Ancestry: The Story

You may have already heard some of the tracks: ‘Worthy’, ‘Little Songbird’, ‘Like Family’ and ‘Shades of Yellow’ were released as singles and I’ve been so happy with reception so far. But now the album is released, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to me as whole piece.

As a whole, the album explores the stories from my family history to weave together themes of dual heritage identity, intergenerational healing and ecological justice. 

On a personal level, I’ve had to understand myself and my story, that of my life and the generations before me, to really author the legacy that I leave for the next generation, to do the work on intergenerational healing, to give the gifts and break the cycles. 

I’ve had to look back, to look forward. 

But on a macro level, I think  we need to be reflecting  as a society on how we’ve got to where we are and  what legacy are we leaving for the future generations? 

We are at a time in human history where our actions now, will affect not just our children right now but each and every generation to come. I think the idea of ‘intergenerational justice’ is just about to come to the fore. 

In the parent community there is understandably a huge focus on keeping children safe. I now too think about that most of the day,  every single day. 

But I also think the question we equally need to ask every day is how, in the long run,  we might be good ancestors? 

I  noticed that most of the ancestors whose story really affected me, and also the people in history who we collectively look back on with high regard, were often at odds with the culture and status quo of their time. They were swimming against the tide. 

It has made me  wonder what truth future generations might look back and see, that is staring us in the face now, but hidden by our ‘normal’. 

It has made me wonder what it is we need to do to be good ancestors? How might we change? How might we live? What is being asked of us? I’ll leave you to ponder, if you listen more over the coming days and weeks. 

To listen more to the music you can download the digital album or buy the vinyl on this page, or you can stream on Spotify.