The movement to change the date of Australia Day has a second, pungent and focused anthem with a collaboration between many of the country's leading hip-hop artists.
The dozen artists, including white, immigrant and indigenous rappers, make the point that if we "change the date, [we] change the game" for black/white relations in modern Australia and the song, Change the Date, promotes that argument.
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Hip hop artists urge: Change The Date
The group of 12, including Aussie hip hop royalty and emerging artists, has teamed up with NITV to produce a new song calling for the date of Australia Day to be moved.
Nooky, Birdz (Nathan Bird), Urthboy (The Herd), Thundamentals (Tuka and Jeswon), L-Fresh the Lion, Tasman Keith, Ozi Batla, Kaylah Truth, Coda Conduct (Erica and Sally) and Hau (Koolism) collaborated on the rap.
There are references to high rates of police arrests – "here go another officer locking up another one of us like it's a popular fun thing to do/another genocide on a barbecue" – as well as victims of police custody such as Ms Dhu.
There's both history lessons on what many Indigenous Australians call Invasion or Survival Day, with modern connections to Black Lives Matter movements and the so-called patriots of the racist right, and a reminder that not all sides of this story have been told in 200-odd years.
"When I was young kid I learned about history and long division but it took me a long time before I figured out everybody's history of long division," rapped Erica from Coda Conduct.
Sikh rapper L-Fresh the Lion points out that "we're all a bunch of immigrants, but if you're African, Arab, Asian or Indian they say you gotta join the party to be a citizen/we carry the legacy of invasion/man I'm not celebrating".
While there are moments where common cause is found – "I ain't pointing no fingers, I ain't throwing no blame/just saying that we can do better, you know it's time for a change" – there are also lines, such as those from Tasman Keith, a Gumbaynggirr man, which are a reminder that anger hasn't disappeared from this discourse.
![L-Fresh the Lion.](/web/20170126174626im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/q/t/p/4/v/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydl4.png/1485330341691.jpg)
"Sick of f---ing waiting for reparations/we pacing/invasion and stolen children keep a country so complacent," raps Keith.
Mentioned in the song is indigenous hip-hop duo A.B. Original whose album, Reclaim Australia, is one of the favourites for the Australian Music Prize. The duo's change-the-date song, January 26, has been the subject of a push to garner votes in Triple J's Hottest 100, which is revealed on Australia Day.
![Briggs and Trials (Adam Briggs and Dan Rankine) are AB Original.](/web/20170126174626im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/x/u/v/g/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gtydl4.png/1485330341691.jpg)
Triple J has been under pressure in recent years to move the date of its long-running listener poll from January 26 and in late 2016 the youth network confirmed consultations and discussion were taking place with "some sort of clarity" expected later this year.
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