Peace & Unity Summit + Studio Upgrade!

Dear Patrons of the Juice Media

We hope this finds you and your loved ones well.

As you know, we've been taking a break these past few weeks. But during this time we've also been getting ready for Season 4, and I'd like to share some exciting news about what we've been up to—and what's coming up.

May and June were dedicated to family time and updating the Juice studio: with help from our beautiful friend and filmmaker Amel, we finally brought our rig up to date with this decade. (I've included some pics and specs below for the tech-nerds among you!)

And now that we're approaching the end of July I'm excited to say that we're now embarking on our first mission of Season 4.

It's not a video (we're not quite there yet) but rather a mission that will inform and inspire future videos; and I'm stoked to tell you about it in this post, which I'm writing from the unceded lands of the Coast Salish Nations. Also known as Vancouver, British Columbia.

Wait, what are we doing in Canada, the place Elmo said isn't even a real country?

Well you see, a few months ago, we were invited to participate in the annual Peace and Unity Summit, which is being hosted on Gitxsan lands (in northern British Columbia) on August 6-9.

The Wet'suwet'en and Gitxsan hosts of the summit loved the "Visit Canada" HGA we produced in 2023, about the fight to stop the Coastal GasLink pipeline—an episode that received over 2M views across our pages. And to thank us, they generously offered travel funds so that we could be part of this year's summit; witness firsthand the pristine lands and rivers (still home to wild salmon) which are being threatened by the fossil fuel industry; and yes, learn about the next fight that's looming on the horizon.

Because following in the wake of the Coastal Gaslink, more LNG pipelines are planned on unceded Indigenous lands in northern BC. And just as we did in 2023, we'll be doing what we can to help raise international awareness of these projects, and to support Indigenous peoples who are on the frontlines of the fight for life, climate and environment justice.

So we're beyond honoured to be part of this summit which, as the website puts it, "is dedicated to supporting Indigenous land defenders who continue to uphold Indigenous law in the face of police violence and relentless pressure from the extraction industry."

The invitation came at an opportune moment for us: we're not in production mode right now. But more importantly, we're about to embark on Season 4, and I know that meeting these badass land-defenders, experiencing their ceremony and connection to land and rivers, will inspire my writing, work and soul going forward.

A big decision for us was to bring the family along for this ride. Yup, Lucy, Luca and Juno are coming along too—which I think is important.

As many of us are coming to realise, the fight for climate justice and Indigenous land rights won't be over in our lifetime. The fossil-fuel projects being approved right now will probably outlive most of us today. Like North West Shelf, recently extended all the way to 2070.

This means we need to treat this as an intergenerational struggle.

So I see this as an opportunity to introduce Luca and Juno to the brave people and awe-inspiring nature on Gitxsan territory, and for them to have the chance at this age to listen, learn and hopefully absorb some wisdom and inspiration to guide them into their future.

I also see this as an opportunity to help link up the Wet'Suwet'En and Gitxsan land-defenders with people back home who are helping to expose the gas industry's bullshit in Australia. Coz we know all about foreign-owned companies capturing our governments, rooting the planet's climate, trampling Indigenous rights, and paying bugger all royalties—don't we? (Exhibit-A: Woodside's North West Shelf on the Burrup peninsula/Murujuga). And there's much to be gained by working together across broders to address this bullshit.

So yeah, I'm excited about this trip for a number of reasons. And I can't wait to share more about it with you soon. Wifi-permitting, I'll post an update from the Peace and Unity Summit (to which we'll be making our way shortly). Or, if that isn't possible, on our return, and in the videos we'll be making later in the year.

You can find out more about the Peace and Unity summit here. And if you'd like to participate remotely, parts of it will be livestreamed: details here.

Thank you for supporting the Juice Media as we embark on a new chapter.

And thank you for all the comments and topic suggestions following the Season 3 wrap-up video (which you can find here, in case you missed it).

Giordano

PS. For those interested, here's more intel about our studio upgrades:

We picked up some new LED lights to replace the old fluoros, which were fading after 12 years of hard work. As most of you know, we film the HGAs in our home, so this setup frees up some floor space for family activities when we're not filming. (Please ignore the washing!)

Here's our mate Robbie helping us safely install the new LEDs:

Here's our new camera (Sony ZV-1 Mark II) to replace our ancient little Panasonic (which valiantly filmed every HGA and every Rap News episode since 2010, and now deserves a retirement-age holiday cruise).

Here's the much needed PC upgrade: i9 CPU and DDR5 RAM which will help edit the footage from the new camera, and a new motherboard to house it all.

And lastly, I bought myself a prompter to make life easier when filming spoken videos direct to camera:

Thank you for making it possible to make these purchases through your support on Patreon.