A piece of oratory by Aboriginal writer Jeannette Armstrong set to dub music, this song comes perfect for creating a relevant point after the successful campaign by Ian Campeau from A tribe called red, which now became a much bigger issue as now it moves from the independent platform to a bigger picture, now the discussion has been raised in mainstream American media.
Having in mind Indigenous Resistance, has some of the best players in the planet, Adrian Sherwood, Lee Perry, Deeder Zaman, Mad Professor, you name it!! Every big player in the dub supports I.R!!!
So, it is not surprise this track rocks!! specially with Asian Dub Foundation’s Dr Das on bass!!
EDIT NOTE: Dr Das is not actually playing, but instead a conspirator and here’s his own words about the track:
The track was created in the 80s and appeared on the TTFT (The Fire This Time) cassette compilation titled “Your Silence Will Not Protect You.” I recall the band responsible for the music as being Vision Band. This tape was handed to me by a Canadian friend and had a massive impact on me, particularly this track featuring Jeanette Armstrong. Her words were edited from a speech she made to young Aboriginals. She was softly spoken and yet incisive. It was and remains such a lesson in how to engage and inspire people and carried weight because of her direct involvement in the struggle. To this day, spoken word and interesting dub remains my favourite combination of sound and voice.
Now. Let’s check the wicked track:
As we said before, this is a piece of oratory by Aboriginal writer Jeannette Armstrong set to dub music…this is a radical speech and uplifting speech which is not only incisively dissects some of the subtle and not so subtle ways that racism and colonialism works to undercut the self esteem of individuals but it also clearly makes the point that WE ARE VALUABLE AS HUMAN BEINGS AND WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.. here is an excerpt of what Jeannette Armstrong has to say .” the onus is on each one of us..the onus is not on someone else, we can not say who am I to do anything about it .I’m just one little person, i cant change the system i cant do anything about it ,everyone of us has that responsibility , everyone of us can take on that responsibility , everyone of us are responsible, whether we want to be or don’t want to be, things happen through action or non action, its your choice, you can be a teacher and you are always a teacher no matter what you do even if you don’t want to be , but you are, you either teach good or you teach bad”
special thanks to graig and others in the shadows for this track and for dr das for inspiring us to put this track up again.
I’m (Dr Das) not actually playing on this. The track was created in the 80s and appeared on the TTFT (The Fire This Time) cassette compilation titled “Your Silence Will Not Protect You.” I recall the band responsible for the music as being HMS Dub. This tape was handed to me by a Canadian friend and had a massive impact on me, particularly this track featuring Jeanette Armstrong. Her words were edited from a speech she made to young Aboriginals. She was softly spoken and yet incisive. It was and remains such a lesson in how to engage and inspire people and carried weight because of her direct involvement in the struggle. To this day, spoken word and interesting dub remains my favourite combination of sound and voice. (Check my track “Barbaric Society” ft Arundhati Roy.)
yes jeannette armstrong is very amazing …she and douglas cardinal talk about the concept of ” soft power” and this speech is an example of that ..hardcore and soft at the same time …it is quite a statement that a speech made so long ago could have been yesterday and is still so relevant ..its why at first we didnt put up the date and details of recording …..the band responsible for the music was Vision band….glad to know that there are folks like Tropical Bass that can zone into subversive music ..dubwise TFTT the fire this time