Nova electronically modified chants about the creation of the Earth performed by the indigenous U'Wa people of Northeastern Colombia. The U'Wa don't have a written language and pass down knowledge and traditions through song – in the summer they gather to "sing the world into being". By incorporating their manipulated chants into her piece, blurring the boundaries between technology and the human voice, Nova raised questions about what it was like to be heard as an "other" at a time when indigenous grassroots movements were beginning to challenge the hegemony of the Colombian nation-state (which had legitimised Spanish as its de facto language after gaining its independence from Spain).
