Indigenous artist Ziggy Ramo accused the ABC of censoring his music during his appearance on Q+A, after he was told he could not perform his original song choice April 25th.
Ramo, who featured as a panellist and performer on Monday night to discuss our blindingly White media, suggested the ABC had invited him on the show in an act of performative cultural diversity.
“For example, on this show, today, the song that I’m going to perform is called Stand for Something.
“The song I initially was going to perform was called April 25th and this is a song that I was not allowed to perform.
“I was basically censored in the fact that the ABC said that it was not appropriate,” Ramo said.
He continued, “So, is it performative? Because me sitting on this panel ticks off a box for the ABC, that is cultural diversity. But if I’m not able to express my perspective, is it performative or is it actual cultural diversity?”
Ramo referenced the words of fellow panellist Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce, who said that it’s important that we have freedom of speech and freedom of expression in Australia.
“If we have seats at the table, but then we are not able to express our lived experience, are we actually having cultural diversity? Or is it performative?”
But Joyce agreed with the ABC’s decision to ask Ramo to perform another song, because April 25th includes the lyrics, “Just remember how much you hate it when I say / Fuck those ANZACS”.
“There are so many Indigenous people who are part of the RSL movement, what are you saying to them?” Joyce asked.
But host Hamish Macdonald stressed that even though the ABC had asked Ramo to perform another song, it still wanted to give him the opportunity to explain the context of the song and its lyrics on Q+A.
Ramo shared that when he was 17, he travelled to the World War I memorial in Belgium to celebrate and understand the sacrifices the ANZACS made.
“I want to celebrate the ANZACS, and I do celebrate the ANZACS,” he said.
“The whole point of a song about April 25th is saying that I’ve seen this country recognise the sacrifices that have been made so that we could all sit here today.
“We can’t just pick parts of our history that we want to recognise, and bury the others.
“If in World War II, we fought against genocide, yet we don’t recognise the genocide in our own country, that’s a double standard.”
So the whole reason why the song contains the lyrics “I hate ANZACS”, Ramo explained, is to demonstrate how wrong that is. And if we can recognise that, why can’t we recognise how wrong it is to still celebrate January 26th?
“Why can’t we recognise that, when we ask to raise the age from 10 because 600 kids last year were locked up, we’re 2% of the population, we make up 65% of those kids incarcerated. That’s 349.
“Do we not understand the hypocrisy?” he said.
The ABC confirmed it asked Ramo to perform a different song on the show and to instead share his perspective in detail during the discussion on Q+A.
You can watch the full discussion below.
As planned, Ramo closed the episode with a powerful and emotional performance of Stand For Something.
On Instagram, Ramo said he blacked out during the performance.
“Was in deep trauma response,” he said. “I think it’s important to be able to sit with the reality of Blak trauma. It’s okay to be uncomfortable, but I ask you to reflect on your discomfort.”
