When the Wind Speaks, May We Listen unfolds as an act of intercession, an attempt to peel back layers of time and history, drawing contradictions to the surface for deeper reflection. The poetry of Jaleleddin Rumi, a philosopher from Balkh, in present-day Afghanistan, serves as a tool for understanding the present moment. Though his words originate from a distant place and time, they resonate within this context, illuminating the paradoxes of belonging. Kwenzakaleni? What has happened?

A powerful gust of wind toppled an oak tree that had stood since 1865 in the grounds of the Moederkerk, a church built in 1723. Once deeply rooted, the monumental tree now lies fallen, no longer gripping the soil that once held it firm. Its life and eventual fall speak to broader social histories, displacement, transplantation, and the fragile illusion of permanence. For many in the local community, the tree lives on in memory, carrying a kind of afterlife.

The fallen oak is approached not only as a relic of the past but as a witness to the complexities of belonging. How many prayers did its leaves hear? How many weddings and burials did it observe? What relationship existed between the tree and the Indigenous people of Stellenbosch? In what ways was it integrated into their practices? And what kind of naturalisation did this tree undergo in its adopted landscape?

Now, 160 years later, the same wind and heart rot that brought the tree down echo histories, both spoken and silenced, of settlers, of displaced Indigenous peoples, and of the land itself resisting imposed narratives. Its fall urges a confrontation with the weight of memory. It calls for a gaze beneath the surface to the root to examine what is memorialised and what is allowed to decay.

When the Wind Speaks, May We Listen is a project grounded in listening: to the land, to its layered past, and to the stories that emerge when what once stood begins to fall apart.

Special thanks to:

• Stellenbosch Moederkerk

• Overberg Arborists

• Stellenbosch Trail Fund

• Jeroen Slee

• Oude Leeskamer          

• Nonke Plants        

• Stellenbosch Sandblasting & Signage