{"id":613,"date":"2019-08-08T17:03:57","date_gmt":"2019-08-08T05:03:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.exposures.co.nz\/?p=613"},"modified":"2025-01-02T23:49:21","modified_gmt":"2025-01-02T10:49:21","slug":"herbs-release-anniversary-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exposures.co.nz\/?p=613","title":{"rendered":"Herbs Release Anniversary Film"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Willie

Willie Now<\/p><\/div>\n

Long ago… when I was a budding photographer I had a go at doing some portraits for some friends. It didn’t work out that well so I concentrated on making exposures, candid portraits of people taken doing their everyday stuff, unaware of the camera, and much more revealing that any posed shot I could conjure up.<\/p>\n

One of those early projects was when\u00a0Willie Hona<\/a>\u00a0was trying to break out. I knew him through\u00a0Niki Hona<\/a>\u00a0who was the sister of my old mate\u00a0Robbie Van de Lisdonk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

We went into The Domain and shot off a couple of rolls of Ilford FP4 and the best shot is the black and white below.<\/p>\n

\"Willie

Willie Then<\/p><\/div>\n

Willie joined Herbs not long after.<\/p>\n

We caught up again at Robbie’s 60th a couple of weekends ago and I got a much better shot of him on the stage rousing up the crowd as only he knows how to do.<\/p>\n

Tonight we saw a preview of the movie-doco Herbs: Songs of Freedom.<\/p>\n

It reminded me of where I, and probably most pakeha Kiwis, first heard Herbs.<\/p>\n

It was at protest rallies, anti-nuclear and Bastion Point.<\/p>\n

I’ve always considered this music to be the closest thing we have to our own folk music, our songs of struggle.<\/p>\n

You don’t have to agree, I don’t need you to. It’s just how this music came to me, and I think a lot of others.<\/p>\n

The movie directly deals with and celebrates Nga Tamatoa and the Polynesian Panthers and interweaves the politics with the music, or rather doesn’t separate them as two separate identities.<\/p>\n

Bastion Point, The Springbok Tour, The Land March, French Nuclear Tests in The Pacific, Dawn Raids… all front and centre in this film.<\/p>\n

And right there with it, the songs. Of freedom.<\/p>\n

See this movie.<\/p>\n

Even if you only know of Herbs through their songs, you will get a much better understanding of who and what and why they are.<\/p>\n

Here’s the Trailer<\/strong><\/p>\n