Home Again
Born and bred on the Chathams in a family ‘with salt in their bones’, it would have been easy for Ajay to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a fisherman, but there was another common strand running in the family that beckoned. “A lot of my uncles were amazing guitar players and singers,” Ajay says, “and all self-taught. I definitely think music is integral to the Chathams, not just playing it but even the essence of how music can create a whole feeling and energy that sticks in your memory. I’d loved music since I was really young, and my brother Pedro gave me my first guitar when I was 13 and it just kinda got under my skin. Then after we went on a family trip to Australia, Perth kinda got under my skin too and the two came together.”
Gigging in a covers band followed and before too long Ajay and his band Black Robinnamed after the flightless Karure native to Little Mangare Island off Pitt Island in the Chathams - had become a firmly established fixture in the local music scene. “Perth’s a really kind place for musicians, and in general, and I got a niche there. There’s a real boho, gypsy vibe there and though my style is a bit more raw it chimed over there too.”
Born and bred on the Chathams in a family ‘with salt in their bones’, it would have been easy for Ajay to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a fisherman, but there was another common strand running in the family that beckoned. “A lot of my uncles were amazing guitar players and singers,” Ajay says, “and all self-taught. I definitely think music is integral to the Chathams, not just playing it but even the essence of how music can create a whole feeling and energy that sticks in your memory. I’d loved music since I was really young, and my brother Pedro gave me my first guitar when I was 13 and it just kinda got under my skin. Then after we went on a family trip to Australia, Perth kinda got under my skin too and the two came together.”
Gigging in a covers band followed and before too long Ajay and his band Black Robinnamed after the flightless Karure native to Little Mangare Island off Pitt Island in the Chathams - had become a firmly established fixture in the local music scene. “Perth’s a really kind place for musicians, and in general, and I got a niche there. There’s a real boho, gypsy vibe there and though my style is a bit more raw it chimed over there too.”
Ajay has released music under both Black Robin and 44 Degreez - a hat-tip to home as the Chatham Islands are on latitude 44° South - and it’s easy to see how his raw, bluesy but also strongly melodic music would fit in with our Aussie cousins’ ‘boho, gypsy vibe’.
When you grow up on the Island you have to be self-sufficient and it gives you a whole different way of seeing things.
“What I try and capture in the music is the Island and the rawness and wildness, the incredible characters and the landscapes – it’s the wild south east not the wild, wild west! When you grow up on the Island you have to be self-sufficient and it gives you a whole different way of seeing things. You’re treated like an adult from a real young age but there is also a great sense of freedom. It’s a wild, wild paradise, and it’s been the main influence on everything I do, from the whole ‘living on a rock in the ocean’ thing, to the life there with things like how typical it is to sit around the kitchen table yarning. I sort of call what I do ‘fisherman’s blues’ and just try and paint pictures in my head that reflect the Island life and the landscape but also the people.
We’re a bit of a mixed bag down their bro, Moriori, Māori, Pākehā from all over, but we fly under the title of Chathams, that’s the glue that sticks us together, kinda how ‘Kiwi’ is the catchall on the mainland.”
The result is at the same time raucous and contemplative, music that moves the heart just as much as the feet. But Ajay has also been working on something much more monumental that’s filling a Perth dance floor.
“I’m native Moriori and there is a language rejuvenation programme underway through Hokotehi Marae and also Otago University that I’m very lucky to be involved in. I’ve composed music and melodies to sacred old rongo, which are the old prayers and songs of my ancestors. So I’ve been collaborating with the Hokotehi Moriori Trust for many years, creating new compositions, and composing music to revitalise old Moriori rongo, the lyrics of which were recorded in the 1880s and 1890s.” This work culminated in an exhibition in Tūhura Otago Museum in July and August 2024, and Ajay is proud to play a part in the revitalisation of the Moriori language. “It’s an exciting time for it. For many years it was almost forgotten and it’s been a real blessing - a pinch myself sorta moment - to be involved in an awesome step for Moriori culture.”
The next step for Ajay is just as exciting. Soon after arriving back in the Chathams he shared a stage with Tiki Taane and Hello Sailor - which he describes as the perfect homecoming gift - and he has a busy year ahead. “I’m setting up a studio on the Island, for my own work but I’d also like to host other musicians. Being home is really about being able to focus on my work. Being in the big city it’s all hustle and bustle just to pay the bills and there’s little time left for my own music, and I’d always told my band members that the day would come when I’d just pull the pin and go back to the wild! I have two albums nearly ready to go - one from the Moriori project and one of my own stuff - and I’m focussing on that now.” But coming home is also really about my family, my family on the Island and my wife and son, who was born late last year. I feel blessed to have grown up here and want that for him too.”
Check out Ajay’s Black Robin on your streaming platform of choice - and you can also hear it in the cabin on our Air Chathams flights!
