This week sees Blue Flame Dreaming ignite the spirit of ancient wisdom in a three-day event that aims to bring wisdom from four corners of Gondwanaland (Mother Earth).
With a 12-hour-plus program that features Billy TK Senior, an international singer and Maori speaker on world peace; from Zimbabwe Mama Africa – Gertrude Matshe, lawyer Miriam Clements, who will speak on representing indigenous leaders to the United Nations and the International Criminal Court. Artist Mena Stemm will share her cultural crafts, storytelling and her journey of self-healing. Renowned Indigenous painter Nelly Patterson from Uluru will be exhibiting her work of the New Way. There will be ancient dances performed by dancers from all over the world and African cuisine will be served.
Event co-ordinator Sharon Bele-Verdy of the Green Beautiful Foundation has drawn on her global connections in healing and spirit to create this event.
‘It’s all been channeled,’ she said of this very ambitious project. ‘It’s amazing; it’s all just happened. We are all very aware of the chronic situation with the split. You have to realise the connection of the earth and honour that and stay connected to that. It’s a global issue. The Indigenes have it right. My job is to put the Indigenous at the forefront everywhere that I do anything because they have the knowing. They have the knowledge and they have the connection.’
One of her connections has been with Jingki, aka Kerrianne Cox, an impressive singer/songwriter who shares Bele-Verdy’s passion for connection.
Jingki has been in the studio busily finishing off her latest album Womyn of the Sun that she recorded live at the Nimbin Bush Theatre a few years back. She plans to have the album ready for the Blue Flame.
The recording was an immensely positive project and Jingki reflects: ‘It was really good and the Bush Theatre was great about it. Rather than having to pay for studio time we walked away with a little bit of cash! Wow what a deadly project not having to spend a lot!’
She was also empowered by the process of recording live and being at the helm of all the decision making.
‘I worked with women musicians who were open, and I got to be the maestro. That took a couple of months in the building and working… and to be ready for the performance. I have done three studio albums in my lifetime and one of my dreams was to do a live recording because everyone says you are better live. I wanted to capture that live energy, and it came about. I have played with a lot of men who dominated the industry and because I was in a position of power and I gave that strength to the other women.
‘The CD can only hold 70 minutes of music, so that is bringing me into the USB world. We have done a small film clip with one of my language songs, a song about coming together and rising up and growing up, that was given to me by a beautiful sistergirl down the road. This will be more intimate with a live recording and a live video to go with it.’
Jingki takes the ethos of the three-day event throughout the story of her music.
‘I am a global citizen and we are connecting with all of life. I am not interested in the old story any more. It’s not sustainable. That was the journey that we needed to complete. We know what it is like to be separated. It’s not until you reach that threshold point that you know. I want to be part of the oneness. I want that to be the gift of my inheritance. It is going back to the old story of tribalism, the one where we were all part of one tribe and that we are connected.’
Speaking to the deeper values of the weekend’s gathering, Jingki says:
‘We are working on many levels. This is a place from the old story; it’s a gathering place and I come from a place of gathering as well. It’s like the cleansing now of the old paradigm, and people being able to come and share their knowledge and their wisdom and apply those tools, and here we lay it on the table, to come and make strong choices, so we are better informed and we can make good choices.’
Jingki reflects on her own process, something she calls a softening.
‘A big part is honouring of the divine feminine and the grounding of that. I was hardcore, and I have softened a lot; I realised that I don’t need to be like that any more. Part of reaching that point allows you to accept the status quo, and to understand – to shape and rearrange consciousness within this new dreaming of who I am now and how we are and how we shape.
‘It’s what old people say: this has been foreseen.’
Jingki (Kerrianne Cox) performs on Friday night in a very special concert at the Byron Community Centre.
For tickets and program information go to byroncentre.com.au or email [email protected].
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