She’s a lot, a lot of people and I’m not finish, so I don’t have an answer. Actually, I hope I never have an answer because I don’t want to ever be finished...
Interview
Dunia
Hédreville
Interview
Dunia
Hédreville
Which universe are you from?
I guess, I come from my own universe, because I believe, deep down, each one of us has his own to create, although we are all connected we live in our own separate universe.
Who is Dunia?
Actually, I do not think I have a very different definition from others,
I believe, I’m one of many human beings on this planet,, trying to function, really… (laughs)
I do like this ability that I have to be with anyone at any time and in any given situation.
Well, I would define myself as a fairly universal person, I enjoy all people in any shape or form, it is not that I need to be in a certain place or with a certain type of people, I like all people placidly.
I think, I can get something good out of any situation, this is the capacity I would say to be universal.
What would be the main reason for your presence in this world?
Or said in a different manner.
What is the intention, purpose of your personal journey among us?
Well, note that my personal path has very few goals left to achieve (laughs)
I am at this stage in my life where I start to see its end, because if I’m lucky enough, I’ll have another good 20 to 25 years in front of me.
In addition, it seems, I managed to achieve luckily, most of the goals and desires, I set my mind to.
One of these goals was to be a mother, because I consider motherhood but I did not consider grandparenthood. (laughs) And now I’m so happy, because life has given me this opportunity, I would like to become the grandmother of an adolescent, to be able to shape her, in a way that many times you do not get to do with your own children.
At this point in my life, it’s about getting stability, forgiving all the bad in your childhood, not have any more bitterness, or have a colour, after so many things lived and experienced.
I have been loved, I have loved, I have studied, I have made music, I have experienced changes in my life circumstances and changed jobs several times …
What I have left to do for myself, is personal and musical development, at a more universal level.
I am stopping my current lifestyle right now, just to develop this and I must admit that I am quite satisfied.
What do you do for a living?
I believe, I have done a bit of everything, from child care, house cleaner to waitress, working as cook as far as managing a business or work in the education system.
Now, I’m in music, I think it’s the part I like the most, I’m a singer and sometimes a pianist.
I must say that for me any experience in this life is valid one.
Why Mallorca?
I will say, because, I am one of those people who listen to the universe …
Because, one day I decided to leave the place I called home, I decided to run away because of my personal and family history and I met a friend of my mother who told me: that in Mallorca there was a lot of work, she told me that it would be better than in Madrid or Barcelona. Then, I packed and I came here, without knowing where I was going and this actually happened about 33 years, already.
Then, it was not for anything in particular, a simple coincidence.
I imagine that I am one of those people who are guided by the things that come to them. A desire comes to me without knowing very well what it means, I listen and the destination or the answer arises and I must say that it has worked for me. And 33 years later, I’m leaving …
Feeling delighted with life! (laughs)
I close a circle, after wanting to flee and isolate myself from this world, decades ago, now I am open up to the world.
I’m on my way ! (laughs)
Between Paris, Guadeloupe, León and Mallorca, how was the experience?
Points of comparison?
I can’t really look for points of comparison, because I was very small.
I was an infant in Paris and then in Guadeloupe and after I went to León in the north of Spain, to later start my adult life in Mallorca.
Paris is wonderful but it’s for someone else to experience, because I am incompatible with big cities, I can’t be in a place with so many people.
Guadeloupe, I think it’s beautiful, everything you could wish for, but it’s very much of a Caribbean culture for me. There, internalized racism as well as colorism are in the air you breathe, both are very anchored in the roots and it depresses me. I can’t bare to see how the Caribbean despises himself, it hurts too much.
Next, between the north of Spain and Mallorca, it’s obviously so cold up there that you could die, (laughs) but I have such a great time with the people, there they are very different, much more open and funny.
Mallorca has a great climate which is a wonderful thing, you can find here about 50,000 different nationalities or people, so many things can happen, but for me it is smaller and a lot more close minded.
What has been your experience as an Afro-European?
Considering that I have one foot in each color, one is White and the other is Black, I have lived both types of exclusions, both types of racism.
When you are in the White zone you are Black and when you are in the Black zone, you never end up being Black enough.
