Meet Sustainable Reggae Artist Sahra Indio
By Jessica Kirkwood
Reggae—with its catchy rhythms and poignant messages—was born on the island of Jamaica in the 1960s and made its way to Hawai‘i nearly two decades later—right around the time Sahra Indio first landed here, too.
“I identify with roots reggae music because of the message it delivers. Audiences actually come for the words of wisdom that uplift their spirits. The heartbeat rhythm is the foundation of reggae music; it is centering, while the thumping bass line makes you wind up your waist. There’s an old saying in reggae: We make your body rock while we hit your head hard.”
Her musical style is playful and upbeat, while her voice is soothing, deep and soulful. In live performance she is so enchanting that once, even before entering a recording studio, she was invited to play at a festival on Kyushu Island in Japan. “It took me two years to create all the material and believe in myself enough to go,” she admits. Accepting the invitation led her to become a solo artist.
Since stepping out into her own power, she has created three self-produced CD’s of all-original tunes and has performed worldwide across France, Japan, Germany, Amsterdam, Australia, Canada and across the U.S.—alongside major reggae stars such as Alpha Blondy, Don Carlos, Midnite and Bambu Station.
Her signature song “Good’s Gonna Happen,” off her debut album won the 2004 award for World/Reggae Song of the Year at Unisong, the oldest international songwriting contest, with past judges such as Peter Frampton, Randy Bachman, Desmond Child, and K.C. Porter. This award encouraged her to believe that there was a place for her unique, jazzy reggae style on the international scene.
“’Good’s Gonna Happen’ encourages us to not give up—not on love; not on life; especially not on ourselves.” And Sahra has quite a hope-filled tale to tell.
Seated outside at the Kanaka Kava Bar on Ali‘i Drive, we are surrounded by quaint conversations, fruiting banana stalks and the ocean’s waves surging behind us. Sahra suggested we meet here: a place where she’s performed numerous shows, and a place nearly as grounding as she is.
I am immediately charmed by the contrast between her petite physique and her long, clean, powerful dreadlocks (which, by the way, she sports with some serious elegance). A stylish organic hat, which she’s hand-weaved, sits on her head. Her smile is sincere, her demeanor calm, dignified and humble, she smells sweet. In speech she’s eloquent and good-humored.
Having moved to Hawai‘i over 30 years ago, she currently lives off-grid with her husband, growing estate coffee, citrus, vegetables and avocado. Water is collected from rainfall and their house is powered by solar energy. “Life seems to take on more meaning because we don’t take our resources and energy for granted. Keeping it real, by keeping life land-based, helps keep me balanced,” she says.
At age 60, she wears her life experience with the utmost grace and beauty. She eats only energy-filled, natural foods, while she runs, practices yoga and rides her bicycle regularly—reinforcing that our environment, how we live, how we eat, and how we treat other people becomes our identity. “I believe that to live sustainably for the planet, we must first learn to live sustainably in our own body,” she affirms.
Sahra also creates eclectic fiber art, inspired by a job she once had working as a textile conservationist at the Doris Duke Estate on O‘ahu, where she had the meticulous and tedious job of hand-sewing beautiful, century-old tapestries, with her first piece being from 13th century Iran. “I focus on palm cloth and recycled material to make unique and wearable art.” She also creates devotional necklaces from wood, stone and shells, and weaves baskets, hats, cushions and carvings that are sold at local markets.
As for music, rhythm is deeply rooted in Sahra’s family tree. Her uncle was the legendary 1950s American jazz trumpeter, Clifford Brown, whose name was uttered in the same sentence as Charlie Parker and Dizzie Gillespie. Grammy Award-winning cousin Reggie Griffin has played with Anita Baker, Babyface, The Isley Brothers, Jean Luc Ponty and George Duke. Reggie has also co-produced island projects with Sahra’s brother Moon Brown, a well-known alto-saxophone player and art education specialist on the Big Island. But musically speaking, Sahra herself is a late bloomer.
Having grown up in a time of extreme racial unrest in Philidelphia, she had to learn to cope with the drug use, civil riots, racial injustices and the blight of poverty that was then-wracking her community, “Many of my family members were leading stagnant lifestyles with cycles of drug use and rehab programs,” she admits. School, too, was a scary, non-academic place, where gang violence was prominent and where girls were being raped in the secluded halls of her high school.
Sahra’s mother was shot and killed at the age of 23, when Sahra was only five. Several years later, her father, a detective with the Philidelphia Police Department, was shot on-duty in the streets. “The loss of my father added an almost unbearable weight.” With such painstaking circumstances, she began yearning for greener landscapes, open vistas, starry skies, cultural diversity and for a chance to live a life that wasn’t so statically black and white.
Sahra eventually moved to California, where her landlord, a travel agent, gifted her a surprise ticket to Kaua‘i on her 25th birthday. Sahra felt fortunate, yet reluctant. Having never traveled outside mainland U.S., Hawai‘i seemed formidable. “I thought Hawai‘i was only for surfers and hula dancers.“ And so she departed for Hawai‘i openly reserved. “That was back in the 70s and I was the only person of color on the flight. But I had a complete itinerary from my landlord, which I was determined to follow.”
Stepping foot on Kaua‘i, she pulled out her landlord’s hand-written guidebook, which read, “Get off plane, stand by road, hitch ride.” And so the story goes. “These people pulled over and picked me up; after a while they asked me if I knew why they stopped for me. They told me they picked me up because I was popolo [black], meaning we were family, they said.”
