Whakapuare started 1969 an indigenous actives group. (Whakapuare means OPENING THE DOOR) Since then over 100 projects in New Zealand, through out The Pacific islands and Australia have been started.

Hugh has now taken Whakapuare to Zimbabwe and Indonesia. (as a result of the first Vittachi conference, which Hugh attended, and through which several young people have come into Subud).

Here he writes about his 3rd visit to Africa in 2003 with his Indonesian-born wife, Murianti…

We are now back in Harare. We have been away on the road visiting these cities: Gweru, Bulawayo, Mutare and Mudzi.

At the last place we stayed for one week to activate our Vhombozi School Project. Which is called “Water for Vhombozi” plus the “fund-raising committee project”. We deposited Zimb$1 million for the water project and Zimb$500.000 for the fund raising committee/project.

Hugh Lynn and Murianti in Zimbabwe

Our last week was spent in the rural area of Mudzi which is 4 hours drive from Harare, population 135 thousand in the villages that surround the area. No European or foreigners anywhere. In fact, you cannot get into these areas without special permission from the people who run the area.

This is where a lot of the fighting took place. This was one of the birth places of struggle for independence. It is steeped in history – war history. Fighting, death, pain, then finally independence.

They just don’t like strangers coming in to the area. Murianti and I did the latihan each morning. I think that helps a lot. I think that God is looking after us both. Thank Goodness. I don’t think we could have done it on our own.

Vhombozi School is some 26 km from Mudzi town which takes us one hour driving on what would have been a dirt road once. Very few motorized vehicles travel this road. You either walk or go by ox-drawn wagon.

No electricity, water if you can get it. Most people have to carry it on theirs heads. Woman do this work.

Our first night in Mudzi we were interviewed by the head people of the area (war veterans). We passed our test. They asked a lot of questions. Why were we here? Who were we? After we were accepted – you cannot get into the area unless you are – doors started to open.

We secured transport after much negotiation then petrol then a driver. This took 6 hours. We needed them to operate for the week to get backward and forward to the school.

Over the week we built-up strong relationship with the people of the area. We presented one workshop on Africa Speaks in Mudzi and visited two separate schools with a presentation to an assembly of all the people.

Ancient Dance, Ancient Culture

We went to visit the Vhombozi School each day, and that itself is exhausting enough. At one meeting with the parents some 400 attended from around the villages to hear our plans and then to approve them. Finally on the last day, Saturday, there was a large celebration with over 1500 people attending and many important officials, the headman and elders from the 9 villages.

African Dance – Vhombozi School Celebration

I bought a large beast which was killed and cooked at the school. There were many different types of entertainment including traditional singing and dancing groups. Finally, in what was considered the highest honor, the elders got up to dance. First, the old women from these areas then the old men joined in, then I did too. I took my shoes off then I danced around and round the circle of old women and men. I am about that age I think.

Large Beast – Vhombozi School celebration

Everyone kept calling me “Sakuru” which means Grandfather. I didn’t think I looked that old, but I enjoyed dancing this ancient dance with this ancient culture. It was a simple dance that the people have done for a very long time. Thank you, Lord, for giving me experience.

This project for Vhombozi School is to raise the funds to put in a bore hole for the school. The kids deserve some water at their school – it would make so much different to the 900 children who travel barefoot over the dusty tracks to go to school each day.

Funds Raising

280 of them are orphans, their parents are gone now from AIDS. We formed a fund-raising committee with the members including the headmaster, representation from the villages, the councillor representing the District, one TACT Youth representative, and one from Africa Speaks.

The money will be held by the school, with two signatures required on the cheques. A meeting will be held each month to develop fund-raising ideas. The first is the Tuck Shop for the school. It will be built and stocked with things to sell. This should do quite well.

This is not an easy place to be in. Inflation is 400%. No cash in the bank, or on the street. Long queues start early in the morning at all the banks to try to with draw some cash money. If you can, it is only little.

