Just heard in the last 24 hours that an incredible Australian musician, one of this land's First People, has passed away in the last several days. Out of cultural respect, his name is not spoken after death, but I will share some of his music here, which does expose his name. The first song is wholly his. I detect a message (deliberate? I don't know) in the video clip: this is a Christian song, which indigenous Australians (with their own religion/spirituality) are forced to sing, but, on the other hand, it is a song which caucasian Australians (in the clip) are forced to sing in an indigenous language, rather than in English. So, it's kind of a quid pro quo thing that I see going on. Not sure if that's what we are supposed to take from the clip, but it's my take-away anyhow.
'Jesu'
The second clip I'm sharing is this recently-departed First People musician's collaboration with the Australian rapper, Briggs, as broadcast on one of our public radio broadcasters, Triple-J aka JJJ:
The Hunt
I hope you guys like this music. It's very sad that this talented musician has left us. Further information: he was blind from birth. He played a right-handed guitar left-handed (the remote region in which he was born didn't have any left-handed guitars). He taught himself how to play. Upside-down. He was also a key-but-low-key member of the bands Yothu Yindi, whose song,
Treaty was a hit in Australia in the late 80s - as it should have been; we're still waiting on that treaty - and the Saltwater Band. He spoke very little English, and relied on his English-speaking friends to speak for him to mainstream Australia.
Edit: here's
a tribute from his close friend, which is the article to which I was referred by a friend on Facebook which let me know that this special man had passed.