Tyranny is the deliberate removal of nuance – Albert Maysles
As an antidote to this era of click-bait media, ‘noble lies’ journalism, feedback refusal and aggregating censorship, we are beginning a series of long-form interviews, collating the stories of people who are the experts of their own lives. And we’re sharing these stories for an audience who like their media slow, nuanced and raw.
So, here are the first four voices in the series Hearing you slowly. Thank you Trace, Marita, James and Dianne for sharing your stories. We hope you enjoy these episodes as much as we have enjoyed producing them, assisted by Miles, whose camera craft, eye and collaboration brings a special quality to this series.
In the first of these stories, children’s book writer and illustrator, Trace, speaks of her Covid experience as someone rendered health-vulnerable in large part by being overprescribed antibiotics as a teenager. She offers many insights for a post-pandemic world.
Permaculturist and grandmother, Marita, describes her youth raised and educated in Germany, and why Covid segregation has triggered her both emotionally and politically.
Highly vaccinated traveller, father and solar energy consultant, James, despite being advised not to get the Covid injections for medical reasons was not able to get a medical exemption. His personal story shines a light on the the erosion of the patient-doctor relationship and of civil liberties more broadly.
And last but not least, retired elder Dianne tells the courageous story of nursing her Covid-ill parents while she was also suffering from the illness, and offers us the gifts and wisdom she gleaned over the past two years.
We heartily welcome your generative comments and encourage your respectful feedback. If you haven’t already subscribed to our blog, please do so to be alerted to forthcoming episodes. We require a minimum of $250 to produce each story, so if you wish to support our work and are in a position to do so, please click on the Support tab in the top right of this page. Much gratitude to everyone who has already contributed financially and otherwise.
Next up, we’ll be bringing you a conversation with permaculture co-originator and futurist, David Holmgren, speaking on this present moment from his unique lens, as part of our commitment to bringing you diverse stories from the heart, the gut and the mind.
Sending much love, nuance and solidarity into your day,
Artist as Family
Thank you so much for your work!
I would like to donate, but i do not have a credit card. Is there any other way to donate (I’m from Germany)? Sending love from Southern Germany <3
Wise move Lisa, not having a credit card. We have a debit card only. Thank you so much for your very kind offer. If you have a Paypal account you can donate to us by sending to our gmail address: theartistasfamily@gmail.com, or you could transfer direct to our bank. Account name: Megan V Ulman. Branch no.: 633000 Account no.: 129475117. Swift code: BENDAU3B. Thanks again for your support. We hope for speedy peace in your region.
7 March 2022
Dear Family,
Thank you very much for your slow work which is respectful and imbued with grace and dignity allowing me to listen with full attention.
Thank you Angus.
Thank you for the interviews. Having been born in Austria at the end of the war, Marita got my emotions going. I also suffer from guilt, even I had absolutely nothing to do with the war. Therefor these last two years had a great negative effect on me. All the things I loved doing in my little town of Maldon and also Castlemaine were out of my reach; Verboten! Next to my children I have one friend left here in Maldon. I do not know how we are going to heal, how this divide is going to be fixed. Maybe through art?
Oh Ellen, that is heartbreaking to hear. Verboten! Forbidden! Unseen!
Yes, art, story, love and time can treat such wounds, while we await the next great dividing opportunity WEF & co has in store for the world. And then we will treat new wounds and grow again, and then do it all again, as the new feudal lords and ladies use up their sad lives in wrong relationship, not sitting naked with mother country, not listening to the songs of the creek, not fasting in the concert of a loved forest with nothing but a blanket, a jerry of water and an open (and at times frightened) heart. Sickness reigns in the madness of the global pool of money. A love of money and power distorts the soul, and in this bright corruption recruits ever more transhuman soldiers and civilians. Holocaust survivors consistently warn it can reoccur anywhere, at any time, and now we have seen its embryonic egg crack open again but many still say: ‘nothing to see here,’ as they did in Europe 90 years ago.
Yet, life sings forth in the small, hidden worlds of the world, bringing with it more song (death) to again put back into life so it can keep singing. All we have left to we neopeasants is stubborn, earth-rooted resistance and refusal. We will chop wood and plunge in icy water, and keep the spirit of land-bonded culture alive in ever quieter, unseen and magical ways. This vastness and endless terrain of the unseen. Before Covid we had an audience of over 30,000 across several platforms. Now we have just 1200 glimmering beauties here, you being one Ellen, and soon this lil virtual space will disappear too. But we will survive, and we will thrive unplugged, ever more de-digitalised and free always. We will not participate in the neofeudal 4th Industrial revolution! We will live and we will die, free, and so will those who take up this culture, in their own many beautiful ways. Tortured, humiliated and incarcerated. Forbidden. Unseen. Free, always.
Meg and Patrick, This series is just beautiful. Full of wisdom, respect, dignity and deep listening. Perhaps we might talk about how these stories might be viewed more broadly. With love as always. Ali xx
Thanks Ali, we so appreciate your comment. Please feel free to share this post with friends. Without social media ourselves now, we rely on people to share these stories themselves. We have a ‘Spread the word’ function on our Support page (top right tab) to make it easy.
Meg and Patrick, I’ve been thinking about your work and The Human Rights Arts & Film Festival. Check out their website. XX
Oh, great. Thanks so much Ali, we’ll look into it.
I just want to say to Patrick and Trace (who I know from her INCREDIBLE books) that I thoroughly THOROUGHLY enjoyed that conversation. Deep thanks to both of you. XX
Thank you Julie, yes aren’t Trace’s books wonderful! Hopefully, these are the sort of conversations we can all start to have now in our families and communities.
However, there’s so much work to be done. Our local council (is running the International Women’s Day event in our town hall tomorrow night) and it’s still complying with the state pandemic orders, thereby refusing unjabbed folk. Meg served on the organising committee for the IWD event for a number of years, and we as a family attend each year. We’ll be attending peacefully this year, outside the town hall with placards such as “SARs-CoV-2 does not discriminate,” and “Too many jab injuries, not enough science.”
It’s really great and important that you maintain your place as ‘rank-and-file’ community members. In the coming years, if these pandemic orders ossify into the stratigraphy of day to day life it might be that you and Meg, and your extended cohort will hold your own IWD events where ALL people are included, regardless of jab status. On that parting note, the word jab is just so crap isn’t it? Best, Julie
Thanks so much Julie! If we are banned from our local Town Hall next year, we will indeed hold our own event that does not discriminate against anyone. It’s so utterly senseless, isn’t it?! If the vaccines were sterilising it would be another whole argument. But the fact that vaccinated people can still be infected by the virus, and still pass it on really tells us that the segregation is not about health or facts or science, but about politics. Sending much love to you. x
Hi P & M, I appreciate your work so much.
I’m commenting here because I’m not sure if the subscribe button worked for me.
Thanks Maureen, a few people have been saying they’ve had trouble subscribing. We’ve just put your email address into the Subscribe bar and clicked it, and it went through fine. Not sure what occurred with your attempt?? Love to you and Stephen.