Indigenous Australians are one of the oldest living cultures in the world. However, in their own country, they are heavily discriminated against. Half of the young people in juvenile detention are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. 2% of the population makes up more than a quarter of the national prison population. An Aboriginal man leaving school is more likely to go to jail than university. Indigenous Australian suicide rates are double that of non-Indigenous Australians. Many believe these issues are symptomatic of Indigenous Australians not having a say in how their country is run and the policies that govern them as a culture. Because in 2020, there is still no First Nations voice in the Australian Constitution. This leaves the original custodians of our land - the 800,000 Indigenous Australians living here - voiceless.
Young Indigenous girls’ choir Spinifex Gum are no stranger to these injustices. They and their families have spent their entire lives under a government that doesn’t have a First Nations voice. So when it came time to release their new album, they wanted to try to use their music as a way to change the current circumstances for their people. A traditional album launch campaign wouldn’t create the participation needed for a problem that demands action. We needed to make something where people could actively get involved, and express their acknowledgement of the issue and support for change.
So, to release Spinifex Gum’s new single ‘Dream Baby Dream’, we made it more than a song. We turned it into a digital platform where the dream of every Australian could be expressed: A First Nations voice in the Constitution, and a fairer Australia.
The song was embedded into a custom microsite, where anyone could sing along to the chorus into the microphone, with their recording automatically mixed and mastered into the song. Continuously updated on all streaming services, the song featured the ever-growing number of people who contributed to it - the voices of Australia. The digitally-led microsite and the song became an interactive musical petition demanding change. Spinifex Gum then went on a national tour, collecting the voices singing along at every live show. The interactivity of the project, and the interest created for people by being able to be a part of it, gained the song and the message the kind of traction a traditional music launch wouldn’t have.
The final song, which featured over 20,000 voices collected both digitally and live, was pressed onto a custom vinyl record. At their final show, which took place in the Marble Foyer inside Parliament House, the record was handed over to the ministers of the Australian Government, demanding change from the voices of a nation. The campaign was covered by every major news provider in the country, and garnered over 39.9 million social media impressions. Most importantly, the song provided a digital platform for every Australian to fight for an Indigenous voice in Parliament, by using their own.
The campaign added to the national conversation and growing demand for a First Nations voice in the Constitution, and in the months following, the Indigenous Minister of Australia Ken Wyatt called for a referendum on the issue before the next Federal Election.
