Response: Genesis 3:21 (Re-read)

By Talitha Fraser

In March this year Glenn Loughrey’s work invited a re-reading Genesis 3.10. I was much struck by the ways being subject to gaze in this reading makes others subject to shame (but the shame is a colonial import), makes others subject to constriction
(but the lack of freedom is a colonial import). Take a moment to reflect who might your gaze be upon to police dress or behaviour, what might we note of import?

I heard in this post an invitation myself to first note: What do I remember this passage being about or meaning? Then secondly, re-reading Chapter 3 to see what’s actually there. In my mind humankind were instantly cursed and cast out of the garden – punished, shunned and shamed by God. But God does not in fact shame nor take direct action to cut off. Verse 21 speaks about God sewing skins and to dress humankind which is a kind of tending to this awakening. To make garments is a craft that has not been needed or known until now. To identify and kill animals of the right kind and number, cleaning the pelts, treating and curing them, then sewing them together and fashioning this material into garments is a process which takes time. God can’t – doesn’t – won’t – undo the Knowing but helps humankind know how to live going forward.

This Knowing/Un-knowing cycle continues in ways that humankind still acts against its own best interests in relation to Country: Resource extraction when these are finite; pollution when sea-levels still rise; data centres when information no longer accurately informs.

Our familial relationship to Country (to Creation) has been sundered. We know what is required to connect in right relationship (towards balance and restoration) and we do not do it. Humankind had a choice then, and humankind has a choice now.

The exposure “exposes”
what was always visible:
you do not know what’s good for you.

The Creator sews the pieces together
I am Known,
the known is Known.
nothing can ever be Unknown.

Preparation, treatment, stitches,
you are covered but not recovered.
You are in a new land.
You will have to learn how to live in it.

Talitha Fraser, Ngāi Tahu/Pākehā poet living on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country
Curator of The Recollective and member of the Ako Room