When D-Squared performs, they give you a story to go with every song. Their songs are wonderful stories in their own right, but getting to hear the story of why Don or Deb wrote a particular song makes each one a “two-fer.” Incidentally, if you’re in Arizona on December 6, you’re more than welcome to join me in Mayer to see Don and Deb usher in Winter – I’ve seen them make it snow before!

So here’s the intro, giving the inspiration for the song, and then the song itself. My audio is crappy because I just used the camera mic that night, but I still think you’ll get a sense of the magic of this tune. For whatever reason, the song just chokes me up.

I hope the owls are there for me when it’s my turn to answer the call.

Thanks, Verdi!

Well guess what?! They’re here! Right here in Phoenix, Arizona, USA. They arrived Friday April 18, and have already kicked things off to a great start. On Sunday there was a pow wow at ASU. Two Navajo students from our travel group made sure our Maori friends could attend the pow wow. I didn’t get to go, but our friends were given the opportunity to perform at the pow wow after the opening ceremony. From what I hear, the pow wow community opened their hearts to our Maori friends, bestowed gifts during and after their performance, and really felt an instant connection. I wish I could have been there.

This video is from dinner after the pow wow, at the home of fellow traveler Nizhoni and her amazing chef husband Joseph. He fed us a four or five course meal that included a prickly pear cactus salad, his own version of surf and turf which included swordfish steak and buffalo burgers, and a custom dessert creation called “Chocolate Taranaki” in honor of the volcanic mountain dominating the landscape where our friends live. The meal was seriously amazing.

Between courses, our friends taught us a song. You can learn it too, here are the words:

He honore, he kororia
Maungarongo ki te whenua
Whakaro pai e
Ki nga tangata katoa
Ake ake, ake ake, amine
Te atua, te piringa, toku oranga (x2)
Toku oranga

Wendy Lewis is the woman teaching us the words to the song and what they mean. This song is an acknowledgment of ties to Parihaka, a Taranaki settlement whose two leaders drew on ancestral and Christian teachings to organize passive resistance to the colonizing army, and that is now is a manifestation of peace here on Earth.

Sorry for my crappy video & audio recording. I’m not good at both recording and experiencing moments at the same time, and I didn’t have my good mic with me either … so this is the best I and my poor little Xacti could do under the circumstances.

Oh, if you download the iPod version, I inserted the lyrics into its metadata. I think you can read them if you add the video to your iTunes library and “get info.”

Anyway, my travel group was made part of the “home crowd,” and given shelter at Puniho Pa Marae, and the dance troupe is seen here entering as welcome guests. In this video they are performing, and the next video will show the traditional way Maori groups enter one another’s communities. Over the next few days I’ll be showing several more videos from this evening. The performers split us into 3 groups, taught us each a different skill, and then we all performed for our hosts. It was an evening of much laughter, sharing and love.

I spent time with this troupe in 2004 and was thrilled to see them again. They are amazing and very giving. I’m planning to start a little fund raiser to help them come to the U.S. and visit local tribal lands. I also hope to help them book some performance gigs – anyone engaging them will get more than their money’s worth.

Aboriginal Welcome Song by Cheryl Colan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at hummingcrow.com.

Here is the scene. We have been called onto the Marae (if you’ve seen Whale Rider you know what this sounds like), and speeches have been made (in Maori) to introduce us to the place and its leaders. We have in turn all stood up individually and told the people of this place who we are, where we came from and why we are here. There were many more people waiting to greet us than we expected, and they’ve sung to us twice already, to support the words of the speakers. And we have reciprocated by singing for them in support of the words of our leaders. Our time in this sacred space of meeting has ended, and to come back to normal space and time, we will all share a meal together.

So imagine all of that. And then, these beautiful people who have spent all this time preparing for us, cooking, preparing the space and the table, none will eat until we all help ourselves. And while we help ourselves, this song.

They are singing about what it means to be Maori, their journey as a people from the beginning of time until now, all they have endured and accomplished. Listen to the enormous love and pride in their voices.

I tell you, I couldn’t eat. I sat there with tears streaming down my face and splashing into my plate. And it’s happening again, writing this. Because now, even watching this crappy video, I see at least fifteen people I made a direct heart connection with, and the love contained within the sound of their voices carries across time and distance.

Thanks, David, for the video you shared, and for reminding me to unearth this and share it. It’s way too beautiful to sit on a hard drive, spinning.

Antonio Lagunas is the Bob Dylan of Day Laborers. You have seen him standing on the hot street hoping for work. If you ignored him, look again now.

Here’s an AppleTV-sized version you can right-click and save.

This tune set the tone for the evening, and the chorus is so catchy I want to share it with all of you. It will get stuck in your head if you like the music.

Enjoy! And if you like it, consider checking out D-Squared’s tunes, and maybe buy a CD!

Again, since I don’t own the music, I am releasing this performance video under a different CreativeCommons license than my usual.

“Hoo Li” Performance by D-Squared by Cheryl Colan + D-Squared is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at dsquaredmusic.com.

So, Don and Deb went camping north of Phoenix for Don’s birthday, and instead of the tranquil beauty Don remembered from when he was a kid, they encountered people abusing the desert with ATVs and massive debris and all manner of guns. Don got mad, and then he got even. He wrote this tune.

I really like it. I hope you do, too.

Addendum: I have to license this differently because I don’t own the copyright to the music.

Little Iraq (Music Video) by D-Squared + Cheryl Colan is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at dsquaredmusic.com.

Update on July 3, 2007: At the request of Verdi during the recent critical review flash meeting, I have added a 640×480 version of the video – see the link under the video player above.

This video was shot in Scottsdale, Arizona near Chaparral and Hayden Roads. It’s an area where, long ago, the Salt River Pima people lived and prospered. Their reservation is nearby. The area now sports high end shopping malls and a public golf course with a duck pond. Click the picture to play the video in a popup window.