Music
Press
Dr. Loretta Collins
Klobah
Associate Professor
English Department
Humanities Faculty
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
Still Dancing on John Wayne’s Head: Jamaican and
Indigenous Collaboration,
Dubwise from Canada to Bolivia and Brazil, from
Greenland to Vanuatu and the
Solomon Islands
Tek us outa dis Babylon
We tired fi live pon capture lan
------Count Ossiei
Deejays Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood, Dillinger, John
Wayne, Bandolero, Lady
Apache, and Trinity.ii Carlos Malcolm’s “Bonanza Ska,”
Derrick Harriot’s Crystalites
instrumentals—the Undertaker songs, Bob Marley’s “I
Shot the Sheriff” and “Buffalo
Soldiers,” and Peter Tosh’s LP Wanted Dread and Alive.
Rhygin’s poses as Wild West
gunslinger in the film The Harder They Come. Lee
‘Scratch’ Perry’s cowboy mixes
‘Django,’ ‘Clint Eastwood,’ and ‘Van Cleef.’
Yellowman’s “Wild Wild West,” Bounti
Killa’s “How the West was Won,” and Super Cat’s “Scalp
Dem.”
Jamaican popular music has a history of strategically
absorbing motifs and
soundtracks of Hollywood Western films, which, of
course, provide distorted images of
Native American culture. At the same time, aboriginal
peoples around the globe have felt
a deep kinship with Jamaican reggae music’s Rastafari
spirituality, messages of
resistance against Babylon, outcry against oppression
and poverty, praise for natural and
traditional lifeways, and use of the chant and
Nyahbinghi drumming.iii As reggae
ambassadors have carried the message and music to
locations distant from Jamaica, some
musicians and poets—such as Freddie McGregor, Big
Youth, the Meditations, Michigan
& Smiley, Toots and the Maytals, Culture, Mutabaruka,
Oku Onuora, and Jean Binta
Breeze—have had the opportunity of developing a
genuine “culture connection” with
indigenous peoples by either performing at events with
First Nations artists or by playing
on Native American reservations.iv Likewise,
indigenous reggae bands have emerged
from Greenland to the South Pacific.v
Arguably, of all musical entities from the Jamaican
diaspora, The Fire This Time
(1992-present) and Indigenous Resistance/ Indigenous
Reality (2003-present) (two interrelated
artistic and social action collectives first founded
in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Rio De Janeiro Brasil
)
have carried out the most sustained and sincere effort
of fostering cultural, musical, and
political collaborations between African peoples,
Jamaicans, Blakk Indians, indigenous
peoples, and other cultures of resistance.vi These
collectives have created powerful dub
music anthems by blending Jamaican roots, Nyahbinghi,
jazz, hip-hop, junglist, and
futuristic sounds with segments of interviews with
Blakk/Indian artists and activists,
indigenous poetry, singing, and traditional chants. In
the process, they have worked with
some of the best sound engineers and mixers today,
including Lee “Scratch” Perry,
Adrian Sherwoodvii, Mark Stewart, Bobby Marshall of On
U Sound, Chuck D. of Public
Enemy, Mad Professor, Augustus Pabloviii, and Asian
Dub Foundation’s Dr. Das.ix
However, TFTT and IR do not covet commercial
super-success in the “World
Music” market. Rather, members of the TFTT and IR/IR
collectives have travelled the
world for more than twenty years in an effort to
seriously promote intercultural
understanding and solidarity between indigenous and
black peoples. Accordingly, their
work has a simply amazing geographical coverage,
magnitude and scope. Their audio
recordings, films, books, web-page projects and
community development projects have
taken them to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala,
, Peru, Bolivia,Paraguay,
Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Nova
Scotia,Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands
(and
other small islands of Oceania), Tonga,West Papua , ,
Senegal, South Africa,Mozambique,Zimbabwe,Ethiopia
and U.S. locations, including Detroit, San Francisco,
and the Supai Village at the Bottom
of the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest. Out of
these travels, they have gained
contacts, cultural understanding, and wisdom from
indigenous artists and communities
that are often under siege. Recognized in Canada by an
ImagiNative Festival Award for
new media work, their innovative website
www.firethistime.com documents their tremendous
projects,
travels, and the struggles and victories of their
collaborators.x
Members of the TFTT and IR/IR collectives are quick to
declare that even though
they have travelled extensively and worked in
partnership with many artists and social
reform workers of indigenous groups, such as the
Mohawk, Mapuche, Kuna, Aymara,
Okanagan, Quechua and Krikati, they are not trying to
proclaim a “We are the World”
pop music message of unity. In North America, anxiety
over the loss of natural resources,
alienation from the natural world, spiritual
confusion, and nostalgia for a
Hollywoodesque “Wild West” society has provoked the
continuing New Age
rom - Jamaica Journal 2007
Dr. Loretta Collins
Klobah
Associate Professor
English Department
Humanities Faculty
University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras
Still Dancing on John Wayne’s Head: Jamaican and
Indigenous Collaboration,
Dubwise from Canada to Bolivia and Brazil, from
Greenland to Vanuatu and the
Solomon Islands
Tek us outa dis Babylon
We tired fi live pon capture lan
------Count Ossiei
Deejays Josey Wales, Clint Eastwood, Dillinger, John
Wayne, Bandolero, Lady
Apache, and Trinity.ii Carlos Malcolm’s “Bonanza Ska,”
Derrick Harriot’s Crystalites
instrumentals—the Undertaker songs, Bob Marley’s “I
Shot the Sheriff” and “Buffalo
Soldiers,” and Peter Tosh’s LP Wanted Dread and Alive.
