The following is a transcript of the keynote address I gave for Sonic aGender an event held as part of Darebin Music Feast on Friday the 19th of October, 2018.
“Indie Rock is full of privileged white kids. I know, because I’m one of them. Who else has the luxury to gaze backwards?”
I’m quoting a song I released last year, called Shoegazers. The lyric acknowledges that I am commenting from the experience of white privilege, that this privilege comes at the cost of the First Nations people of this country and that I have been raised and educated on stolen land. Here in Darebin we are on Wurundjeri-willam land. Nearby is the Merri Creek, once a home and rich food source for the Traditional Owners. I pay my respects to their elders past, present and future, and remember that sovereignty has never been ceded.