kane on the "dunedin music scene" [tw]

Like a lot of people who have remained quiet in the past, I haven’t said how I truly feel about the music scene that I have been a part of since high school because I did not want to become isolated from it. Lately I have realised that the scene in its current form is something that I want to become more and more removed from each day.

Now is not a golden era for Dunedin music. Was the music scene I have experienced for the last four or so years a golden era? No. The 80s and early 90s was not a golden era. There has never been a golden era because there has never been a safe label, a safe venue or a safe radio station in this town, at any point in time. For me, the “Dunedin Sound” that I will remember is the sound of hopeless cries falling on deaf ears.

This is a scene where abusers are given the power to employ other abusers. A scene that has supported and continues to support bad people who don’t know when to apologise/quit. When these people aren’t being supported, you can often find them being celebrated, glamourised.

I’d like to make it clear that there certainly is beautiful music being made here by inspiring people.. that is almost the problem. It’s so unique and world renowned that people are all-too-easily distracted from what is actually going on around it.

I worked in hospitality for years and was recently thinking about how intense the hygiene programme is that the DCC has in place. You better believe that I know how hot re-heated rice needs to be, I had to write it into a book every shift. Yet would anyone know what to do if a sexual assault were to occur on the premises? Hell no. How can we have a complex rating system for food safety but no plan whatsoever if someone is being made to feel unsafe by an abuser inside our venues? Surely this is a good place to start.