It’s not often you come across a music genre like “indigi-queer”, an amalgamation of “Indigenous” and “queer”. But that’s the term Theia and Bobby Sanchez have used to describe their latest collaboration.
The pair today shared “BALDH3AD! (Remix)”, a reworking of Theia’s original protest anthem that shook the ground that tangata whenua (the Indigenous Maori people of Aotearoa) stand upon and continue to fight for.
As a descendant of the Ngāti Tīpa people, Theia originally wrote “BALDH3AD!” as a “musical assault on the plague of colonisation, which has impacted our people since the 1800s and continues to threaten our language and culture under the current government.”
She described the waiata as “an expression of seething anger but also a call to action for my fellow wāhine Māori, rangatahi Māori and indigenous folks worldwide.”
New York-based rapper and poet Bobby Sanchez reworks the second verse of the song for the remix, dishing out multiple thoughts in a quick span of time: “Colonizers think they own the whole world / Global warming, but this is a cold world / My people shiny like some gold pearls / Spirit intact, creator know my soul’s pure.”
Sanchez then references the Incan ruler Atahualpa, who was captured and killed during the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire: “ATAHUALPA dropped the Bible on the ground because he couldn’t hear it.”
“It describes an experience when a priest approached the leader at the time, Atahualpa, and handed him a bible. Atahualpa raised the book up to his ear and dropped it to the ground, I think it was a poetic time in history because it shows the resistance of our people against the colonial forces of religion, something that Theia paints a picture of in this song,” Sanchez says.
Theia and Sanchez first met last year when they performed at a festival in California. Theia explains why she knew Sanchez would be a perfect addition to her song. “I was really moved by Bobby’s performance last year and have listened to many of her songs, like ‘Quechua 101 Land Back Please’ and ‘Revolution Visionary’. Her work in music and beyond is exemplary.”
“I am very impressed by the way Theia mixes her Indigenous identity with her music as well as speaking about the effects that religion played in colonisation of indigenous peoples,” Sanchez says. “I think she is making connections through music that is truly unique and I love it. I also think her voice is absolutely amazing and when the offer was made to collab I yelled at my phone, ‘No f*cking way.'”
Theia will be heading back to Aotearoa for The Others Way Festival in Auckland at the end of this month, as she is now based in Los Angeles. Her debut album is also on the way, but Theia has yet to officially announce its release date.
Theia and Bobby Sanchez’s “BALDH3AD! (Remix)” is out now.
