My new single 🐛 Pūrerehua🐛 is out today on streaming platforms, and as a limited edition 7” vinyl package, with remix by Princess Chelsea and sticker sheets by Ayesha Green. Buy yours now! All proceeds from Pūrerehua are given to The Manaaki Collective, who advocate for Treaty justice and human rights in Aotearoa.

The waiata of the life-cycle butterfly, Pūrerehua was originally written by educator and activist Hirini Melbourne in 1975. To me, its the perfect pop song. Since the 1980s, it’s been sung by generations of Aotearoa school children as part of Hirini’s mission to prevent the suppression and loss of the Māori language. Pūrerehua blends activism with a sense of wonder for our natural world, and on its 50^th birthday, I’m sharing my new version.

Te reo Māori is under threat in Aotearoa, yet again. The artists who have joined me in this project have come together in the spirit of Hirini’s activism to say that we see this, and like so many others, we respond. 

In a one-off edition of 150, Pūrerehua is pressed on resistance yellow and includes two sheets of kiss-cut waterproof laminated stickers for putting up wherever you like! Three random 7”s have been signed by me, Princess Chelsea and Ayesha. Five orders will include a bonus signed test pressing. We’re selling them only at dudleybenson.com, so buy your 7” package now before they’re all gone. For every 30 7” packages sold, we’ll release a new remix of Pūrerehua. As well as Princess Chelsea’s, Amamelia, ALCS & Eyeliner have also contributed remixes that take the song to other very special and far-off places again.

So much love has been put into this project by the artists. My big hearty thanks to them for their work, to Tom Healy for mastering, and to the whānau of Hirini Melbourne (1949-2003) who have been generous and trusting in allowing me to continue to work with Hirini’s waiata. 

Buy a copy of the vinyl, give one as a gift, sing along to Pūrerehua and its remixes, put up the stickers, and resist in whatever way you can.

Buy the 7" · Spotify · Bandcamp

Tihei mauri ora!

Dudley

Image by Frances Carter

Kia ora folks,

At the end of this month I’m moving to Naarm/Melbourne. For a while now I’ve been in one of those life stages of wanting change. Leaving Ōtepoti and Aotearoa is emotional, and I’m holding an enormous sense of gratefulness for everything this place has given me in my 40 years – especially our people. 

Since 2020, Woof! - a bar in Ōtepoti/Dunedin - has been my primary project. It’s given me a great sense of satisfaction to work alongside Josh Thomas and our team, who I love. To me, Woof! is defined by our day-to-day patrons & friends, the queer club nights, the activism, and pivoting through the pandemic. I’m so proud of us all for making Woof! what it is, and how it will continue to grow. 

In Naarm, I’ll be spending the next year being an artist again. I’ll be putting the finishing touches on my next record, which will be out next year, with a tour. Where Zealandia was a brain album, this is a heart one.

In the meantime, I’ve been packing up life, and found all sorts of treasures from my work over the years. Bespoke garments that I wore in various performances and rare, long out-of-print editions of my EPs and albums. It’s best that these all find new homes, so I’m launching an Archive Sale today. I’ve also reduced all the remaining album stock I have: last chance to buy these before the physical editions run out. End of an era!

Thank you as always for supporting me and my music over the years, even when I’ve stepped away for a while. Take care of each other, and always keep in touch. 

Aroha,

Dudley

If you ever feel like you're wasting time, rotting away, not achieving stuff: same! Here's the first ever official Dudley Benson tee, to celebrate how it takes ages to do anything. 

Designed by Ōtepoti artist Veronica Grace Brett, the tee is a limited edition of 50.  Printed by The Print Room on black AS Colour Classic heavyweight 100% cotton. Sizes S-2XL.  

Head to the Shop to buy yours, $34 + $6 postage (NZ). Sales help me finish my next record, within the next 8 years.  Thanks!   

Dudley

To accompany the music video for It's Ōtepoti's Fault (watch below), six artists have remixed the song, for this final remix collection from the Zealandia album. There are a couple of club bangers from Totems & Jerry Watts, some bouncy pop from ALCS & Kolya, and thoughtful, downtempo approaches from Mike Majkowski and Death & The Maiden. Love to all the remixers, and to Ayesha Green for her cover painting.

Bandcamp · Spotify · SoundCloud · iTunes

Tonight at 8pm (NZT), I'm chuffed to share with you the premiere of my new music video: It's Ōtepoti's Fault. I'm grateful that NZ on Screen and AudioCulture are presenting this with me. Watch the premiere here or below.



This is the last of the six videos I made for the Zealandia album. Though it wasn't one of the more challenging to make on a technical level, it was by far the most difficult emotionally. The video is built around Super 8 footage of my family - specifically my Mum Adrianne, who suicided when I was 15. It was so hard to edit together the footage of Mum in her 20s and 30s, with all the promise and dreams she had. Pets were a strange marker in time too, and in some scenes, I realised everyone in them has passed. 

To me, this video is a story of part of my Mum's life, but also a reflection of how memory can have such a powerful grip over our lives - especially when they take the form of photographs and moving images.

I did love our filming and editing process, and I'd like to acknowledge the team that helped me make this with such care and sensitivity: DOP Miranda Bellamy, editor Phoebe Lysbeth Kay, and the Regent Theatre Dunedin projectionists Nelson Miles & Russell Campbell. And a special thanks to my siblings, who were so supportive and understanding in my sharing these images of our mother, Adrianne.

I hope you enjoy the video.

Dudley

My mother Adrianne Mora on her wedding day at Sign of the Takahe, 1980, with her father Maurice Mora.