Rhygin’s poses as Wild West
gunslinger in the film The Harder They Come. Lee
‘Scratch’ Perry’s cowboy mixes
‘Django,’ ‘Clint Eastwood,’ and ‘Van Cleef.’
Yellowman’s “Wild Wild West,” Bounti
Killa’s “How the West was Won,” and Super Cat’s “Scalp
Dem.”
Jamaican popular music has a history of strategically
absorbing motifs and
soundtracks of Hollywood Western films, which, of
course, provide distorted images of
Native American culture. At the same time, aboriginal
peoples around the globe have felt
a deep kinship with Jamaican reggae music’s Rastafari
spirituality, messages of
resistance against Babylon, outcry against oppression
and poverty, praise for natural and
traditional lifeways, and use of the chant and
Nyahbinghi drumming.iii As reggae
ambassadors have carried the message and music to
locations distant from Jamaica, some
musicians and poets—such as Freddie McGregor, Big
Youth, the Meditations, Michigan
& Smiley, Toots and the Maytals, Culture, Mutabaruka,
Oku Onuora, and Jean Binta
Breeze—have had the opportunity of developing a
genuine “culture connection” with
indigenous peoples by either performing at events with
First Nations artists or by playing
on Native American reservations.iv Likewise,
indigenous reggae bands have emerged
from Greenland to the South Pacific.v
Arguably, of all musical entities from the Jamaican
diaspora, The Fire This Time
(1992-present) and Indigenous Resistance/ Indigenous
Reality (2003-present) (two interrelated
artistic and social action collectives first founded
in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and Rio De Janeiro Brasil
)
have carried out the most sustained and sincere effort
of fostering cultural, musical, and
political collaborations between African peoples,
Jamaicans, Blakk Indians, indigenous
peoples, and other cultures of resistance.vi These
collectives have created powerful dub
music anthems by blending Jamaican roots, Nyahbinghi,
jazz, hip-hop, junglist, and
futuristic sounds with segments of interviews with
Blakk/Indian artists and activists,
indigenous poetry, singing, and traditional chants. In
the process, they have worked with
some of the best sound engineers and mixers today,
including Lee “Scratch” Perry,
Adrian Sherwoodvii, Mark Stewart, Bobby Marshall of On
U Sound, Chuck D. of Public
Enemy, Mad Professor, Augustus Pabloviii, and Asian
Dub Foundation’s Dr. Das.ix
However, TFTT and IR do not covet commercial
super-success in the “World
Music” market. Rather, members of the TFTT and IR/IR
collectives have travelled the
world for more than twenty years in an effort to
seriously promote intercultural
understanding and solidarity between indigenous and
black peoples. Accordingly, their
work has a simply amazing geographical coverage,
magnitude and scope. Their audio
recordings, films, books, web-page projects and
community development projects have
taken them to Jamaica, Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala,
, Peru, Bolivia,Paraguay,
Columbia, Ecuador, Chile, Brazil, Nova
Scotia,Australia, Vanuatu, Fiji, the Solomon Islands
(and
other small islands of Oceania), Tonga,West Papua , ,
Senegal, South Africa,Mozambique,Zimbabwe,Ethiopia
and U.S. locations, including Detroit, San Francisco,
and the Supai Village at the Bottom
of the Grand Canyon in the American Southwest. Out of
these travels, they have gained
contacts, cultural understanding, and wisdom from
indigenous artists and communities
that are often under siege. Recognized in Canada by an
ImagiNative Festival Award for
new media work, their innovative website
www.firethistime.com documents their tremendous
projects,
travels, and the struggles and victories of their
collaborators.x
Members of the TFTT and IR/IR collectives are quick to
declare that even though
they have travelled extensively and worked in
partnership with many artists and social
reform workers of indigenous groups, such as the
Mohawk, Mapuche, Kuna, Aymara,
Okanagan, Quechua and Krikati, they are not trying to
proclaim a “We are the World”
pop music message of unity. In North America, anxiety
over the loss of natural resources,
alienation from the natural world, spiritual
confusion, and nostalgia for a
Hollywoodesque “Wild West” society has provoked the
continuing New Age
rom - Jamaica Journal 2007
Discography
IR1 Knocking Out Powerlines
IR2 Indigenous Resistance
IR 3 Galdino
IR 4 Te Unga
IR 10 Indigenous Dublands (NEW CD)
IR11 instinto revolucionario
IR12 mon ami (song for mumia &leonard peltier)
IR13 Tattoo
Photos
Bio
Indigenous Resistance was created in 2003 on the streets of Rio de Janeiro,Brasil by black and indigenous activists where they iniated their "freedub" series- which are vinyl records given free of charge to the public.
