DJs moving to own rhythms
Puffy Pank brings balance to night life
WHAT started as a passion for night life has led Priya Vunaki to become a popular fixture on the Hobart club scene as DJ Puffy Pank.
You’ll typically catch Vunaki spinning vinyl at the Grand Poobah, Altar or other clubs brimming with patrons excited to hit the dance floor.
Vunaki, who identifies as non-binary and chooses to use the pronouns they and their, began performing six years ago and has since created their own “genre agnostic” sound from an eclectic melting pot of Chicago house, footwork and techno.
“I got the opportunity to play my first set after making friends with Nathan Savage, who started a club night called Hazey Daze,” they said.
“I was always first on the dance floor and (Nathan) noticed I knew a lot of the tracks, so he trusted to give
me a support slot. “I fell in love with it immediately.”
Vunaki quickly learned the scene was dominated by men.
“There’s a group on Facebook called Hobart DJs and producers,” they said.
“We’re used to seeing a lot of tech guys behind the deck — there’s a very established community of DJs that play on the club circuit and they’re all really great at what they do, but I realised every time a woman would post on that group it was really ‘bro-ish’. I decided to make a group called Rhythm Babes Hobart for women, LGBTQIA+, gender nonconforming and non-binary folks because we do need our own space to feel like we can breathe, learn and not feel intimidated.”
The result has been Rhythm Babes forming a collective and planning workshops and sessions together.
Vunaki said the hiatus over the pandemic propelled a hunger for performing.
“It made me realise how much I do value night life and the club industry,” they said.
“I don’t want to hoard my experience for myself, I want to see my community flourish and expand.”
Priya Vunaki will perform as Puffy Pank alongside DJs Baby Ruin, Piranha Girl and Cheek-E at the Rhythm Babes Sunday Sessions from 2-6pm, In The Hanging Garden, tomorrow.
THE $25 weekly increase in unemployment benefits announced this week exposes the cruel nature of a heartless economic ideology that has enjoyed popular political support in Australia and much of the Western world for the past three or four decades.
This dog-eat-dog doctrine has again turned its back on widespread calls for a realistic increase in dole payments.
It reeks of a Darwinian “survival of the fittest” mentality and the aroma of essential oils, perspiration and fear that might be found in a 19th century bondage parlour.
This dogma, a particularly cruel strain of economic rationalism, is a major factor in political unrest sweeping Western democracies — because it enables the rich and powerful to become more so at the expense of the poor.
Hence, from the US to Britain, France and Germany, the downtrodden march in the streets, as formerly stable political states are shaken to the core by uprisings.
This dogma, which has dominated economic policy for decades, is creating a new poverty-stricken class that faces generational hardship and disadvantage, and is starved of the unprecedented spoils of wealthy democratic societies in the 21st century.
Democracy itself is being questioned by those being left behind in Western nations because decade after decade — no matter what party is in power: red or blue, Liberal or Labor, Democrat or Republican — a mean and spiteful economic strategy stubbornly holds sway.
As a result, there is growing anger from the subjugated and forgotten at the very notion of globalisation and liberalisation of economies when, in fact, it is not the expansion of market economics that is at fault but the failure of governments to ensure the spoils of its growth are equitably distributed.
Rather than look at growth as a chance to lift people from poverty, by providing those without work an adequate sum to survive, the Morrison government punishes the unemployed, deliberately making it harder than it has to be for them, and demands more from those on the dole, as a way of deterring others.
This sadistic streak, devoid of empathy, compassion or humanity, is to my mind the Western world’s most critical failing this century, and is a throwback to the punitive 19th century theories of crime and punishment that built a living hell at Port Arthur and dreamt up all manner of novel torture for incarcerated convicts.
OUR nation is rich. Andrew Forrest is worth $23 billion and Gina Rinehart even more, at about $28 billion. The average wage is about $80,000 a year. But over a million Australians — yes, about one in ten in the workforce — will likely line up to receive the extra $25 in their payment when they lose the extra money they were granted in pandemic lockdown.
During the pandemic the unemployed demonstrated clearly that money in the pocket of the disadvantaged is immediately circulated on consumables — food, clothing, washing machines, fridges — and is an effective way to stimulate local economies.
Tasmania is a classic example of the effectiveness of this strategy — with a larger proportion of beneficiaries of jobseeker and jobkeeper, the island was propelled to the head of the table of the states for economic growth.
Why can’t we get creative, accept there will always be a lazy few, and use the dole to stimulate local economies out of the pandemic? Why not use it to encourage people into training and education? Why not respect citizens and build inducements into our welfare system to encourage people to volunteer and to be skilful and daring with their job prospects?
But no, Employment Minister Michaelia Cash said the $25 weekly rise comes with obligations for the unemployed to apply for more jobs and, in a nice friendly, caring touch, enables employers to report recipients who turn down work.
Again, a strident puritanical strain of economic rationalism pits people against people, dividing the worthy from the unworthy and giving the former permission to walk all over the latter — lifters over leaners, battlers over bludgers.
It’s a pernicious ideology, whose followers have a taste for the sting of the lash.
The Reserve Bank, business groups and economists have been united in calling for a realistic lift in the dole, and responded in shock at the government’s mean response.
The Australian Council of Social Service chief executive Cassandra Goldie described it as a “devastating decision”.
“The last thing we need is for the government to turn its back on people at such a
crucial stage,” she said.
Chris Richardson from Deloitte Access Economics said simply that the $25 was “not enough”.
TasCOSS chief executive Adrienne Picone said it would be a big blow to the 40,000 Tasmanians looking for work or more hours.
AUSTRALIANS have done a remarkable job through the many challenges of the pandemic.
A vast majority of us have heeded scientific advice, let our liberty be curtailed in the interests of the nation, and recognised the social contract we sign as a civilised people.
How about the government respond in kind and recognise this new maturity as a nation by treating the downtrodden with kindness and respect?
How about showing some empathy for families stuck in poverty and some acceptance they are not solely responsible for their dire straits, that luck and circumstance can conspire to seal our fates. How about we accept most people are good, given the chance?
How about moving into the 21st century, and dropping the puritan ethic by accepting most of us actually enjoy and identify with our work?
Australia is at a crossroads. We can see clearly where the path of our current trajectory leads. We have the chance to walk away from the failed 19th century discipline of the lash and to embrace a more caring style of market economics within a 21st century liberal democracy that aspires to lift people from poverty and refuses to leave anyone behind.