Vocals and lyrics by Beni Bjah
International Release in support of United Nations Human Rights Day – Saturday 10 December 2022
Filmed in the Kimberley, on the lands of the Bunuba people in Fitzroy Crossing WA with Marrugeku company dancers and members of the community, the music video/song, ‘This is Australia’, is inspired by American Rapper Childish Gambino’s ‘This is America’. ‘This is Australia’ features lyrics and vocals by the first indigenous WAM (Western Australian Music) Song of the Year Grand Prize Winner Beni Bjah, and is released in support of United Nations Human Rights Day, Saturday 10 December.
A global movement has evolved from Childish Gambino’s song ‘This is America’, inspiring remakes including ‘This is Iraq’, ‘This is Sierra Leone’, ‘This is Nigeria’, ‘This is Brazil,’ speaking to the human rights issues faced in these countries.
Marrugeku’s Co-Artistic Directors Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain created and directed ‘This is Australia’ to place Australia’s shameful fixation with incarceration in this global conversation – challenging the outrageous levels of indigenous imprisonment in this country, the indefinite detaining of asylum seekers, blak deaths in custody and human rights offences committed in the Don Dale (NT) and Banksia (WA) youth detention centres. These issues are also confronted in Marrugeku’s current powerful and provocative dance-theatre work Jurrungu Ngan-ga.
They said “Today we add ‘This is Australia’ to the suite of global responses to Childish Gambino’s This is America. Marrugeku and Beni Bjah channel painful moments of violence against First Australian’s, our treatment of asylum seekers as well as their resistance and survival in our first dance music video work for YouTube. We have played with reflecting key events in the media from recent years to state ‘This is Australia’ loud and clear. We are grateful to the community of Fitzroy Crossing for hosting us on their Bunuba Country and joining in the production.”
Credits
Directors: Dalisa Pigram and Rachael Swain – Marrugeku
Producer: Gillian Moody
Originally by Childish Gambino
Australian Lyrics, Vocals, Recording: Beni Bjah
Music Production: Dazastah, Sam Serruys, Paul Charlier
Australian Additional Vocals: Zachary Lopez
Marrugeku – Australia’s leading indigenous intercultural dance theatre company working from the remote town of Broome, WA, and Carriageworks Sydney NSW. Marrugeku harnesses the dynamic of performance exchange drawn from remote, urban, intercultural and trans-Indigenous approaches to expand the possibilities of contemporary dance. Our productions tour throughout urban and remote Australia, to other Indigenous contexts internationally and throughout the world. Marrugeku is led by co-artistic directors: choreographer/dancer Dalisa Pigram and director/dramaturg Rachael Swain. Working together for 27years, they co-conceive and facilitate Marrugeku’s productions and research laboratories, introducing audiences to the unique and potent structures of Indigenous knowledge systems and the compelling experience of intercultural performance. Marrugeku’s performers come from diverse backgrounds and disciplines, collaborating to co-create each production. Marrugeku’s patron is Yawuru law man and national reconciliation advocate Patrick Dodson.
– “his profoundly unapologetic lyrics and well-crafted songwriting stood tall amongst some of WA’s most applauded artists a collection of socially conscious, politically charged gut punching Australian hip hop.” MUSIC.COM
Born out of life-long frustrations of systemic racism encountered not only in Perth but across the country, Beni took his love of hip-hop, and passion for his people to pen this lyrical wake-up call Australia needed with his debut single ‘Survivor’ creating history, making Beni the first-ever Indigenous artist to win ‘West Australian Music Song of the Year Grand Prize Award’.
With a substantial history of live performance and experience opening the stage for acts such as Grand Master Flash, RZA, Method Man & Red Man, Beat Nuts, ONYX, The Outlaws, Tyga, AKALA, Cypress Hill, Slaughterhouse and Naughty By Nature just to name a few.
Beni Bjah is like an unstoppable tidal wave when it comes to live hip-hop. This incredibly skilled artist first started recording music in 2003, driven by the raw but real styles of 2Pac, and helped form the Perth Hip Hop outfit ‘Life Kwest’ working with producer ‘Dazastah’ (SBX). The group released the Perth Hip Hop classic track ‘How Ya Like Me Now, which would serve as Beni’s official music debut.