Swerving through lush, botanic rainforest and past endless ocean landscapes, she hopped out at a trailhead along the Nā Pali Coast and began hiking towards the majestic Hanakāpī‘ai Beach. Sahra was moved, awe-struck by her surroundings. “When I reached the beach, everyone was naked. I had never been naked in public. I was conservative. I was from Philly!” Needless to say, after days of meditating, hiking, swimming through rivers, collecting puka shells and stripping herself down to the bare minimum, Sahra left the valley a different woman than when she first entered. “I remember thinking that this was the kind of experience Aretha Franklin was singing about in her song ‘Natural Woman!’”
Although the flora and fauna captivated her senses, she reflects, it was the smiles, the feelings from the islanders and the aloha spirit that essentially stole her heart.
“When I went back to California, I became more aware of the conversations of others, and found that I no longer fit in,” she reflects. She had had a brief taste of what it meant to live deliberately, to confront just the basic facts of life—and she wanted more.
Sahra first sought refuge on Maui, which she claims ‘didn’t open up to her.’ Upon contemplation of leaving Hawai‘i altogether, a Hawaiian elder offered that if one island didn’t feel right, to seek another. So that’s exactly what she did—and hopped a plane to Hilo.
Once timid and embarrassed by her voice, when Hawai‘i Island opened up to her, she opened up as well. And in 1994, at age 40, she co-founded the reggae band, Jahringa. Taken from the Australian Aboriginal word for “dreamtime,” Jahringa is where Sahra tapped into her musical genes and discovered her dormant passion for singing, transforming her dreamtime into reality. “It’s reggae music that delivered me. It gave me a social outlet, a place to convey messages from my heart,” she says.
As she puts it, music has allowed her to live love, in all aspects of her life: “The birds singing in the morning and the trees waving their leaves at me each day. This is what I rise for: our communion with mother earth. All life is musical and I don’t want to ever separate from that.” And for the past four years, she has also found a way to share this musical communion in a unique and unifying community event on the Big Island.
Inspired by her performance at the 2006 Rastafarian Agricultural Fair on the Island of St. Thomas, a Rastafarian elder encouraged her to start a similar event in Hawai‘i. Setting out to fulfill that request, she summoned some like-minded individuals, wrote some grants, and in 2008 became the creator and promoter of the unique community event, “The Bob Fest Ag Fair.” The event takes place on the second Sunday in February to honor the birth of legendary reggae icon Bob Marley. In 2012, the fair was renamed Hawai‘i Reggae and Agricultural Fair.
“When I was given the album Catch a Fire by Bob Marley and the Wailers, it changed everything: lifestyle, my diet and my political point of view,” she admits. The album became so well-known that Eric Clapton created a cover for “I Shot the Sheriff.” Time magazine eventually voted Marley’s album “Exodus” the greatest album of the 20th century.
Bob Marley was one of the founding fathers of reggae, which not only makes timeless music, but which carries a timeless message. He supported the idea that we need nothing but each other—that we can feed each other, care for each other and trust each other. He was such a powerful symbol of unity that at his One Love Peace Concert in 1978, Marley was able to do the unthinkable when he summoned the two rivaling Jamaican political leaders on-stage, where they shook hands in front of over 32,000 people.
Marley believed in overcoming petty prejudice and owing one’s ultimate loyalty not to countries and nations, but to our fellow men throughout the entire human community. Like Sahra, Marley—born in Nine Mile, Jamaica—faced identity issues, community violence and racial injustices as a youth.
He once reflected: “Me don’t have prejudice against meself. Me father was white and me mother was black. Me don’t dip on nobody’s side. Me don’t dip on the black man’s side nor the white man’s side. Me dip on God’s side, the one who create me and cause me to come from black and white.”
I feel that Sahra, who is of Native American, Jamaican, and Irish blood, embodies this profound belief, both in her lyrics and in her humble presence. She reminds me that we’re all distant relatives, and that we need to mix together in order to reach our highest potential.
Rastas say that Jah, or God, lives within each human, and for this reason, they often refer to themselves as “I and I” instead of “We,” emphasizing the equality between all people and that the spiritual link within us is what makes us, in essence, one and the same.
This year the admissions-free public event celebrated its fourth anniversary at Mo’oheau Park in Hilo, with a line-up of talented reggae artists, CPR demonstrations, craft vendors, students, a children’s art booth, aquaponics, seed exchange, solar resource booths, cane juice and kava. The fair supports local organic farmers and is an alcohol-free, zero-waste event sponsored by her husband’s company, Keep it Green Hawai‘i.
Sahra’s hope is to encourage people to reduce, reuse, recycle, compost and recognize what it means to live sustainably in Hawai‘i. She also fosters an environment for people to connect, to move their bodies, to smile, and to bring awareness to just how easy it is to do this.
“We should be happy even doing the dishes. We’ve got this beautiful body temple, and this beautiful island home. Whether good or bad, we should give thanks for every second of this life.”
Sahra is currently seeking sponsors for the fifth annual Hawai‘i Reggae and Agricultural Fair in February, 2013, while also working on her upcoming album The True I, due out later this year. Meanwhile you can catch Sahra performing regularly at Kanaka Kava Bar, Wasabi’s Japanese Restaurant and at local festivals across Hawai‘i Island. ❖
Contact writer Jessica Kirkwood: jkirkwood23@hotmail.com
All photos courtesy of Sahra Indio
For more information on her music visit: sahraindio.com and for more information on her art visit: royalcrowns4u.com
For music bookings, contact digikal@dreadfyahstudio.com.
