The artist initiative Hunergeha Welat, based in Qamishli (Qamişlo) in North and East Syria, has released a new song called Evdîşo, named after an Assyrian man known for his historic resistance against Turkish and Persian invaders.
The music video of Evdîşo has been viewed over 140 thousand times in just one week since its release.
The video is aiming to show the voices and colours of the different cultures living in North and East Syria, also known as Rojava, who are organising themselves according to the concept of the democratic nation, proposed by imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Öcalan. The song combines different styles of Kurdish singing, authentically portraying the diversity of Kurdish music. In addition, the singers are wearing a range of traditional Kurdish and Assyrian clothes, showing the different cultural origins in the region.
Founded in 2014 in Qamishli, the Hunergeha Welat music community has recorded 276 songs and 49 music videos, and provides musical education for children. In their pieces, they aim to reflect the current revolutionary spirit and the feelings of Rojava’s society. The Hunergeha Welat studio is also a chronicler of the resistance in the various regions of Rojava and other parts of Kurdistan. The initiative is named after the artist Welat, who was killed in an ISIS car bomb attack in 2013.
In an exclusive interview with Medya News, the director of the music clip, Rozalin Dêrik, spoke about the production and story of the newly released song.
The song “tells the story of the Tiyare Valley, where Kurdish and Assyrian villagers lived and resisted against Turkish and Persian invaders for centuries. The song is based on a true story of one of the heroes of this resistance named ‘Evdîşo’, who was a well-known Assyrian,” Dêrik replied, when asked about the message they want to convey with the song.
She highlighted that the work was done in a very collective way, giving the example that “even our cameramen were helping with cleaning, washing clothes, bringing people home whilst we were filming the video and while they were doing the video editing at the same time.”
One of the basic principles of their work is their openness to criticism to be able to accept and include the opinions of different people. Dêrik said that they want to “listen to and understand the society’s stories and create art that is representing the feelings and values of the Rojava revolution.”
Dêrik said that the song aims to show the “accomplishment and elements of the democratic nation, in which people with different cultures, religions and languages are living.”
“We want the society to like and accept our work, we are always open to feedback and we make changes according to the feedback that we receive,” Dêrik added.
She explained that they want to “interpret history in a creative way”, because “written history cannot tell every aspect of a story, especially one that happened hundreds of years ago”, so they include traditional singing and dancing in their videos.
Criticising social media, Dêrik added that “Art is in a chaotic state, people are watching thousands and millions of videos every day and there are a lot of unhealthy influences.” To counter these developments, she stated, “Hunergeha Welat aims to create transparent clips backed by facts, and we want to decorate these experiences with beauty.”
