Welcome to We Are the World – WATWB posts for August 2017. Our generous co-hosts this month are
and myself, Simon Falk. We are part of a team and encourage you to visit as many posts carrying the ‘We Are The World’ hashtag (#WATWB) as you would like to read.
In my country of Australia our relationship with our Indigenous brothers and sisters has been mixed. There has been some horrible history. We are very sorry and hope for an ever better present and future. This post features three stories that have come to my attention in recent weeks. They all celebrate good news coming from exploring culture.
Anh Do could be a WATWB feature in his own right. Here, I would like to spotlight his portrait of Jack Charles, in the Art Gallery of NSW as a 2017 entrant in the annual portrait competition, the Archibald Prize. Thanks to Aussie journalist, Siobhan Heanue for tweeting it for me to notice. What is interesting here is a vivacious portrait of a talented man. A man, who as an actor shows great promise for his people. Jack lived through being part of a stolen generation. He was addicted to heroine. But his acting and activism for indigenous needs shows the light he had become.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu featured in the news recently . His death was a source of sadness to many. The blind, left-handed guitarist thrilled us with the sounds of his deeply soulful singing. (OK, I’m left-handed too, and love seeing lefties play. On with the show!). Gurrumul’s tones and lyrics would, and still do, take us to places of depth and rest. Dr G, as he is often known, is a fitting WATWB person for his different ability was a source of life, love and joy to many. Check out his music on youtube. Please note that those clips may contain images of deceased persons. We respect their memory.
We celebrate not only the gift of Indigenous culture in art, stage, and music. But we also celebrate it in history. The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
Jabiru, Northern Territory: Aboriginal people have lived in Australia for a minimum of 65,000 years, a team of archaeologists has established – 18,000 years longer than had been proved previously and at least 5000 years longer than had been speculated by the most optimistic researchers.
Those archaeology and anthropology buffs out there can find more of that story here.
It all reflects to me a colour,
It sings to me a song.
It tells of a great story,
Saying how do we belong?
How to belong together,
Sharing our creativity,
and giving of our life.
In hearing music from our harmony,
And not the din of strife.
Simon C. J. Falk 25 August 2017
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Simon's still stanza 