Some bus trip were 8.5 hours long with no stops, no toilet stop just stops to pick up people from the side of the road. The bus ends up as a mass of people packed together. Air-conditioning wasn’t invented when these buses were made. Hard to breathe in the bus.

Last night we were invited for dinner to Dr. Muchena who is a Minister of Science and Technology. She has held many positions during her time in the government. Our dinner was put on to thank us for the work that we are doing with the children, her children, the children of Zimbabwe.

Hugh Lynn and DR. O.N. Muchena, MP – Minister of State of Zimbabwe

We are still alive.., we didn’t get sick. We have lived and travel all around the country with the people. Just like they do. How they do this each day of their life? I am not sure but they do. They put up with it.

Hugh and Murianti Lynn, New Zealand

Fabled NZ promoter Hugh Lynn is seen here in this rare one-minute clip, battling with the record company over Herbs wishing to launch their 1987 album in Ruatoria. A storied and entrepreneurial character. Hugh owned Mascot Studios, Eden Security and was a highy successful Auckland concert promoter. He disappeared from the scene over 20 years ago….

*Thanks to http://www.youtube.com/user/slydogmania

Why am I in Indonesia and living in the jungle of Kalimantan or Borneo as I have always known it?

Well, it is a long story…

It started in 1995, my first trip to Indonesia.

I was on my way back to New Zealand after some time up in Norway – Amsterdam –  Kuala Lumpur to hang out with Julian Dobbie, who was working for a New Zealand property developer, in Singapore, finally I landed in Jakarta.

Julian Dobbie & Hugh Lynn

I wasn’t ready for Indonesia, the heat, so many people, and the traffic.
They’re all mad, were my first thoughts. So many people squashed together, coming at you down the road, on both sides, on the foot-path, and the language?

This had been a Subud trip, right through I had hung out with Subud people, and I was heading towards Wisma Subud Cilandak, on Fatmawati Road, two hours away from the airport, depending on traffic, and the traffic rules in Jakarta, it determines the right time to go from point A to point B, and if you pick the wrong time, it can add an extra hour to your journey.

Wisma Subud Cilandak, Jl. Fatmawati, South Jakarta

Vibrant, alive this city is on fire, and nothing was the same as I knew it. The food, the people, the language, everything is different, and the damn heat. My thoughts were they’d lost control over the city. I suppose after being in places that had some order to them, Oslo, Amsterdam, Kuala Lumpur was a bit loose, and then Singapore, Jakarta seemed to be out of control. I could have been on Pluto, at times I thought I was.

I remember the first panic attacks I got with the heat; it just does not go away. I remember moving in to the guest house without air conditioning believing that it would be better If I learnt to adjust to the heat the natural way, now that was a dumb idea, but it takes me some years to figure it out that air conditioning in your room was good especially in the early stages.

Subud Guest House

Seems funny now, writing this from Kalimantan, because it is hot here, but my body has adjusted over these years.

Riza and Hugh in Rungan Sari, Kalimantan

After my first time into Indonesia, I found myself coming back. It seemed to be on the way to Europe and I was flying around a bit more now, on the way back to New Zealand, I’d stop off. My main reason for coming to Indonesia was because of Subud; Wisma Subud was the first international center, English speaking people from all over the world, coming and going.

Subud Hall Cilandak Jakarta

In 2001 I met Yanti, (Subud name, Murianti) and eventually we got married in April 2002

Hugh & Yanti Lynn Wedding Day, 13 April 2002

We brought Rafael, her son to Auckland, New Zealand in late 2003.

Rafael’s farewell family gathering

Rafael is ready for New Zealand adventure

We then moved to Gisborne, August 2004, my tribal area to start work doing tribal business, which lead on to working in The Treaty Settlement process for the Turanganui A Kiwa (Gisborne). This involved many different Iwi, Hapu and Whanau groups.

Gisborne City from Titirangi Hill out look

The Treaty Settlement Process Gisborne

Hugh with tribal elders of Turanganui A Kiwa

During this time I brought down some of our Indonesian family, first Nuraini for 3 months, then Riza for 9 months, then Elvira and Riza’s for a second trip.