My experience as an Afro-European arriving in Spain, when Franco the dictator was in power, about 40 years ago, was of someone of colour or half coloured, as they used to call it, besides I can’t stand this term…
Well, a Black person, a mixed race who arrived in this place at that time, obviously, would attract a lot of attention.
Well, they used to tell me:
« Woe, she’s so Black ! »
« That, weird hair ! »
They used to touch my hair, I recall the whole experience was frightfully horrific…
I have seen this society change so much …
I have seen the most brutal racism, then a lot of evolution and things getting assimilated and particularly, today, I live in a society although there are racists, because of course there always going to be, It doesn’t affect me anymore.
Because I already lived through it, I already cut through it.
Today I feel very European, very integrated.
At the time, I worked hard for the society in which I lived, to change, we’re talking about this Majorcan society, in schools and everywhere I could have an impact. To place the Black person in an equal situation with the White person.
Apart from the fact that my mother was White, she used to tell me when I was a child: that we as Black people need to have an education, we have to be polite, we have to have resources, because the rest of society, is always expecting bad things from us or less from us. She told me :
« You have the obligation to demonstrate to society that you have to hold your position, then you can begin to be part of society itself. »
Obviously, you have to distinguish who is racist and who is not, give hints and educate minds. But now, I do not hold this educating role…
In general, locally everybody knows me, I no longer feel discrimination and I have so little in my head.
I realized, to some extent, I was also prejudiced and distrustful towards others, which I imagine attracted some mistrust from other people as well. (White people this, White people that…)
I go back to the universality of humans that I have before me, even if they are racist, it doesn’t worry me. Many times before, it happened that at the end of a talk with a racist, because of the way I behaved, I had successfully dismantled his argument.
There is a symbol in Reiki that strikes me, which is called:
“Hon sha ze sho nen and it means”:
« The Buddha who is in me, comes in contact with the Buddha who is in you. »
It is very nice but it is not very easy to practice, when dealing with someone perceived as an enemy. Finding his part of humanity, the Buddha in the other, is the task to stop fostering conflict or hatred in the other. This is a job, I have done with myself for many years.
The reality that I live, right now is that, in the end, we all have the same inside, maybe we haven’t been educated the same, or we didn’t want to evolve the same. Sometimes, we stay in resentment, in pain and I realise that today, I feel at peace.
What is love for you?
Love begins when you love yourself, it is a feeling of peace and tranquillity with yourself. It is a feeling, a state, then it projected towards others. Obviously there are many kinds of love.
For me also, love is compassion, it is about sharing this compassion towards anyone else and that is the difficult thing, because then you look at Trump, you sigh …
This type of people or individuals, come to make their way, come to experience this kind of barbarities. What you have in front of you is something that you have to clean in yourself. Our politicians are the mirror of our society, it is what we generate, I think it is a reflection of ourselves…
Do you have family where you live?
Are you a mother?
I am a mother, a grandmother and I live with my husband.
For me, my daughter and my granddaughter are very important, it is more than that actually, they are giving me strength to fulfil my dream.
I see my granddaughter growing up who is getting older, and I am getting younger (laughs)
I have less time left and I want her to have the example of a grandmother who followed her dreams and her goals.
So, instead of keeping my current lifestyle, keeping the job and the home, having everything sorted and great as people say, at least those who ask me why I’m going to move. Well I’m going, so I don’t get bored, to live for real, those are important goals, goals that move you …
The difference between being a mother and a grandmother is incredible. Being a mother is a responsibility, a stress, a fear of making mistakes all the time, suffering everything. For me motherhood was suffering and also having to deal with my childhood traumas coming back to the surface, having my daughter.
Instead, with my granddaughter is something else, you look at her and you have nothing else to do but enjoy, go for walks and time goes to another level. The granddaughter places you at the end of your life, for me it is a wonderful feeling.
You take notice of the things, you did not do and those that you are doing without repentance or guilty feeling, you do them because you enjoy them, because now you can, because you no longer have to think : that you have to comply with everything else, on survival mode…
Afterwards, the wonderful thing is that you give back the little one to her mother and you can go back to be yourself again, when you close the door …
The arrival of the granddaughter has changed the relationship with my daughter, we are connected to another level now, she is aware of what motherhood imply.
