstructing and continuing from where I left off. 

Things changed when a strange idea invaded my mind. I don’t know where it came from and when it first arrived it was rather unwelcome. It went something like this:

But, of course! Damiá is a Queer language!

A language for the Queer community. OK. That meant I needed to ‘gift’ it to the Queer community. Who was I to gift anything to the Queer community? What if they didn’t want it? What if they all looked at me and laughed?

But some ideas will not be refused and this was one of them. I talked to Chris about it and it seemed to make sense to him. Then in 2020, he informed me, quite out of the blue, that he would like to learn Damiá properly and that we should use Damiá in our work. He became Second Speaker and the cat was out of the bag.

A lot has happened since then. Damiá has become a filter through which we understand Queerness and how the world could be different. It is a way of aligning utopian thought with the artwork we make in a practical way. It is a place we can go to and a real thing in the world which is also simultaneously a fantasy. We’ve made films and performances using Damiá, published books and zines in it too. A new alphabet with six different fonts. Chris and I use Damiá every day — when running in the snow, sitting in the sauna, cooking and shopping, whenever we don’t want to be overheard or understood. 

Another itching thought that wouldn’t go away:

What if there were a whole community of Damiá speakers who used the language in their everyday lives? What then?

Tobba Mó / Speech Community is Chapter Six of With Forests in Our Mouths, our two-year constellation artwork and exploration of Queer utopias. Unlike the other chapters, it does not consist of a discrete output, such as a live performance, an exhibition, a film, or a publication. Instead it is a place where we explore together what Damiá means in terms of a tool to uncover and articulate what a linguistic Queer utopia might look like. It is a vessel that holds the weekly Damiá classes that take place on Zoom, linguistic and pedagogical tools and publications, such as grammars and dictionaries, fonts and almanacs. It is a place for translation of songs and poems and the expression of new ideas. It is built on the trajectory of a group as well as one-on-one conversations and is perhaps even a way for Damiá to become a means of expression for other artists. 

Tobba Mó / Speech Community is a home for all the effort and imagination that Damiá attracts to itself and also a chance to document what happens. I don’t know where it will go, and as artworks go, it is quite a strange one. All I know is that it reaches from somewhere inside me — somewhere inside us now, because even though the community is young and fragile, it is real — toward a future that is unknown. 

If you would like to participate in Tobba Mó / Speech Community or find out more about Damiá and our artwork, please contact us at info(at)oncewewereislands.com

Tompo ze, Noembar h. ia2024:

O mo benaimar cvea sie mo damiá ten t’iar sie no appa os ten t’ien iebé hanta atec taiant hadá tatá ten te teeci sie ast nie lo. Zamen daz seer ge, zamen daz baaza nan eza gen t’ien sibé na. T’va sibé siediescar ge radio laco vai ast nie ten ie sta sibé no eca ten ie sinárrata iebé no giena gianca zeza gen iaa ag siaa tagga na. Ast ast nie daz ten te poeta sibé na. A t’lon sibé tiamo zie ioidar zoo? A ran zie zer os nie lo ten zet cob sibé hiena ieez eca ten iaa mo iaa no haa lo ca? Siacca ten t’ag siaa no tagga holio mo lo ios vai — ol zamenna vai na — hasioo ge ten ze iaa maata sie ga eva ten i’acesta iebé no sames anda onna. Gentá agia astsa ca astvaasa ca siaccana sorosa ca ten t’ser mbé cebiémietazar ge bace vai, cebénaizar ge esga-esga, iebomar ge son daz ten t’otta nie appa haa nan. 

Et nven sibé an os ten te pencaz iebé besa ioidar geez lo. Zen sa sibé no asi ten te col iebé haa daz os ten t’ear iebé ten te gaise iebé giena na. Ieza hadá:

Gen hascana va! O mo cvea sie mo damiá va!

Mo tobba lo cvea ca. Iav. Onsa eva ten ie t-hiedaita sie no tobba lo cvea. Av nie mee na, ten iaa t-hiedaita sie no sames tobba lo cvea ca? A po ten iaa gaise sie ie lo ca? A po ten iaa noco mbé o ten iaa ema sibé o ca? 

Gen n’ien sie besa ten ze iennata sie na. Essa ten ve besana sie besa zaiza daz na. Et mo silé no ta Dogai goz ten ves tarva sie ie lo. Hanta ia2020 ten te t-haberta sibé o ta — sotla daz aren — ios ten ie cob sie o de-de mo eva ten ies caden sibé iena bai lo dea. T’iel ie ta appa Mozar lo Iadari ten t’ogi siaa cergi gieeb daz na.  

Tatá ten te po sibé moro na. T’iel sie mo damiá besca lo eca ten ie cob iebé don cvea haa vai ieez iena eca ten iaa nventa sibé donia. O ieez regasee sie eca ten ie sonta iebé mo eso tai z’vasisee bai tai dea. V’asi sie eca ten ie sepáre mi haa nan, dia tai t-hieoo daro sotla os sama ten ve heaal sie na. T’iar sie mo VaSieRo tai iarcieba tai mo vai damiá. Et narzata siaa mo calta tai zeta tai iena. Abgiad dol satioo dast lo asca. Ast biemie ten ie caden sibé mo nie tai Dogai tai na — os ten ie t-hasta mie asmet nan, assamar ge nal palle, os ten ie sopra sibé mo ten ie t-hor sibé mo sames sopra, po gaise ten iaa cob sibé ca mver sibé ca.

Besa darna gassa-gassa ios ten zet t-ho siaa:

Nasieea ten iaa ien sibé tobba t-hie mozar vai damiá ten iaa caden ie so mo otmar ge na. A aiza maz?

O teeci iasat sie Tobba Mó / Speech Community Taerioo Ge Oco Lo lo, bai mie dea vatscar t-hodo hantada vai, lalta mie iena z’vasi lo cvea. Darna ge teeci vai ié gen ze n’al sie cieba ge tiace, mesel ge iarcieba ton-ton ca sertamar ge ca VaSieRo ge ca narzatamar ge ca. V’asi sie asio-asio eca ten ie lalta iebé mo nana onsa mó lo damiá oria ge taipazar cacseltazar sieeta momcen zv’asi lo cvea. V’esa sie iena ders lo tai astvaasee mo vai damiá ten ie po iebé Zoom vai, oria lo tai mosee cobtasee, mesel ge grammátec tai calta tai cacsel, dast tai marca calta tai dabe. V’asi sie iena damiáta lo aalelmar t-helia cacselta besa lo dol. E benai sie taab vai mesi lo lemó vai iena danienanar ze. Momcen ten ves ieez sie iena mo lo damiá eca ten ie iel ie oria lo cacselta sieeta deata deaioo lo darna.   

O cor sie Tobba Mó / Speech Community nacce lo biemie roccata lo biemie ten ies taabta ie so mo ze damiá asesi lo, zamen iena eca hatén ie carebta sibé mo pomar. Zen sa sibé no vo colmar tentá, bai ge dea na, o ieióidar sie na. Essa gen ne sa iebé bavsan ten n’ear siaa asi daz nac nie — tonna, na, asi daz nac mie siart essa ten ne nver sie ten ne t-hialza sie tobba essa gen ve hie sie iena — colmar nan gac.

Po ios ten ie t-hampa cie appa Tobba Mó / Speech Community lo ios ten ie lalta siné ol mo lo ca bai mie lo dea ca, ge ta benóce info(at)oncewewereislands.com vai.

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