I was fed up with seeing all white dudes on stage
singing about fuck-all.
Youse are in an aboriginal space now
so you need to shut the fuck up and listen.
We're Dispossessed
but we started this so nobody would be dispossessed no longer.
Da da da.
(Sings)
Birrigan, thanks for joining us on The Feed.
Thanks for having me, Laura.
Vice recently called you the most important band in Australia.
How did it feel reading that headline?
At first, I thought this is the most sensationalistic bullshit
I've ever read ever.
I don't feel right within myself being given this title
because this is dismissive of so many other indigenous acts
and indigenous artists across the nation,
people like Ancestors, people like Revocals.
Other famous indigenous bands, Yothu Yindi or Gurrumul,
their genre is more accessible and open.
- Yeah. - Why did you choose punk or metal
to get your message across?
I took it upon myself to make it a positive thing.
To make it an outlet where I could move these negative emotions
that I feel as a young black man
and transfer them into something beneficial and beautiful for all.
I've always loved playing guitar since I was ten
and it's been my only lifeline, my only reason to live many times.
And this band has been too.
When we started it I was crazy, I was in a bad way.
This is all I had to live for.
Being homeless and squatting and I was in this mad fury and fire.
That's when the band formed.
We acknowledge that the carnage and mayhem
faced by the many other black nations in what is known as Australia
all started here.
You have a very controversial way of acknowledging country.
Why do you do it that way?
People do acknowledgements
often in a very tokenistic and extracted manner.
It's about getting across to those fellows that have come to see us
to understand whose land they're walking upon,
what happened to those people.
Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
Never was, never will be the butcher's apron's land.
(Applause)
In your gigs you do call out people
for not being engaged with the local indigenous community.
What do you want to achieve by that?
I just want to bring them on side. Really, that's it.
Now I've got a question to ask youse all in the room.
How many of you went to the Keep Sydney Open rally?
The fact that, that is a movement that cares more...
about drinking and smoking
and exerting your hedonistic privilege
than you care for your fellow human being...
I think that's disgusting.
But that's just me.
Do you think that's the most effective way
to bring people on side?
People say it's very provocative.
Yes, I do, because...
they're not going to be provoked in any other manner.
Are you worried that the experience of your gig
is so full-on and in your face
that you'll alienate the audience and they won't take in your message?
At times, yes.
However, they're either with our people or they're not with us.
You've been critical of the lack of diversity
in the Australian music scene in general.
Do you feel you see any other bands like yourself around?
No, probably not, eh!
This is the thing like,
punk and metal were started by black people.
I was fed up with seeing like four white dudes on stage
singing about fuck-all.
You do sing and speak in your mob's language, Gumbaynggirr.
When did you start learning that?
I started learning Gumbaynggirr when I was around eight.
What is it like trying to write lyrics for a punk or metal song
in Gumbaynggirr? Are there any translation issues?
Yeah, there's a lot.
I try to sing something about striving for justice and for peace.
But in a Gumbaynggirr Bidjara sense
we don't have words for justice or peace.
(Speaks indigenous language)
Have a good night. Spirits be with you.
Whats's coming up for the next year for Dispossessed?
We're really excited to be working with one of the members of the Drones
in our next album. We're just going to take on the world
and keep on doing what we're doing. And we're gonna...
be dead.
To the point where hopefully we're not dispossessed any more.
I'm not sure if... that's the end-term goal,
that's a long-term sort of thing...
Maybe our children can start a band called Repossessed?
(Laughs) I don't know. Yeah.
Birrugan, thanks for joining us today.
Pleasure, thank you very much.
Thank you so much, everyone.