Blood donors required nation-wide
There is urgent requirement for blood donors needed across Australia as plasma and blood donation supply is low.
Purple wheely bins for a cause
A Gold Coast community has created an organisation using flashing purple wheely bins to collect recyclables in a bid to raise money for the fight against domestic violence.
Queensland borders to remain closed
Premier Anastacia Palaszczuk is keeping Queensland’s border closed until there are zero community transmissions of COVID 19 in NSW or Victoria.
Naretha Williams - 'Blak Mass'
Naretha Williams (pronounced Nar-eth-ah) is a First Nations experimental interdisciplinary artist with a primary focus on music and audio arts practice. A Wiradjuri woman of mixed lineage, born and based in Melbourne on the Sovereign Land of the Kulin Nation, Victoria, Australia, Naretha's process-based work intersects installation and contemporary music, exploring themes around identity, place and the unseen. Ritual and esoteric practice underpins both process and presentation of her work. Naretha's diverse musical interests span from narrative score through to contemporary electronic music.
Blak Mass is Naretha Williams' debut album, and was commissioned by The City Of Melbourne for a live performance in 2019. Blak Mass sees Naretha combine the gargantuan Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ with live electronics to realise her complex progressive compositions. Blak Mass reflects on the city’s jarring civic history and the impact of colonisation on its First Peoples and Land, through an experimental, site specific musical performance developed for the Melbourne Town Hall Grand Organ.
Blak Mass considers the Grand Organ as a significant symbol of European domination and reaches deep in to the psyche of the instrument to create a haunting, avant-garde sound work. Naretha Williams was awarded 'Best Experimental or Avant-Garde Act' at the 2019 Music Victoria Awards for the live performance of Blak Mass. Writing for The Age, Aleksandra Bliszczyk describes Blak Mass as "reclaiming an organ of colonial domination".
Its title may indeed conjure pearl-clutching anxieties about the summoning of ‘dark’ forces and the opening of portals between forbidden realms. These concepts are central to Naretha William’s stunning Grand Organ commission which is a direct confrontation with ideas of established power, conservative gatekeeping and cultural dominance in Australian society
Blak Mass is the second iteration of Naretha Williams’ CRYPTEX composition project. CRYPTEX – Bio Templates & Ceremonial Frameworks for Contemporary Composition utilises the source code of the body by analysing DNA sequences to create mathematical templates to work with in a musical context.
"My identity, bloodline and place are a continual point of enquiry given the vast complexity of my own experience and how this relates to being a Wiradjuri First Nations woman on our continent.
Through my extensive artistic explorations as well as technical, cultural, social, esoteric and scientific interests, I have come to intensely challenge the notions of being and belonging. Over years of trying to integrate my own personal lineage and cultural point of reference, I am led to the very core of our genetic make-up, our DNA. Combined with an effort to resolve my displacement of Country, I search for parallels and bridges in our Songlines.
Cryptex presents opportunities to explore these concepts in depth by focusing on core codes, experimentation and methodology within defined parameters."
- Naretha Williams.
17th August 2020
Gordon Koang: Unity (Music In Exile)^
Unity by Gordon KoangOkay Kaya: Surviving Is The New Living (Jagjaguwar / Inertia)
ZEDLINES - AUGUST 17
[Image: Flickr]
Leaking oil carrier to be sunk off Mauritius
An oil carrier which ran aground off Mauritius last month has split into two. The ship, which has already leaked more than one thousand tonnes of oil will be pulled out to sea to sink. Mauritius declared an environmental emergency following the spill last month, which threatened a protected marine park boasting mangrove forests and endangered species.
Unrest in Belarus following President's re-election
Tens of thousands of people have gathered to protest the re-election of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko in the capital, Minsk. The 65-year-old President has been in power for 26 years and was re-elected for a sixth term with around 80% of the popular vote, according to official results. Many countries such as Germany, Sweden, and the United States have condemned the election’s outcome, calling it "undemocratic".
International students struggling through COVID-19 outbreak
A nationwide survey has found that thirty-nine percent of international students did not have enough money to cover basic living expenses following the COVID-19 outbreak. The study, conducted by Unions New South Wales between March and May also found that a worrying 43 percent were forced to skip meals regularly. The Secretary for Unions New South Wales, Mark Morey, said that without support, international students are being driven into not only poverty but exploitation.
Ferry services resume following safety issues
Services resumed this morning on the popular Bulimba to Teneriffe ferry service following a two-month absence. The vessels, which were pulled from service in July following the discovery of “severe” safety issues, were last week cleared for service by maritime experts. Lord Mayor Adrian Schrinner said council continues to work "around the clock" to get services back on the river.