Created in response to a poem and a sad part of history.
"Poisoned Waterhole:
Violent disregard echoes.
Keenly felt today."
by Peita Vincent
This poem and history has particular personal significance for me. The being a white man as part of a land that was so violently colonized has been part of my journey of knowing myself: the sadness and guilt and anger and activism and acceptance and hope and connection and clearing and love.
One of the strange ancestral parallels that have been for me: My great-grandmother lived in Narrandera, my grandmother grew up in the street that led to the town-camp for the local black fellas. My friend Kaleena Briggs' family are also from that country too. In the early 2000's I recorded her band Stiff Gins ( https://www.facebook.com/stiffgins/ ) first album and accompanied them on their first international tour, both of us unaware that our families once lived near each other. I like to dream that our great-grandmothers might even have played together....
The ideas for this piece began with thinking of the wailing for the dead, then I began wailing through my sax so recorded that. That night we had a bonfire and I recorded it's crackling, with the thought to slow it right down. The next night I put them together also manipulating some of the sax and adding delay's (echos) and once the bed was made I wailed with my voice for four breaths.
Made as part of both Naviar Haiku and Disquiet Junto projects:
http://www.naviarrecords.com/2017/08/23/naviarhaiku190-poisoned-waterhole/
&
https://disquiet.com/2017/08/24/disquiet-junto-project-0295-disregard-echoes/