A human being is one thing, a mother is another, then suddenly we pass to the category of human beings again, it is a different treatment, there is more love and without no such judgment …
Spirituality ?
For me it is life itself, the whole concept of life is spirituality.
I am a spirit that incarnate a body and when this life cycle is over, I will appear in another form, it is the internal sensation that I have.
Every detail in ordinary life is spiritual, it is the sacred in daily life.
It is very easy to find the sacred in a monastery, the difficult thing is to find it, on a grey day or in the next door neighbour who has bothered you again.
You have to be aware that every day, life offers you something new when you wake up and you have to be thankful for it, it is a way to develop to improve.
I can’t pass judgment on what others do, in my case, I am a spiritual being who is continuously growing for that reason, I have evolved in my life and I have made so many changes, but my spirituality is mine and personal, it is non-transferable.
If you have your God, your belief or your creed, I do not care, it is yours and is as valid as mine, all of it is valid, while it is helping us to improve as people and positively affect our environment.
I belong to my own spirituality, as to my own universe.
Personally, I do not share the conviction as to belonging o a religious organization, now from another person point of view, I can understand that this is their spiritual path, in being in communion with others.
I believe in the inner teacher, and I am guided by my own teacher, by my own divine sensation.
Each one of us has an idea of God in the head and, we are made in the likeness of this God, for one person, it will have a human aspect, for others it will be a universal force, for me it is the universe itself.
Some speak of a punishing God, if you have this God in your head, you are a punisher, if your God is love, you will be a loving person, in definitive, we are the ones creating a God in our head.
We are spiritual beings living different experiences, there is no absolute truth, valid for all in a unanimous way.
Music inspires you ?
Music is a form of expression, it is a way of sharing feelings.
I am very careful with these sensations, if they are not suitable for the occasion, I prefer not to sing. I think the voice has a lot of power, it’s an energy, a vibration.
Music is like a communion with spirituality, when you sing something, you are singing from this sensation.
I couldn’t live without music but, yet I can spend a lot of time without singing, playing or listening to music. I don’t need to be listening to music all day, I also need silence, and listening what is inside my head.
The way I sing vary very much depending on how I feel.
I do believe that the soul nourishes the music, it is what nourishes the voice in that crucial singing moment. When your body has vibrated, you leave this experience feeling all flabbly inside. It is the soul of the artist that nourishes the music is doing, for this reason older performers express a lot, because they had a life, all their experiences are behind them and are able to translate these feelings and emotions through the richness of their soul.
What makes you laugh uncontrollably?
I truth be told, few things make me laugh uncontrollably.
In this category, young children and school playgrounds perhaps.
Innocence makes me laugh uncontrollably…
Dunia´s musical world.
AWAPROJECT
This musical concept was created in Mallorca.
With Latin language, with musical influences from zouk, son, calypso, salsa, cha and bolero, merging the joy of Afro-Antillean-Caribbean rhythm with its voice coming from Guadeloupe to finally unite with the harmonic structures and improvisations contemplated in both jazz as in the Cuban tradition.
ORIGINS
AWA has a spiritual and ancestral African dimension that connects us directly with the continent. The etymological meaning of the word in Wolof is “Eve” corresponds, according to the biblical story of Adam and Eve, to the first woman of humanity.
It also coincides with the sound of the word Agua in Spanish.
AWA is synonymous of hope.
Just as Africa, AWA is also the origin of life and humanity.
It carries a spiritual dimension as a philosophy.
Makama Nye is the name of a pregnant African Goddess of our common planet earth.
Guerrero is her human father, he is the one who makes her mortal.
AWA represents hope born in the Sahara.
AWA is the unifying daughter of the African continent, it is the water that brings life to the Sahara continent.
PHILOSOPHY
AWA PROJECT aliment itself by multiple collaborations.
Its essence is the search for fusion without borders along with a voluntarily nomadic journey.
AWA, daughter of a wanderer as a father who moves around the world, follows the tradition of sharing, spreading his musical and cultural heritage at every step of the est, while enjoying and being enriched by every gift received merging with others.
AWA is Water, and as such, she never stays stagnant or static.
She is inhabited by currents that circulate from within to the other.
As a mountain stream, she is born in solitude and dies, merging into the wide sea of sound …
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