"ANd...where oFf!!.."

I have echoes bouncing around in my memory banks (.2K) of somebody recommending un-filtered journal/blog entries...so here goes some cerebral diaorreah (I hope I spelt that correctly..) actually I've failed already as I see myself deleting and correcting....anywaaaay. Tze Ming Mok; Yes I got it, read it...twice and a bit more sporadic referencing at our noho...I didn't feel any new internal reactions or ripples from the read other than acknowledging (again) the analogy of hearing the very familiar, distraught, waiata patere (look it up) of perpetual, institutionalised racism on a popular ZM/FM type radio station that becomes 'background comfort noise'...and I think therein lies the concern - that the ubiquitous, daily rhetoric of colonial imbalance has become that...daily. Unbelievable. I saw yesterday a Fish and Game Councillor actually say "some chick scientist think whitebaiters should hold hands and sing kumbaya...". Wow...I'm needing an optimistic, generational solution. Hopefully time will be our friend for the Ken Cochranes of the world...

Personally I have a real problem with using colour when we talk about anything cultural. I loathe the idea that when we say 'White people', that we lump ALL white people into the category of racist capitalists...My grandparents were from Scotland/England and came here to get away from that shit! ...or when we say brown people, we immediately react with some internal visual of a negative statistic...or ALL black people are great dancers and Hip Hop gangsters...noooooo. During a Jazz masterclass, Wynton Marsalis instructed us otherwise...Am i missing something? Is it too exhausting to say 'An assumed person of privileged colonialist heritage (APPCH) asked a person of assumed non-privileged non-commonwealth origins (NPNCO), where they were from?" .... yeah a bit of a mouthful. In my hobbyist readings of English history, I'm thinking how colonial British Political and Commonwealth origins stemmed from the Picts, Normans, Saxons, Celts all being colonised themselves by the Brown, quasi-ochre, tawny, caramel, hickory, cedar, cinnamon Romans! I'm no historian but this shit is constant... We can't disregard Māori from being this embroiled in this colonial equation either; the slaughter and pursuit of the Moriori people and the warfare between numerous hapu and iwi...if humanity were a mathematical algorithm, I have no doubt that: Oppression + resources($$) mass/poverty squared = success ... I am a hippie romantic. "I believe the children are our future....treat them well and let them lead the way...show them all the beauty they posess in-siiiiiiiiiiiide...give them a sense of pride..to make it easier...let the children's laughter....remind us how we uuuused to beee...." Cheesy but FUUUUCKen on-point! Pardon moi...

Yes we live in a heavily un-balanced, heavily weighted, favoured colonial framed political/cultural paradigm that is needing to be severely addressed; I don't intend to sound belittling of the un-warranted, un-just, racism that Tze and Phung both went through during their whakatipuranga - I want to celebrate their battles won by them (and others).I want to celebrate their ongoing tenacity and engagement FOR us all here in Aotearoa. I am picking up (sounding like that psychic programme on tele...) on the wins - her defiance of the group of National Front members and the skin head punk who she deflected with her super-powers of Qi-Gong and reading a little more on her current work; her constant work as a transparency facilitator or conduit from NZ Asian perspective. Battles and warfare seem to be a constant byproduct of human existence; pre-dating capitalism. Even if a community was to practice passive resistance and aroha (Parihaka), conflict and fight would find its way in...and you can bet the 'carrier' would be a human construct with political intentions. On one hand I feel fortunate that this generation hasn't had to engage in war like a lot of our grandparents were conscripted into, but I feel anxious about today's battles being more nefarious, underground, digital, insidious, political, seedy...names that should not be named...My creative practice goes back to our tamariki. I see my 2 beautiful children both being accepting, open little humans. I see them acknowledging diversity and celebrating difference. I see them (and their friends) comprehending and rejecting racism, prejudice, injustice etc. My wife and I are challenged with consumerism and the digital realm (as many parents are). I don't think any other generations have had to confront this issue. I can't imagine 2 generations ago that Grandpa had to scold my dad for playing outside too much or my mum getting told off for having picked too many Tawa berries for pudding....aaahh this A.I ...I.O...crazy world. I am feeling my work gravitate more towards our tamariki. A friend of mine asked me "Why don't you write a kids album?" I replied "I have already." Kids understand adult music...my kids hear Home, Land and Sea and know exactly what Im singing about...naaa I'm going sonic sculpture aimed at the lil cherubs...cos they are amazing. Time for coffee#1...x

"He was Brown.."