Mojo Juju opened up her family photo album for us

Everyone’s talking about Mojo Juju’s new single ‘Native Tongue’. But it didn’t come out of nowhere – it was born from generations of family trauma.

Source: The Feed

The Feed sat down with Mojo Ruiz de Luzuriaga (aka Mojo Juju) to discuss how her past informs the music she makes. Watch the full interview below.   

Traditions are really important and family histories give you an insight into your own identity. Songwriting is a huge part of keeping those oral traditions alive.

Source: The Feed

As a kid, Mojo moved around a lot throughout regional NSW. “I was often the new kid in town. But I was also a minority in many other ways”.

 

Source: The Feed

“Growing up, I never felt that I was Australian because the narrative that you're fed is 'The Australian identity is white.'”

 

Source: SBS

If you were Asian, people just assumed that you were Chinese. When I was about five or six, I would get Chinese slurs [at school]. My grandmother showed me pictures of Chinese people in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, and she was like, 'Chinese people are beautiful. That's nothing to be ashamed of.’”

 

Source: The Feed

Pearl, my great-grandmother, and Jackson, my great-grandfather were high school sweethearts. But she was not Indigenous so they weren't allowed to be together. So they had a secret love affair. 

 

Source: The Feed

My grandmother was the product of that affair. She was denied a relationship with the man who was actually her father. She has - still to this day - a great deal of regret and to a certain level, resentment. 

 

Source: The Feed

Someone from the music media said to me, ‘I'm surprised you've been so successful. You're a queer woman of colour and that's really challenging for a lot of people.’”

Watch the full interview:

Mojo Juju

Hear more at Mojo Juju: Native Tongue, an intimate look at the stories behind the songs from Mojo Juju’s third album of the same name.

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