Nuraini – Mt. Manganui Beach, East cape of New Zealand

Nuraini – Gisborne 2004

Riza and Elvira, Auckland 2007

Rafael, Riza, Elvira – Wainui Rd, Gisborne 2007

By this time we were making serious plans to go up to Palangka Raya, Central Kalimantan, and spend some time in Rungan Sari. Rungan Sari is a Subud international compound and is 36 km away from Palangka Raya.

Rungan Sari Compound, 36 km from the capital city of Palangka Raya

Wooden house were we living in Rungan Sari compound

by Sam Coley

Commissioned By: Radio New Zealand

First Broadcast: March 2009

7:30 pm

Musical Chairs – Hugh Lynn

Hugh Lynn was New Zealand’s most successful rock promoter of the 1980s. The legendary concert promoter opened New Zealand’s first punk nightclub, managed Herbs, and worked with the superstars of the day, including David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Mick Jagger, Pink Floyd and R.E.M.

His outdoor concerts broke attendance records and in 1988 he was recognised by the Recording Industry Association of New Zealand with an award for his outstanding contribution to local music.

Musical Chairs takes a trip down Lynn’s memory lane, covering his career, his friendship with Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh.

Hugh Lynn, 6th October 6, 2009, Rungan Sari

How did this all happen ?

In the beginning, when I first started doing shows, I kept a sample of all the imagery that were used for each show; poster, handouts, and t-shirts. Because at the end of each show we would evaluate the effectiveness of what we had done. This included, the way in which we had transmitted our messages to the public that the show was coming.

• How effective was the design of this poster?
• Were the colors right?
• Was it easy to read from a distance?
• Did the design stand out?
• Was the information easy to pick up?

So we kept our stuff, to talk about. Now, sometimes there were only a few samples of each item and other times there was a bit more. So that’s how it started.

502 Dominion Rd. Auckland

The items then were stored away under the house in Dominion road after each show. And after a while, a number of years in fact, and about 160 international acts later there was a large amount of memorabilia under the house, with lots of other stuff, for instance, dancing costumes, shoes, chairs from night clubs, and a number of different items collected over those years.

Now at this point, I must pay tribute to a man called Alby Carr. Now Alby had worked for me for about twenty years. He was a giant of a man, did security work, and was Maori. His early days were spent in forestry, and this work had built an exceptionally strong human being. He was the strongest man I knew; fearless. What was strange was he was also gentle. He knew he was strong, but never seemed to take advantage of it. Anyway, he was the man that handled the posters, without him they would have never up under the house. In fact I forgot that they were even there.

Dorothy Katipa Aged 16, 1936

It wasn’t until 1991 when I became aware that my mother, Da Katipa was suffering from the early stages of Alzheimer. Mother was acting a bit strange; not her normal self. When our family doctor informed me of my mother’s condition, “just at the beginning, I think its dementia, and it’s going to get worse over time. She’s going to need your help, keep an eye on her.” So I did, eventually moving back into the house. Without letting her know that I was actually doing that. Very independent woman, my mother. No one told her what to do, she would tell you. So I slept on the couch, in the front room. Part time in the beginning, when I came down from the bush, I was living in the Hokiannga at the time. A small place called Miti Miti to be precise, on the west coast. Due to the hospitality of  Tommy Ferguson, a Scotsman on fire, and later Charlie Dunn, whose family had lived there for a very long time, New Zealand middleweight boxing champion in his prime. So when I was in Auckland, I was back at the big house with my mom and after a while she got used to me being there. It was about early 93’ that I was starting to spend more time in Auckland and less time in the Hokiannga. But, still coming and going, sort of floating between the two.