IR releases have focussed on issues of social injustice .IR1 was recorded on location in the brasilian jungle with the krikati indians who were fighting for land demarcation rights.IR3 featured members of the indigenous resistance movement for a free west papua.IR4 was a project of healing& reconcilliation among indigenous peoples of the Solomon islands.IR11 marked ten years since the tragic murder of the patoxo indian Galdino who was set on fire by the children of brasil's elite as a "joke".
When Galdinos killers were back on the streets after recieving light sentences and preferential treatment, IR created posters and t shirts that said"these bastards killed galdino " and listed their names.The resulting publicity drew attention back to the case.
IR is a completely autonomous ,independent ,self sufficient entity who create their work using the motto of "minimum resources ,maximum cooperation" When the topics of recording were too controversial for the brasilian media and records stores to touch; IR created their own alternative distribution system with used vinyl record seller Zumbi distributing IR recordings through his hand drawn cart in the streets of Rio de Janeiro.IR through sheer necessity has pioneered ways to create music using email and filesharing as their tools to faciltate their work with indigenous people in remote scenarios ( and for those who think that using technology is incongruous with being an indigenous person remember the technolgy the Incas used to build the Macchu Piccu and the brain sugery operations they performed there in ancient times).IR recordings have involved scenarios where participants have taken boats from remote islands to reach an internet provider where they can upload files. IR focus is on cooperative projects and a further example of this was how in 2007 IR collobrated with the brasilian soundsystem Dubdem to release 3 freedub seven inch vinyl and to create a Dubdem soundsytem website (www.dubdem.com.br )which was completely interactive with the IR website( www/dubreality.com).These were all done with IR members on the remote south pacific island of sosolakam connecting across the oceans with dubdem in brasil via internet.IR has evolved into a worldwide conspiracy involving indigenous activists and artists in various parts of the globe linking via internet with subversive minded producers,engineers and producers like adrian sherwood,mad mike (UR) dr das ,bobby marshall, sun j (asian dub foundation). IR10 Indigenous Dublands reflects this confluence .Producers like steven stanley(black uhuru , b52s ,talking heads) soy sos (soma mestizo,3 generations walking) ramjac(herbie hancock,mark stewart) downsound (jamaica) tapedave(mt dublab)enconter musicians dr das(ex asian dub foundation) sly n robie , saevo (solomon islands) with vocalists tohununo (providing traditional singing from the solomon islands) jimmy dick (swampy cree traditional singing from turtle island and christiane d (soma mestizo) IR10 was recorded &mixed in the solomon islands,sosolakam,jamaica,uk, brasil and turtle island.
The result is a mixture of funk,dub,traditonal indigenous singing spoken word ,tablas and never before recorded instruments from the solomon islands .More details on individual tracks can be found on the IR website www.dubreality.com. and if you search for the compound word indigenousresistance on Youtube you can also find IR video s& documentaries.
O I.R. é um novo selo musical lançado em 2003 pelo TFTT (The Fire This Time) que aborda os temas
Resistência Indígena e Realidade Indígena. Questões e exemplos relacionados a estes temas, que normalmente não recebem a devida atenção, serão destacados em nossos trabalhos.
O selo I.R. é parte integrante do Projeto TFTT Freedub e, por isso, oferece oportunidades de você adquirir vinis, livros e pôsteres grátis. Por se tratar de uma iniciativa independente, os lançamentos do I.R. são produzidos com o mínimo de recursos e com o máximo de colaboração e empenho de todos os envolvidos, uma! família de companheiros voluntários que acredita no espírito e na efetividade da resistência. Todos temos capacidade de lutar contra o sistema. Todos temos um a papel a desempenhar.
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