Geoffrey
When I created this blog, it was so I can talk about music, movies, art, computers, gadgets, and some comedy… But somehow this blog took on a life of its own.
I have not set rules as to what I will and will not touch, and I will keep it flowing freely, afterall, it is a personal blog.
So in talking about music, I would like to write about an aboriginal musician with a voice that takes me to another world. Music has this hold over people, it talks to us at a primitive level, no little child can resist a rhythm unless something was not right… And it is at tha level that music is able to touch us, even when we do not understand the words.
I came across Geoffrey a little over a year ago, I am always on the lookout for new music, and my iPod is full, which means I have to delete songs anytime I need to add new tracks. I think it was during the time SBS had a show called the First Australians, which was a great show.
Indigenous people in Australia, America, Africa were treated badly, and genocides were carried out against them, those practices were carried out to a certain extent in the middle east (by Saddam against Kurds, and by Israel against Palestinians) China against Tibet, the list goes on and on, and segregation was and still is carried out. I have no doubt in my mind that had oil been discovered before the area was stable enough, we… “the indigenous people of the area” would’ve probably been living in designated areas not much different than the reservations in America for Native Americans. Many of the older generation in Aramco remember the whites only drinking water, and the old shacks that the local workers lived in, which were somewhat similar to those in India and South Africa… Back to music.
Geoffrey was blind since birth, and he plays the guitar in a similar way to Seal and Babyface, right-handed guitar played upside down. His voice is so sweet, and the music is easy listening. He sings in the language of Yolngu, and his lyrics are mostly about creation as understood by Aboriginals.
It is fascinating to me how aboriginals explained the world around them, and reading some of the lyrics is very eye opening, since I knew nothing about the nations that once roamed these lands.
I do believe that music is a bridge between people, between the here and now, and that which once was, and that which one day will be, and I am disappointed at the efforts of many countries, including my own, that have not tried to preserve the old for the next generations.
Enjoy Djarimirri, and the translation here
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Wow! Impressive new esthetics for your blog!
This is wonderful music, thank you for sharing it.
As usual your post set off an number of associations, from thinking this morning of Canada’s ungoing shameful treatment of its First Nations peoples who have medical statistics, and living conditions closer to those of the first rather than the 3rd world to the wonderful Native Canadian singing group Kashtin, whose 2 members parted when one had ongoing drug addiction problems.
However, I was most struck by your evocation of the “white only” drinking water at Aramco. Where to start! The meanings of Caucasian,or white, ie Arabs are “white” racially, or the signs I saw in Shanghai that DID say “No Dogs or Chinamen Allowed”(in the park, on the grass, whatever),somewhere else? Somewhere else being the chilling experience I had recently of seeing a map online of Casablanca in 1954. What started out as mild annoyance at not finding a more contemporary one, turned into amusement at the pre-independence place and street names. And, I was having a nice tour around the downtown and the Corniche until I came across “Hôpital” (in the wrong place from the new ones) and then was stunned to read on a separate building “Infirmerie des Indigènes” (Nursing Station for the Indigenous). It’s not like I didn’t know that this was how colonial medicine operated there and elsewhere, I’d even written on it, and attended lectures on the tragic history of colonial “Psychiatry” in Morocco and elsewhere with its far off, over crowded, underserviced warehouses for the “fous indigènes”, and beliefs about the psychic inferiority of the indigenous peoples,in this case, Arabs and Berbers.
Somehow seeing it labelled so banally on a map of locations in Casablanca made it more real, and too close for comfort–right near the Palais des Expositions and on the way to the beach on a boulevard I have walked many times.Your couple of sentences about Aramco had the same effect. At the time the prevalent attitude made these things banal, except of course for the designated “indigenous people”. Very powerful!
Edit: …closer to those of the 3rd rather than the 1st world…
Qusay – love the new look!
When we lived in Australia, I spent hours with the Aboriginal artwork, learning about the culture and the customs of the various artists/styles and the secret meaning behind every dot and scribble. Truly a fascinating people and, frankly, a really really sad story – one which can easily be heard in the hauntingly simple music. I’ll have to put some of my Aussie CDs back on the iTouch!
Chiara, thanks for sharing our experience, people came a long way… And we still have a long way to go…
Yes you remind me of India which also had Indians and dogs not allowed, first seen by me in an old Indian movie when I was young… Couldn’t figure out why? But the events were in India… Why can’t Indians go in… Ahhh, the bliss of ignorance… Which I still feel almost everyday
Thanks Sigme, the new theme was an accident, Which after it happened… I did not mind, found it a little better…
I would love to hear about your experiences and life in Australia… Hopefully soon on your blog? Please?