In honor of Girls’s Historical past Month, Atwood Journal has invited artists to take part in a sequence of essays reflecting on id, music, tradition, inclusion, and extra.
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Immediately, Welsh rising star Mali Hâf shares how her newest single reimagines the Welsh Nationwide Anthem, flipping the angle to honor and have fun the contributions of ladies, in a particular essay for Atwood Journal’s Girls’s Historical past Month Collection!
Hailing from Cardiff, Wales, Celtic Soul singer/songwriter Mali Hâf isn’t just right here to entertain, however to problem and reshape how the world perceives Welsh tradition. She is intent on breaking stereotypes and displaying the wealthy range of her homeland via daring, trendy sounds. Launched March seventh, her newest single “H.W.F.M” is a daring feminist reimagining of the Welsh Nationwide Anthem, “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” (Previous Land of My Fathers). The tune flips the angle to have fun and honor the contributions of ladies, reframing Wales because the ‘Previous Land of My Moms.’
Playful and cheeky in its homage to the unique anthem, the tune goes deeper, expressing a heartfelt eager for Wales (and all lands) to be locations of true equality secure havens for girls and nurturing areas for everybody. It challenges listeners to assume past conventional gender roles and stereotypes, calling for empathy, care, and compassion because the defining values of a nation.
Take heed to “H.W.F.M” wherever you stream music, and prepared Mali Hâf’s Girls’s Historical past Month essay beneath!
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A Track for Girls in Wales & In every single place
by Mali Hâf
“Hen Wlad Fy Mamau” is the hook and title of my newest single. It’s a twist on the Welsh nationwide anthem, Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau – which interprets as “Land of My Fathers.”
However in my tune, it’s modified to “Land of My Moms.”
When you’ve ever met a Welsh particular person you‘ll know quickly sufficient that they’re not English! Our pleasure can run deep. We actually have a phrase, in Cymraeg, “hiraeth, ” to explain the longing we really feel for our homeland. It’s a sense solely a fellow Welshy can actually perceive.
However Wales isn’t only a land of tune and poetry; it’s additionally the poorest of the 4 UK nations. That exploitation and hardship has formed us. (Btw I don’t purchase the garbage of blaming the Welsh authorities of the final 25 years- it’s the results of 200 years of exploiting our sources and social neglect!!) I’d prefer to assume it’s made us a rustic that values assist for the weakest and social equity. That’s why, once I sing in Welsh, I really feel these highly effective values come via in my music.
But, as a lot as I like my nation, I’ve needed to ask myself: If I’m so happy with Wales, is Wales happy with me? Is it a secure and equal place for Girls and anybody who’s susceptible?
Actuality for a Welsh Girl:
I want I may let you know that being a girl in Wales is like one thing out of Tolkien’s world: wandering via magical hilly landscapes like elves with flowers in your hair! revered for being great and powerful moms. And generally, caught up in my very own actuality, it will possibly really feel that approach. However principally, it actually doesn’t and hasn’t.
I used to be born and raised in Cardiff. Typically to impress my Mamgu (Grandma) I placed on a West Wales accent to impress her and make her proud. Nevertheless it’s southeast Wales that formed me, and my experiences as a Girl right here have been removed from enchanting.
There was nothing secure about rising up on this metropolis. I’ve been chased down alleys, needed to cover in parks, skilled revenge porn, sexual assault, and I’m sorry to say the horrors of organized rape. My teenage years and early Womanhood…like these of so many women I do know …weren’t one thing to have fun.
Even in my early twenties, when working in childcare, I noticed moms drop their youngsters off at nursery with black eyes and bruises on their faces. Extra instances than I care to rely.
I don’t permit myself to really feel anger simply. I suppress it. I’ve at all times been identified for my chilled, away with the fairies, happy-go-lucky angle, and I suppose I don’t wish to lose others’ admiration for that. However once I write songs, once I step onto a stage and carry out…that’s once I can let it out.!! Safely. Purposefully. Creatively.
Wales and Girls’s Rights: The place Are We Now?
This tune was born out of frustration, reflection, and hope. As a result of as a lot as I like my nation, I can’t ignore the contradictions. We have fun Welsh id, however can we actually be proud if we flip a blind eye to inequality, continued excessive ranges of home violence, ineffective societal responses and tolerance of sexually aggressive teenage behaviour. What I’ve described above is one thing to be ashamed of/ one thing that must be addressed with a way of urgency.
However right here’s the place the hope is available in. Why can’t Wales with our nonetheless comparatively new Senedd (parliament) cleared the path? What if we may very well be a nation that actually champions Girls’s rights? What if we may very well be the change we wish to see?
This tune is my approach of holding up a mirror to the nation I really love. Asking: Can we do higher? Are we actually the land of tune, of poetry, of expertise and social justice? If that’s the case, don’t we have to hear all our voices, together with the susceptible, for that to be true? Doesn’t creativity and tradition thrive in an environment of security, assist and love? We’d like reminders many times and once more… – Mali Hâf
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