Judy Small, one of Australia's best and most popular political singer/songwriters, is currently touring Australia to promote her album Second Wind. She spoke to Alex Bainbridge about the influences on her life, her politics and her music.
"I am the classic case of the conservative turned radical by a police truncheon", Small explained. "I was actually a very conservative teenager. I lived in the country in northern NSW and I was a born-again Christian.
"It wasn't until about 1976 when I was dragged along to a demonstration with some friends and got arrested for doing absolutely nothing, I thought, 'Hang on. If they're arresting me and telling lies in court about what happened, then maybe some of the things they say about the police and the system are right. Maybe this system isn't here for my benefit.' Ever since, I have been questioning and bringing politics into my music."
She had been singing in folk clubs in Sydney for some time but she actually learned to love music in church. "That's political, whether we like it or not. There's music which is designed to convert the unconverted, and there's the music that sustains the congregation. I've always firmly believed that our congregation needs sustaining too. So people say to me: 'That song's just preaching to the converted!' and I say 'Yeah. So?' They need music that makes them feel good about what they're doing."
Small sees her role as "documenting" her times: "As the times change, so do the songs". In the last five years or so Small has started to look more at the "personal-political" than the "global-political".
"There aren't any songs on my new album about world peace, for instance. That's not to say I don't think that's important ... I'm not one of these people that thinks because the Berlin wall came down we now have peace on Earth. I still sing the songs, when they're appropriate, that I wrote about world peace.
"The things that I'm writing about now tend to be a little more personal. Not necessarily personal to me, but personal to other people. Like 'Reflections', the song about incest, isn't my story. But it's the story of a hell of a lot of women like me. Too many."
One of the songs on her new album deals with reconciliation between black and white Australians. Small remains deeply committed and supportive of land rights and sees reconciliation rather than confrontation as the way to get there.
She is encouraged by the successes of the progressive movements, especially the feminist movement. Recalling her early days in the women's movement, working in a rape crisis centre in Sydney, she remembers the outcry that would accompany the mention of rape at a Rotary Club Dinner or even in a school classroom. Rape in marriage? That was really unmentionable.
Small says it is revealing to note the response to the comments by Judge Bollen that it was acceptable to use "rougher than usual handling" when "convincing" a wife to have sex. "That would have gone without comment 15 years ago. There is a fine line between saying nothing has changed and we still need to struggle and saying everything's changed and we don't need to struggle any more. The point I really want to make is that lots has changed and we still need to struggle.
"There is a dichotomy for young women in particular. Many young women see that it is not over yet and can see the gains their mothers have made and understand the struggle (I've written a song for them too, called 'Daughters of the Second Wave').
"I don't care if they use the word 'feminist' or not. It's their beliefs and values that I care about. If their value system says, 'I'm a woman and I'm not going to let anybody tell me I can't do things because I am a woman and I'm not going to let anybody tell me what I can do with my body', that's fine. I don't need her to say she's a feminist."
One area where she sees the success of the women's movement is within folk music. "Even 10 years ago
we were fighting for women's concerts at folk festivals — not for women, but by women. The reason for that was that if we didn't, the women didn't get heard on the main stages. They were shoved away and called 'ladies' and 'girls', and if they sang anything but the 'bonny black hair' songs they were seen as strange.
"So there was a concerted move to get women put on at folk festivals — and it worked. Now there is a feminist folk scene in this country.
"My aim, and the aim of every feminist I know, is to live to see the day when the word feminist is simply not necessary because it doesn't mean anything any more. On the way, like in the folk scene, we may need to create space for ourselves.
"I am prepared to work with anybody who is willing to work with me to make this world a better place for women. If the world is a better place for women, it will be a better place for everybody."
Tour dates:
Melbourne: July 23, Melba Hall
Bendigo: July 24, Bendigo Arts Centre
Wollongong: July 30, Illawarra Folk Club
Parramatta: July 31, Parramatta Riverside Theatre
Sydney: August 1, The Basement, Reiby Place
Adelaide: August 6, Nexus Cabaret Space, Living Arts Complex
Perth: August 7, The Octagon
Hobart: August 13-14, The Wheatsheaf Hotel
Launceston: August 15, ph 003 34 2049
Darwin: September 18, Darwin Casino
Inquiries: Sue Dyson, (03) 481 7009