Φωνή λαού; Οργή θεού / The voice of the people; The wrath of god.

An old Greek saying that I hold onto tonight.

I send my respect, strength and support to those defending the Djapwurrung birthing trees near Ararat tonight.

To the protectors standing strong out at Mauna Kea.
To the defenders at Ihumātao, Aotearoa.
To the First Nations people & activists holding down the front line against Adani tonight.
To all peoples at the front lines of the flash points of ecological & cultural defence globally.

This is something that will continue to be our responsibility.

Only the people can teach the companies and governments that we need to think beyond our own generation and defend the planet for the distant future, for forever. Only we can make noise and be heard and put these issues on the map, they will not happen by themselves.

There is no autocorrect to a neo-capitalist system founded on perpetual growth.

Unfortunately, the way our systems are set up, there can be no deep and lasting internal self-correction of the system itself without he demands of the people.

Despite what your local news outlet is telling you, protesting is not for the ‘lazy’ ones among us.
The lazy ones are shouting at the TV as the sea levels rise around them.
As their rights are eroded.
The air they breathe is increasingly polluted.
Their only water sources are used by industry.
And they’re chronically depressed, angry at the protestors for making noise, as they nurse a lifetime of modern problems resulting in a chronic lack of compassion and an unbridled apathy.

May they be awoken to how the planet is our common foundation: a truth that can never be contested. And that these frontlines, collectively, are the beginning of a battle that we must win.

The greatest irony is that these protests, I hope, will give birth to a new future that will benefit everyone, even those who whinge about getting stuck in traffic because of a march, or hating on a lock-on because it is ‘illegal’ or ‘slows down progress’.

When their children breathe in the hard-earned fresh air of a defended sacred site and learn about the cultures still here with us, I wonder if they’ll know who to thank for their future freedoms.

Φωνή λαού; Οργή θεού.

The voice of the people, the wrath of god.

Prayers Up. ... See MoreSee Less

4 weeks ago

I wanted to live
so I wore my clothes inside
out until death
lost the scent

I’ve wanted to rest
so instead of counting sheep
I count my battle scars backwards
until they amount
to nothing

I wanted to be loved
but without a compass
or a map
just two black skies
and one delicate flame

I wanted to be loved
but my skin smelled of graphite
from all the poems I haven’t written
and all the love
I pretend I haven’t made

I wanted to die
but hope hounded me
and hunted me down
and holds me hostage
and I thank her

When I wanted to leave
I just made myself unbearable enough
to be deserted...
when I wanted to be wanted
that’s when I pushed everyone away

I wanted to eat the sun
be consumed by lightning
ride in the canyons of creation
and learn
what it means
to be free
so now
I do only what I love

I wanted to be a king
so I met with other kings
but kings just protect thrones
and I’d rather be a fisherman
listening to the wind
watching the currents
reading constellations like brail
hand outstretched to the glimmer
telling stories to the sails
half-hoping the fish
are smarter than me

I wanted a better face
so I made love to the moon
until her.craters.and.my.scars.fit.together
and we looked like polished granite

I’ve been tormented by fire
run aground
and frozen out
and all I’ve learned
is to dress for the occasion

I wanted to love
but hate paints such a vivid picture sometimes

I wanted to be me
so I travelled the world searching for everything that I’m not
and still finding pieces of me there

I wanted to forget
but I couldn’t remember which memories were still haunting me
until they returned

I wanted to die
but the sky was too big to hold
so here I am again...

listening.

📸 Jurgen Marx ... See MoreSee Less

4 weeks ago

🌊🚣🏽‍♂️🌊 ... See MoreSee Less

1 month ago

Still here. ... See MoreSee Less

1 month ago

Respect.The political establishment and conservative media have this week continued with their deliberate propaganda campaign to dehumanise climate justice activists in order to delegitimise their perfectly reasonable policy demands. Media reports have focussed mainly on the number of people arrested as part of Rebellion Day, rather than the much larger number who came and participated without getting dragged away by the police. News editors have mostly used photos and videos of younger male protesters (particularly men of colour or with a bit of facial hair) in order to reinforce the ‘feral ratbag’ narrative, avoiding photos that show larger crowds of participants, especially women, families with kids and grey-haired retirees (of which there were hundreds at yesterday’s protest). Brisbane’s Mayor (Adrian Schrinner) even went out of his way to call a press conference and describe the thousands of residents who have participated in peaceful protests as ‘extremists,’ which I think was an outrageously disrespectful way to refer to non-violent citizens who are just exercising their democratic rights. Dehumanising peaceful protesters is an intentional political strategy to discourage more people from getting involved in a movement. So I’m thinking of countering this by creating a little Facebook album, maybe called ‘Extremists of Brisbane,’ showing profile photos and brief biographies of everyone who has been involved in recent climate justice protests (whether you were arrested or not). I want to highlight that protesters are not ‘extremists’ at all, but just locals who are concerned about climate change who don’t appreciate the mayor of their city calling them ratbags and ferals. If you’ve been involved in the climate justice movement in any way, please post up in this thread or send me a private message with a photo of yourself along with a few sentences about who you are and why you’ve gotten involved e.g. “Jonno, 31, East Brisbane. I’m a writer, musician and city councillor. I support the climate justice protests because I think First Nations peoples should have the right to say no to coal mining on their land. I think it’s horrible that people in coastal and island communities are having to leave their homes forever just so a few mining billionaires can get a little richer.” A potential concern with a project like this is that we are effectively also creating a handy database of everyone who is participating in climate activism, that the police can then use to target protesters. But I think this is outweighed by a few considerations… 1. The police already have you in their database. If you’ve ever even clicked ‘Interested’ on a Facebook event or shown up at a rally, they probably already know who you are. 2. The more people who are featured in an album like this, the less risk there is to any one individual, and I think there are a lot of ordinary people who’ll be happy to be included. 3. Peaceful protest is not a crime. We are not going to win this campaign by being invisible and trying to avoid the police discovering our identities. We have strength in numbers, so rather than feeling embarrassed of our activism and being scared into hiding by the coal industry puppets’ divisive rhetoric, we should be proud and public in our advocacy. No pressure obviously... I know some people don’t like broadcasting their politics over social media and that's fair enough. But right now, like it or not, we are in the middle of a propaganda war where the Courier Mail, Sky News and the two major political parties are working very hard to craft a narrative that only a small number of fringe extremists care about climate change, which clearly isn’t true, and needs to be directly challenged. Send me your photos/bios! #ExtremistsOfBrisbane ... See MoreSee Less

1 month ago