KING OF ORDINARY THNGS
This one was recorded live at the Illawarra Folk Festival.
For people like me who think a lot about the state of the world, it can be quite overwhelming and somewhat depressing!
But it is important for us to remember the wonderfulness of the so-called 'ordinary' things in life. When you do, the world is transformed into a much nicer place!
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BIG PICTURE
I wrote this song because I am so worried about the climate emergency. I am equally upset that our politicians are not acting urgently or comprehensively enough to prevent its very worst effects.
This song is an open letter to our politicians. It seems they are only interested in their short-term goal of winning their next election. Well, there are no elections on a dead planet!
Politicians need to look at the big picture and take urgent and drastic action on climate change, or our planet will soon become uninhabitable.
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FIGHT FOR THE TREES
I wrote this song after watching yet another gut-wrenching documentary about the destruction of our beautiful forests. I am so upset by this.
That destruction is undertaken by companies given permission to do so by our governments. What are we doing??!!
We are losing trees at an unsustainable and unconscionable rate. Trees are an essential part of the biosphere, a biosphere that we depend upon to live. The basic fact is that we humans can't survive without trees and all that they provide to the world.
We all have to Fight for the Trees!
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MANUS
This song won a Bronze Medal at the 2023 Global Music Awards.
This song is about the Manus Island regional processing centre created by the Australian Government to process asylum seekers arriving by boat.
It was created to be a cruel and dehumanising deterrent to desperate people needing to find sanctuary in Australia. It was a despicable creation.
In that centre, people were murdered, people died from lack of appropriate medical attention, people died by suicide, women were raped and sexually assaulted, people were bashed by guards and locals. The UN deemed that conditions contravened the UN Convention on Torture.
Successive Australian governments continued torturing people on this island for many years until public outcry and lawsuits that successfully sued the government eventually led to the shutdown of the centre.
But we as Australian voters have to ask ourselves, "Why did we vote for (i.e., support) political parties who created and maintained this disgraceul torture center? Why did we not vote for parties that vowed to close this inhumane facility?"
This whole episode will continue to be a massively shameful part of our recent history.
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MODERN WORLD
As I reflected on the reality of modern day Australia I realised that the very uncomfortable truth is that Australians today live on land that was forcibly taken from people who had lived here for over 60,000 years. To forcibly take something from someone who owns it is theft in anyone's language. We live on stolen ground.
I wanted to write a song that acknowledged and admitted to that injustice.
First Nations people continue to suffer as a result of that theft that began 230 years ago and shockingly enough continues today, as mining companies take and destroy First Nations land and sacred sites for the almighty dollar.
I believe we all have an obligation to fight for restorative justice for First Nations people.
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THE SHOW
Sometimes I despair at the apparent apathy of Australians towards social issues and politics. Then I remember that we are being constantly manipulated by politicians and the media to distract us from being engaged in anything other than trying to pay the rent/mortgage.
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STAND UP
I wrote this song to remind me, and us, that this is OUR country, and if we want it to be better then we have to stand up and take action against those who are trying to ruin it to serve their own self-interest.
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