My journey into writing "Brown Like Me" began around 1981/82, when I went to Honolulu to do a solo gig at the U of Hawaii at Manoa. Wow, with an opening band who were all women and all brown! I was thrilled and felt right at home (Sisters of the Strings ~ Mililani Trask was in that band, that's how we met). I also started doing a lot of benefits for Native American causes, for example AIM (American Indian Movement) in San Francisco; many, many for the Navajo women who were fiercely resisting the BIA at the time, I even went to Four Corners, where the Navajo and Hopi were meeting under one tent for the first time in many years ... up to Spokane, where the People were fighting for their fishing rights. I felt so comfortable with them all, and they with me. That was a revelation! Plus, playing in the Bay Area, and meeting so many women from South America (Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua, you name it), who were fleeing from oppression. I always felt totally accepted, and on a par ... but there was something else. It's like we were all enveloped in the same Love ... the same understandings. Not a word needed to be spoken. Slowly, I recognized the acceptance and it seriously blew my mind. So, so powerful!! I mean, it took me a bit to accept it all as ... real.

So, brown like me. In 2021, while I was on breast cancer therapies, I got an invitation from someone at the Smithsonian to participate in a program that focused on women of color artists. Of course! I mean, I was on chemo but I just had to accept. I did three pieces, and nephew Lee John Madeloni (Jean's son) video'd them with me. I came up with the shot list, and we did them together. It wasn't easy in my state (you'll see how different I look), but we booked the time judiciously in the IMA Barn, and did it. Then I edited, in this case inserting photos of my people from various island chains, some known and unknown (for example, my Lola, or grandmother); Mililani & Haunani Trask, bandmates Jean and Brie, also artist Ruby Ibarra, who was included in the Smithsonian collection. It was epic. A number of pics of me in Hawaii, and a photo my dad took of me looking into a mirror when I was about ... 4? 5? In Baguio, a mountain city not far north of Manila, maybe a 3-4 hour drive.

Please enjoy. I don't quite remember when I wrote this song, I think it was over a few years in the mid-80's. This piece reveals so much about me, my heritage and my past ... I didn't record it until 1988 with Jean, and we performed it for years, into the late 90's for sure. She wanted to resurrect it before the stroke hit, but we didn't get to it in time. But the impact of this video is pretty fierce, and I'm so glad I got to represent this song with Lee. it's got our Austronesian ferocity. I'm proud of this song, and this video!! xx

June Millington
Artistic Dir, IMA