ILARIA CROCIANI
Songs. Stories. Lyrics.
THE ANGEL OF THE BUSH
(Lyrics: Ilaria Crociani – Music: Mirko Guerrini)
Eulogy to the Unknown Woman Pioneer
A martyrdom to signify the unambiguous condemnation of any colonial project based on indigenous dispossession and settlers' ferocity.
The Angel of the Bush – Fictional, Australia, Early Colonial Years
The protagonist of the second song on the album is “the Angel of the Bush” a fictional, nameless young woman settler in the early years of Colonial Australia. She embodies the nemesis of the longly idolised “Pioneer Woman of Myth” as the legendary ideal mother of an Australian (white) race.
The song tells the story of a pregnant woman living far away in the Australian Outback who commits suicide to avoid becoming an accessory to her husband's murderous life.
Her story is one of defencelessness but also one of exemplar moral integrity and strength. Her martyrdom signifies the total rejection of any violence and, most importantly, the unambiguous condemnation of any colonial project (not only the Australian one) based on indigenous dispossession and settlers' ferocity.
The song is inspired by the story of Koloszy's “Pioneer Women's Memorial” (Sydney, 1988) and the refusal by its commissioning institution of the statue's first draft depicting a young mother holding a gun in her hand. The song looks at Australia's early history to reflect on the sufferance endured by First Nations People and the legacy of trauma and loss that continues to haunt many Aboriginal people until today.
It is a fictional story, imagined through a non-Indigenous feminist lens, written to convey sincere respect, understanding and sympathy for all First Nation Peoples and their continuous sufferance. A sufferance that's grown intrinsic to aboriginal cultural identity that can only be imagined and acknowledged by non-Indigenous people but definitely not interpreted nor appropriated.
(ITALIANO)
THE ANGEL OF THE BUSH – Eulogia della “Pioniera Sconosciuta” (Soggetto immaginario, Australia, primi anni della colonizzazione)
La protagonista immaginaria della seconda canzone dell'album è "the Angel of the Bush", una giovane donna, ignota colona nei primi anni della colonizzazione Australia. Incarna la nemesi della "Pioneer Woman of Myth", a lungo idolatrata, come leggendaria madre ideale della razza bianca australiana.
La canzone racconta la storia di una donna incinta che vive lontano nell'Outback australiano e che si suicida per evitare di diventare complice della violenza del marito, impegnato nelle stragi della popolazione aborigena per l'occupazione del territorio.
La sua è una storia drammatica, e pure di esemplare integrità morale e forza. Il suo martirio significa il rifiuto totale di qualsiasi violenza e, soprattutto, la condanna inequivocabile di qualsiasi progetto coloniale (non solo quello australiano) basato sull'espropriazione dei territori degli indigeni e sulla ferocia dei coloni.
La canzone è ispirata alla storia della statua intitolata "Pioneer Women's Memorial" di Koloszy (Sydney, 1988) e al categorico rifiuto dalla committenza della prima bozza della statua presentata dall'artista e raffigurante una giovane madre con una pistola in mano.
La canzone guarda alla prima storia dell'Australia per riflettere sulle sofferenze subite dalle popolazioni delle Prime Nazioni e sull'eredità di traumi e perdite che continua a perseguitare molti aborigeni ancora oggi.
È una storia di fantasia, immaginata attraverso una lente femminista non indigena, scritta per trasmettere sincero rispetto, comprensione e simpatia per tutti i Popoli delle Prime Nazioni e per la loro continua sofferenza. Una sofferenza che è cresciuta intrinsecamente nell'identità culturale aborigena e che può essere solo immaginata e riconosciuta da persone non indigene, ma che sicuramente non puo' interpretata o appropriata.
THE ANGEL OF THE BUSH
Eulogy to the Unknown Woman Pioneer
(Lyrics: Ilaria Crociani – Music: Mirko Guerrini)
Sure,
you will hear about me one day.
Then the world will understand, and will see
the smoking gun.
A dreadful ghost, I will summon you.
I will force the truth on you!
You’ll be bound to hear and look.
History will become new.
When I met her she was beautiful and frail.
Just like me, she too was pregnant. Yet, in vain...
Playing secretly in the river,
eating berries, exchanging flowers.
We were one.
At home,
all men laughing once again.
How could they!
…count the trophies of those gunned down,
planning hunting trips and fires.
And in bed then…
Monstrous hands, his.
Sinful hands, his.
****
Now,
on this lost trail I walk alone.
With no footsteps left behind, not a trace,
I’ll disappear.
To this Land I don’t call my own,
I will let my soul return.
Into Mother Nature’s womb
I will pay the white man’s wrongs.
When he saw us, white and black, against the sun,
with a sneer he forced my hand to hold his gun.
Then what happened I can't recall, I
tried to flee but there was a brawl, then..
I saw her fall.
At home,
oh, the futile cries of men!
Seeking me.
I’m not the “angel of your house”, no!
(I’m) not the “angel of the bush”, no!
Monstrous hands, mine
Sinless hands, mine
Helpless hands mine.
Remember my words:
I’ll be gone in no time and the child I bear in me won’t be yours!
I won’t mother your inhuman bloody progeny.