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>>SAM RB HANNA
>>RON COLEMAN
>>ARANA PEARSON
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Sam RB Hanna
I’ve been writing songs for twenty years. I write because I find it helps me to
make some sense of my world and whatever is going on at the time. I write first and foremost for myself, although it is very kewl when people like what im doing with my music. For me, music is like painting, it’s a pause button for my mind as well being something I feel compelled to do, basically if I go without writing music for too long I start going into withdrawal :o) Music is a gift, so I feel fortunate to have my own way of saying what I wanna say with music.

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Ron Coleman from Scotland
"I think mental illness can be very funny”

Ron Coleman, is the ‘psychiatric version of Billy Connelly’. We are fortunate to have him performing in the New Zealand Mad Pride event.

Ron says “the 13 years I spent diagnosed as a ‘chronic schizophrenic’ while negotiating psychiatric services in the UK has given me insights into the many difficult issues facing mental health services today. I use my humour to celebrate recovery and to point out the reality of what it is like negotiating a recovery through the psychiatric system.”

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Arana Pearson
A musician and writer who became involved in mental health service sector some years after his own experience of using mental health services in New Zealand. He is the organiser of Mad Pride™ concerts throughout Australasia.

Arana’s music single I’m Just a Little Mad was written from the perspective of people with mental illness and this song will feature as part of the concert. Arana has performed this song in Australasia, USA and in the United Kingdom.

“I want to communicate what it is like to live with mental illness and to provoke discussion about how best to support people into mental health,” says Pearson. “You see so much media coverage that talks about us but rarely do we create opportunities to speak for ourselves”.