Interstellar Refugee
Interpretation by Kay Duncan
Back Story – A Space voyager satellite was launched by NASA 20.9.1977 to study outer space. Voyager 2 is in it’s extended mission to study Interstellar space and has been operating for 44 years (2022). Each Voyager space probe carries within it a gold plated audio-visual disc in the event that it is found by intelligent life forms. The disc carries photos, scientific information, spoken greetings, and sounds of whales, a baby crying, waves breaking and music by Mozart, Blind Willie Johnson, Chuck Berry and other ethnic performers.
The ideas behind my song - Thinking about the Voyager containing these fragments of humanity, I likened it to a sort of artificial man made refugee floating out there in space hoping to find a connection with other life forms’, a place to start again perhaps. Relating this back to what we are experiencing here on earth now with our looming environmental crisis, I can’t help but think about our future displacements due to rising sea levels. Many countries are already finding new homes for refugees who have fled their countries due to war and famine, and people have many different views about the moral duties we have around this. But in the future maybe we will all experience being a refugee as landmasses shrink, and we seek home on other shores, or other planets?
The song – I wanted to express these thoughts and feelings from the perspective of the last remaining person on earth. This person would have possibly already had the experience of being a refugee, and witnessed it too. The heartbreaking decision to leave earth leaves the listener wondering if the journey will be futile, or if this person will be joining others somewhere in outer space? The listener can choose the ending. In reality what choices are we making towards this, or alternative outcomes?