Thanks Virginia Bott for reminding me of this beautiful album that Emma Tonkin made with First Chorus Band of Singers.

I’d been a big fan of Emma’s work for years, so it was inspiring to be a part of the recording ..and what an experience that was, learning the complex rhythms and harmonies Virginia and Emma created to accompany Emma’s deeply moving songs. If you’ve never listened to it, here’s your chance. (Listen below on this page, or over at bandcamp.)

• emmatonkin.bandcamp.com
• Plus the CD comes with stunning artwork by Jessie Tucker.
• First Chorus is also on soundcloud at firstchorusbandofsingers

“You Can’t Ask That” is a great series. Just watched the Indigenous and sex workers episodes, both made me cry and laugh.

It’s interesting because the ABC is often accused of being “politically correct”, but here they deliberately open up discussion to all the questions that are likely to offend people. It’s even good to watch the stupid questions, because we can see how people get exasperated when they are pigeon-holed by ignorant stereotypes.

Watch it over on ABC iView, so you’ll never have to ask these questions again.

It’s also making me think about the term “politically correct”, and why people hate either what they perceive the term represents, or the way the term is used.

1. The Left: Many people think you should go out of your way to be nice to other people. We see oppressed minorities, and think, “How can we build a more inclusive community?” At the very least, if you someone is different from you, don’t offer them verbal abuse or stereotypes.
2. The Right: Many other people see this as an incursion on their “free speech”. How are we going to say anything if we’re always afraid of offending someone, if there’s a grade book hovering above all conversations, waiting to pounce and label any perpetrator “racist” or “sexist”.

There’s a few more layers of complexity in this idea.. not sure i have the brainpower to tease it out right now, but it’s definitely a point of division in Australian political debate. Probably better to just watch the rest of the episodes. I’ve been told to watch especially the ones about Muslim people and Dwarf people.

Magical work from Melbourne’s Gretta Ray, who has just taken out the TripleJ Unearthed High best in class award. I saw Gretta play last year with If You See Her Say Hello, and she is really great. Here’s an old video from Sofar in July 2015. Can’t rave enough about this singer-songwriter; her lyrics and vocals are astonishing and beautiful.

Oh wait, here’s the “surprise” video from TripleJ, with Amarina and Mim somewhere in the background, because they are her awesome teachers.

Busker Stories is a relatively recent production from Mashup Pictures.

Episode 1 features Tash Sultana, whose name has been getting a lot bigger lately, talking about how street performing affects her art and audience.  I like the way they’ve put this show together.

“I was born at a time when the Australian government knew how many sheep there were, but not how many Aboriginal people.. I was 10 years old before the 1967 referendum fixed that. The first 10 years of my life were spent as a non-citizen.”

Linda Burney is the first indigenous woman to be elected to the federal House of Representatives. She’s the member for Barton, and has previously been deputy leader of the NSW opposition. Here’s her maiden speech to the Australian federal parliament.

Lynette Riley, who made the cloak, sings from the gallery around the 8 minute mark.

A few people have posted an extract, so i went looking for the full speech

Also transcript and audio here http://goo.gl/A5iPB2

#SovereigntyNeverCeded