U nukuch che’ilo’ob chiicho’ob yéetel noolo’ob
Grenn Mawon
educational program around Jaden Yich Nou
Inspired by the Maroons, historical figures who lived in harmony with their ecosystem, ‘Grenn Mawon’ is a year-long educational program dedicated to exploring the local environment around the primary school Clémence Caristan in Le Prêcheur. Developed by Permactivie, the program seeks to reignite students' curiosity about their surroundings and empower them with ancestral wisdom and the skills to collaboratively address environmental issues they are facing. The project is rooted in the understanding that children hold the seed of both past and future maroon wisdom, bridging ancient knowledge with present-day creativity to (re)build fertile and healing relationships to the land that sustains us.
Jaden Yich NouJaden Yich Nou
Jaden Yich Nou is an educational garden conceived with and for children based in Le Prêcheur, Martinique. It's a lab-garden, a space for experimentation where children have the opportunity to imagine their own ancestral practices of tomorrow. It's a "jadenstalasyon", a garden-sized artistic installation, inhabited by the magic of artistic creations and eco-responsible works of art. It's a “jaden razyé”; a garden that recaptures the spirit and aesthetic freedom of the Caribbean vernacular garden, while applying the principles of permaculture. Last but not least, Jaden Yich Nou is slowly growing into a place of passage and resourcing for artists, activists and herbalists to practice, experiment and share their work. Each passage, each contribution becomes yet another seed for future generations.
Phases of the implementation of Jaden Yich Nou
Seeds
The theme of the school year 2023-2024 was seeds. Over several months, students discovered and revitalized an unused space behind their school, transforming it into a vibrant garden - the "Jaden Yich Nou". By observing the land's contours and existing flora, they actively contributed to the garden's creation and upkeep, engaging in planting and watering activities throughout the whole year. This hands-on learning in the garden was further extended and enriched by a workshop series that focused on the interconnectedness of cultural, and artistic expressions of everyday with the connection to and experiences in nature, nurtured by spending time in the garden with the students.
For the series the three artists Françoise Dô, Yémendja Abatuci, and Christel Symphor were invited to work with the students on storytelling, sound production, music and dance.
Storytelling workshop with Françoise Dô
During the workshop sessions with Françoise Dô—author, playwrite and director working on exploring identity and cultural narratives—students explored the garden and discovered a variety of seeds. They engaged their senses, observing, smelling, and touching each seed they found. Every child selected a seed and drew it, then shared what they knew about it with the group. Were these seeds familiar to them? Did they play a role in their daily lives? Did they know of any stories connected to them? Collectively the students created a story based on their reflections, which they then recorded in their own voices.
Sound recording workshop with Yémendja Abatuci
In the second workshop, led by Yémendja Abatuci, the children explored the sensory world of seeds in more depth. Yémendja Abatuci works around sound creation and radio, and introduced the students to various seeds native to Martinique. Working in pairs, one student was blindfolded while the other presented different seeds, prompting the blindfolded partner to describe the sensations they felt. Was the seed smooth? Soft? Rough? Pungent? Each interaction was recorded, capturing the children’s descriptions and reactions. This exercise not only sharpened the students sensory awareness but also encouraged them to connect touch and feel with sound and language, nurturing their engagement with their immediate natural surroundings.
Music and dance workshop with Christel Symphor
In the third workshop students explored the cultural traditions of Lasotè, Bèlè, and rimèd razyé. Together with Christel Symphor, a composer, actress, and singer whos work is dedicated to introducing young children to the cultural musical heritage and dance traditions of Martinique, through colllective singing, moving and playing. In the workshop sessions, students learned songs in Creole following the theme of the seed, drawing on traditional Martinican rhythms such as Bèlè, and rimèd razyé. The performance they choreographed was inspired by the resilience, potentials, and vitality carried by seeds.
The results of the workshop series were shared with the all students of the Clémence Caristan elementary and primary school. Each workshop’s outcomes were displayed, showcasing the collective learning experiences in the garden and the multiple creations of music, dance, storytelling, and recording.
The presentation not only highlighted the artistic works of the students, but also aimed to familiarize new students with the program’s activities, setting the stage for their involvement in Jaden Yich Nou in the coming cycles.
Guardians of the Garden
Building on the work on ‘Seeds’ over the 2023-2024 school year, our theme for 2024-2025 was ‘Guardians of the Garden’. Children have been invited to create and personify figures and symbols exploring the rules and values to be practiced in the garden behind their school (Jaden Yich Nou). They have been drawing inspiration from ancestral knowledge passed onto them about plants available in their garden, locally known for their protective qualities and from Lasotè, an ancestral set of values and ways of relating to the land.
School children aged 8-10 have been engaging in a multidisciplinary set of workshops. The first aspect, led by landworker and facilitator Wendy Bihary, aimed to equip students with practical knowledge on the species and plants inhabiting the garden, their protective qualities and how to be in right relationship with that ecosystem. These practical workshops were the bedrock for the second key aspect, drawing and crafting sessions by environmental illustrator Johanne Laure aka Jilo. In that space, children were invited to use their imagination and their knowledge of the garden’s ecosystem to create unique stories of their ‘guardians of the garden’: creatures, animals and elements, big and small whose role is to guide, protect and serve in the wider ecosystem. The students’ creation process has been supported by storytelling and writing contributions from Francoise Dô - author, director and actress who has been working with Permactivie on the ‘Grenn Mawon’ project since 2024 - and collective singing workshops by musician and composer Lauriem aka Laurie Mompelat.
Last but not least, drawing on children’s creations, sculptor and community elder Isambert Duriveau held sessions exploring the role of symbols to bridge the values at the heart of Lasotè with students’ understanding of the values they wish to centre in their own garden. A rich mix of songs, stories, paintings and papier-maché sculptures emerged from these workshops, which has been carefully curated into an exhibition showing in Berlin ‘Welto and the Sacred Bush, learnings from Caribbean gardens’ from June 6th 2025 to March 29th 2026.
