Pacific musicians protest through song
NEW Zealand reggae band Herbs has been immortalised in film with the release this year of the documentary Herbs: Songs of Freedom.
Herbs are the pioneers of Pacific reggae, a term given them by one of the biggest exponents of reggae music, UB40.
One of Herbs biggest hits recorded and released in 1982 was French Letter became a protestors’ anthem that helped turn the tide against French nuclear tests on Mururoa Atoll in French Polynesia.
And the New Zealand band deserves every accolade for never relenting on its anti-nuclear stance with songs like Rust In Dust and Nuclear Waste.
Their anti-nuke tunes were the highlight of the Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior Festival at Mount Smart Stadium in 1986, a year after the infamous Rainbow Warrior sinking incident.
And Herbs brought their Pacific reggae sound and anti-nuclear message to Fiji during a tour in the mid ‘80s.
Fingers crossed, Fiji will get to see the Herbs story unfold on the silver screen soon.
However, anti-nuclear protests were not confined to Aotearoa.
In Fiji, Anil Valera, a young Fijian boy of Indian descent from Toorak, Suva, composed, recorded and released Destruction of Humanity.
The anti-nuclear song was beamed from then pirate station Radio Hauraki on board the ship Tiri which was anchored three miles off the Auckland coast. The year was 1973.
Valera, a member of the country’s top band at the time — Ulysses, said that after reading about the impact of nuclear fallout on the environment and especially, people, he had to do something about it.
“It was a song about the French Government testing bombs at Mururoa,” he explained.
“I was listening to the news and reading Time and Newsweek magazines and learning about the ill-effects of the testing and decided to write a protest song.
“There was a huge protest march on the streets in Suva at the time and Radio Fiji supported the cause by playing my song.”
Hundreds took to the streets in Suva to protest the French tests and songs like Destruction of Humanity expressed the outrage people felt at the time.
The antinuclear protests fuelled by Valera’s song, and later by tunes such as Nuclear Waste, courtesy of Herbs, combined with pressure from the New Zealand Government, forced the French to abandon atmospheric tests in 1974.
The last underground test was reported to have been conducted in 1996.
Although actual figures have not been established, various reports published at the time said anywhere from 170 to 180 tests were conducted on the atoll which formed part of the Tuamotu Archipelago in French Polynesia.
Valera, Ulysses and Fijians in the ‘70s were talking and singing environmentalism long before it became a ‘thing’.
Ulysses founder, keyboard player and music director Henry Foon said the passion of Valera’s song combined with the uncompromising rock attitude of the band expressed sentiments shared by all Pacific people towards the nuke tests.
“We were a no-holds-barred rock band that sometimes drifted into pop and the antinuclear concerts were places where we could express the disenchantment of the Pacific people through music to the nuclear tests that were being conducted,” said Foon.
“And Anil had all the right songs and the look for that generation.”
Perhaps the time has come for a movie about how Fijians like Valera and bands like Ulysses and many others played a role in taking the anti-nuclear message to the streets and bring about change.