Tommy, Hugh and Charlie @miti-miti 2006

Cameron Ellis, my brother-in-law had come back from Australia, he had been working for Michael Chugg, on the road with a band, tour manager, a hard gig to handle being out there on the road. Lynn Patterson, we had worked together for a long time, in fact her whole family, all the way back to her grandfather Duke Cassidy had worked for Eden security. Lynn started to help me with mother, especially when I was out of out of Auckland, or overseas, every now and then. People would come around to the big house to say hello to me or mother. Sometimes they would stay for a night or two, Or in the case of Ike Metekingi, for a year or two.

Ike Mitikingi, Lynn Patterson, Cameron Ellis

As time went on mother got worse, and I think it was Cameron who’d gone under the house to look for something. He arrived upstairs, and asked me what I was going to do with all the stuff under the house. “What stuff?” I said. “Lots of old junk,” I didn’t respond straight away and it was a week or two later that I finally went under the house with Cameron to look at all this old stuff. And there it was, couldn’t see it clearly in the dark at first, but there was a mass of stuff under there. Now it’s uncomfortable bent over sometimes on your hand and knees maneuvering your way under the house, with a mini torch in my mouth. Looking at all this stuff that had been packed away by Alby. I could never figure out How Alby got himself under the house and got the memorabilia packed away off the ground so the cardboard boxes wouldn’t rot. But he had and done a great job, thank you my brother Alby!

Posters

Time went on, I suppose 96’ and 97’ and by that time I was with my mother twenty-four-seven. By that time Ike had moved from sleeping on my couch upstairs into the downstairs area. And I think it was Ike and Cameron who started with the idea of cleaning up under the house. So the stuff started to move into the downstairs area, slowly, bit by bit, paper is heavy. 100 posters in a package can take a bit of shifting when you’re hunched up under the house. Out it came into the sunlight, as each piece came to light, there was a story to be remembered and all the things that had happened around the show, and of course the people we had met. More and more people started to appear we’d meet down stairs, a few beers, smoke or two, and remember the stories. Most of us that gathered were in the business, that’s the music business/show business. Musicians, road crew, promoters, and others, connected with business. We all had a lot of stories, some of us went back to the Maori Show Bands. Still alive, still playing the music. I wasn’t always down there; mother was starting to get forgetful, that’s what Alzheimer’s does to you. “Who are you?” she would say. I could have been her husband, her father, son, brother, she just didn’t know.

John Dix

My mother passed on in January 2000 …..date. and that’s when John Dix and Dot appeared. They had been down to The South Island, Queensland. They needed a place to stay for a while, and they did. We started talking about “What was I going to do?” One thing lead to another and internet told us that these posters had a value. The first lot we sold was from Dominion Road. But hey I don’t want to run a shop. So finally we started to put them on the net; eBay, Trade me. John did a lot of work in the early stages, and I’ve got to thank him for that!

Pondok Gede

Jakarta – Indonesia

Story 1

by Hugh Lynn

This is my first story for my blog.

In the beginning I didn’t want to get involved in extra effort of supporting the blog.

It all seemed like hard work to me, considering that my typing, if you can call it that, five words a minute wasn’t going to get me very far. At the moment I’ve got my 12 year old son Rafael typing this letter. He’s much faster that I am.

Rafael

The idea of this blog originated from my brother in law, Riza, who ended up with us in Turangnanui a Kiwa (Gisborne) for nine months, to improve his English and hang out with the Maori and do some work around our house.

Hugh and Rafael pick up Riza @ Auckland Airport

He is a very multi talented young man, he is thirty one now. He was sleeping in the green shed out the back with all his electronics, when he started on this idea of the Hugh Lynn collection blog.

green shed

He had graduated from the Trisakti University in Jakarta with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and since then, had delved into electronics with his engineering brain, wanting to know how it all worked.

So by the time he got to New Zealand we had been interacting for some time. Although he couldn’t speak English and I couldn’t speak bahasa Indonesian, except to ask for cigarettes and coffee.

While Riza was in Gisborne an opportunity became available to attend and English speaking language course, being run by Tairawhiti Politech. Within three or four months into the course we were starting to communicate with each other in a fashion. He told me later, that he could only understand twenty percent of what I was saying. But being Indonesian he was too shy to say that to me, but as the course went on he seemed to be speaking English more easily. Soon the percentage increased to fifty percent. But now I had encouraged him to send me signals when he lacked the understanding with my words. Eventually the conversation got around to the possibility of doing something in Indonesia in regards to the memorabilia.

to be continued….!

