history. And they don’t want to be connected to that. I think it’s often why it doesn’t get talked
about. ’Cause people just feel this immense shame. They don’t know how to deal with it.I always cry when I feel that
stuff. So we have to push
forward like all the Old People
had to and they had fucking
chains around their necks.
We have to continue to shine
light where we can. I’ve grown
to understand that that’s
something I’m meant to do,
everyone has a light. Mine’s
just a little bit more glamorous
than others’ sometimes but
we all have that equal role.
We’re all connecting the dots.
Look at all those dot paintings.
They’re all connected. They
all lead somewhere. We’re
all part of it. So we soldier on. And we have to be patient. That sadness that we feel, when
we see desperate times and we see desperate people, and we hear of all the youth suicide
and all the shit that’s going on. That sadness, as it always has, also gives us power.True.Oh right now. I’m sitting by the fire, a couple of pups, talking
to you. It’s pretty good. And you’re part of this. If you weren’t
on the phone I’d be sitting here with the pups by the fire
listening to the kookaburras, they’ve just finished. The
crickets have started up. The moon’s up now. Southern Cross
will appear. Daily reminder of the bigger picture, you know. I just like being outside. I take
my boat out and go for a spear or go for a surf. I love being with the pups, my dogs. I just like
observing what’s going on outside. I have a good job that way ’cause I can be outside, people
think musos are all, you know, stuck inside, and a lot of them are, but a lot of the time I work
inside for two hours or something and I can be outside the rest of the time! It works good for
me that way.Yeah, it is. I think that
sometimes people ask me
in interviews, “What do we
do? How do we change?
How does society change?” We cut down plastic use and all those things. Yeah, great, you
can do all those things. And they’re important. But I often think if everyone walked out of
their office every day and took their shoes off and just gave thanks for a second for a tree or
watched a bird pass over or something and gave thanks to the land every day, so imagine
every human being did that once a day, 30 seconds, and then went back to whatever they were
doing. I’d just feel like energetically that would be a massive shift in the vibration of humans.Yeah. Well it’s like what you’re saying before about your Uncle saying, “Don’t
worry, I feel sorry for him.” Because it is that concept that racism is an
illness. It’s a marker of somebody or a community that is really unwell. And
I think that that’s where we have to flip the narrative a little. Like we’re not
constantly the victims. Nor are we the perpetrators. But you can definitely
see a narrative for whitefellas where they’ve been robbed of so much. And
they’ve robbed themselves of it, but their future generations have really
copped the ramifications of that. One of the things that completely just
bowls me over when I’m overseas—and I do a lot of international work
with other First Nations communities—is the way that our people are
viewed. And even in places like Aotearoa where the culture is so strong and
unbroken in a way that we have missed out on, especially on the east coast,
there’s this understanding of us as the oldest living culture on earth. They
look to us as the grandmothers and the grandfathers. That reverence that
I have experienced as an Aboriginal person in other First Nations global
communities just brings tears to my eyes every time I talk about it.Well there are just some things that can never be taken away from you.
And they, at the end of the day, are really the only things that matter.
So you live a big life. You’re a dad and a muso
and a songwriter and a surfer! What does a
moment in your day look like when you feel the
absolute most alive and connected to spirit?It is the thing that brings you straight back into alignment. No matter what’s
going down. If you can be with Mother Earth, be with country, wherever you
are, even if it’s not your own country, it’s just that instant medicine isn’t it?95SHINES A LIGHTCONVERSATIONS