Music Is Part of Our Humanness
Hi, I’m Heather Hay, and I’m the International Liberation Reference Person for Musicians. I’ve loved music my whole life. How many people here love music?
In RC we’re about connection, we’re about reclaiming our full intelligence, we’re about noticing benign reality. Music is so powerful and beautiful. It can remind us of who we are and how good it is to be alive. It can connect us with nature and each other. It is a universal language.
Music is for everyone. It’s a part of our humanness. We are born with a love for and attraction to music. Music is about play and reminds us to play. When we reclaim our creativity, we are reclaiming our intelligence—they’re the same thing.
I encourage all of us to think about the music of our family, our culture, our people. It’s a way of fighting back against genocide, assimilation, and domination. And we need the music of all the peoples of the world. There can never be too much music. Music needs to be everywhere, because it contradicts discouragement, isolation, and urgency and encourages discharge.
Everyone is in my constituency, but I want to speak for a moment about working musicians. They need to remember the significance of their work. They’ve worked hard, they’ve made a big commitment, they’ve put many hours into it. It’s not about talent or a special gift. That’s a myth.
The last thing I’d like to say is that musicians, and all people, can use the power and beauty of music to end class oppression and inspire rational action. Music has great potential to rally people toward revolution.
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
(Present Time 185, October 2016)