Maui and Warrior

Promoter Hugh Lynn and singer Larry Morris purchased Mascot studios after the death of engineer Bruce Barton. Mascot had released the odd disc over the years: Barton had engineered a disc released on Europe and Morris had recorded for independents Moon and Gemini. Hugh Lynn saw a niche in the recording industry where he could focus his attention: a Maori renaissance was beginning to rumble, more attention was being paid on the stage to influences other than American music, and there was no reason why Maori couldn’t take their place in rock and roll. Lynn allowed interested parties to use his studios to set up camp, eat and record; with arrangements for remuneration made between the brothers.The most commercial record to come out of this arrangement was put together by Dalvanius Prime. In 1982, a round of concept singles hit the market. Studios would take a group’s hits and re-record them as a medley tagged with the phrase ‘on forty-five. ‘Thus we had Beach boys on 45,Hollies on 45 – and here in New Zealand on RCA,Terence O’Neill-Joyce produced Maoris on 45, a medley ot Maori tunes played by the Consorts with the publishing attributed to K-Tel. The Consorts themselves and the musical arrangements were the creation of Dalvanius Prime, who used the record as a stepping-stone to another single, this time on Huhg Lynn’s Maui label and entitled Poi E. The disc was recorded by a choir from Prime’s home town, the Patea Maori group, accompanied by the disco sounds in vogue at the time-Linn drums and synthesizers.Reviews were mixed for this combination of Maori chanting riding on a disco beat, but in February 1984 the song made number one. With writer Ngoi Pewhairangi, Dalvanius recorded a larger work-almost a Maori pera – toure successfully through Europe, once again with the Patea Maori concert party. Meantime back at Mascot studios, a Maori/Polynesian/reggae band named Herbs was releasing successful singles and albums on their own record label – Warrior. Herbs’ songs of gentle protest about French nuclear testing in the Pacific and their adoption of a reggae rhythm won them many friends outside New Zealand, and assured their attendance at Pacific music festivals. If indeed there is such a thing as a rock sound of the Pacific, then it is epitomised in the music ot Herbs.

From the clutch of do-it-yourselfers who released records in the early eighties, mention muse be made of Harry Ratbag. Ratbag was Auckland’s top poster paster and made a good living in the dark of night putting up advertisements for bands on city walls. Harry had his own group, Herco Pilots, and released two double 45 discs in the most elaborate fold-out packaging. The label was called Rem records, an abbreviation for the Auckland suburb ot Remuera In the mid-eighties Harry went to New York,landed a job with Stiff records and at the end of the century was making compilation dance CDs in the States under his own name, Harry Russell. From the Wellington group with the best name in the world – Shoes This High – came Brent Hayward, who toured the country as a solo performer (called Smelly Feet) or with Julie Cooper. Brent released, pressed and sold numerous records on his own labels – a real record and Massage, plus Brent & Julie Records. In the South Island, Bill Direen produced a number of records for himself and others and appeared on numerous one-off labels, most notably Sausage, Full Moon and Southern Indies. South Island soundman Rex Visible was involved with two record label names-Deep South and Onset Offset. To sell even a minimum print run, though, you needed a distributor-and a company that looked favourably at New Zealand one – off productions was Jayrem.

British band The Police were the center of attention last night at Auckland’s Western Springs Stadium where they toped a bill of our bands and brought six hour of rock music to

a climax in front of a crowd of around 40.000.

After sets by Auckland’s Coconut Rough, Canada’s Bryan Adams and Australian Crawl, The Police took the stage with singer/ bassist/resident sex symbol Sting center front for more

than 100 munites of hits, past and present.

The crowd loved it. Meantime, outside another band of fans did not let a fence, a lack of tickets or the police (the other sort) stand between them and the music.