In honor of Ladies’s Historical past Month, Atwood Journal has invited artists to take part in a collection of essays reflecting on identification, music, tradition, inclusion, and extra.
•• •• •• ••
At this time, Welsh rising star Mali Hâf shares how her newest single reimagines the Welsh Nationwide Anthem, flipping the angle to honor and rejoice the contributions of girls, in a particular essay for Atwood Journal’s Ladies’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 by daring, fashionable 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her newest single “H.W.F.M” is a daring feminist reimagining of the Welsh Nationwide Anthem, “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau” (Outdated Land of My Fathers). The track flips the angle to rejoice and honor the contributions of girls, reframing Wales because the ‘Outdated Land of My Moms.’
Playful and cheeky in its homage to the unique anthem, the track goes deeper, expressing a heartfelt eager for Wales (and all lands) to be locations of true equality protected havens for ladies and nurturing areas for everybody. It challenges listeners to suppose past conventional gender roles and stereotypes, calling for empathy, care, and compassion because the defining values of a nation.
Hearken to “H.W.F.M” wherever you stream music, and prepared Mali Hâf’s Ladies’s Historical past Month essay under!
•• ••
A Tune for Ladies in Wales & In all places
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 track, it’s modified to “Land of My Moms.”
If you happen to’ve ever met a Welsh particular person you‘ll know quickly sufficient that they’re not English! Our satisfaction can run deep. We also 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 really perceive.
However Wales isn’t only a land of track 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 suppose it’s made us a rustic that values help for the weakest and social equity. That’s why, once I sing in Welsh, I really feel these highly effective values come by in my music.
But, as a lot as I really like my nation, I’ve needed to ask myself: If I’m so pleased with Wales, is Wales pleased with me? Is it a protected and equal place for Ladies and anybody who’s susceptible?
Actuality for a Welsh Lady:
I want I might inform you that being a lady in Wales is like one thing out of Tolkien’s world: wandering by magical hilly landscapes like elves with flowers in your hair! revered for being fantastic and robust moms. And generally, caught up in my very own actuality, it might probably really feel that method. However largely, it actually doesn’t and hasn’t.
I used to be born and raised in Cardiff. Generally to impress my Mamgu (Grandma) I placed on a West Wales accent to impress her and make her proud. But it surely’s southeast Wales that formed me, and my experiences as a Lady right here have been removed from enchanting.
There was nothing protected about rising up on this metropolis. I’ve been chased down alleys, needed to conceal 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 rejoice.
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 occasions than I care to rely.
I don’t permit myself to really feel anger simply. I suppress it. I’ve all the time been identified for my chilled, away with the fairies, happy-go-lucky perspective, and I suppose I don’t need 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 Ladies’s Rights: The place Are We Now?
This track was born out of frustration, reflection, and hope. As a result of as a lot as I really like my nation, I can’t ignore the contradictions. We rejoice Welsh identification, 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) paved the way? What if we may very well be a nation that actually champions Ladies’s rights? What if we may very well be the change we need to see?
This track is my method of holding up a mirror to the nation I really love. Asking: Can we do higher? Are we really the land of track, 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, help and love? We’d like reminders time and again and once more… – Mali Hâf
•• ••
:: join with Mali Hâf right here ::
:: join with H.W.F.M right here ::
•• ••
•• •• •• ••
Hook up with Mali Hâf on
Instagram, X, TikTok, Fb
Uncover new music on Atwood Journal
📸 © Sterling Taylor
:: Stream Mali Hâf ::
