Canberra hip hop artist KG who has proven time and time again he is a force to be reckoned. Having spent time visiting Indigenous communities over the last few months learning more about the culture and also sharing his own background, music and dance to help inspire, KG and this new single ‘Change’ looks to charge momentum surrounding the marginalised and the sectors of our communities who need help and positivity the most.
‘Five things I’d change about the Cultural Gap’ by KG
1.) Education in schools. The curriculum needs to include real Australian history not vague stories of what really happened to our Indigenous people.
2.) Indigenous languages should be taught in all Australian schools yet instead we learn languages of other countries other than our own..
3.) The tourism industry should promote visits to our communities so we can actually see how people in our country live in circumstances so different from our own. NT is by far one of the most beautiful places on earth.
4.) Media – the fact we have hardly any Indigenous or people of other cultural backgrounds in our media – whether it be sports,journalists, tv panels, musicians. What is the reason for this? How can we even learn about other cultures when we only see the same kinds of people in the media?
5.) When the media are covering Indigenous issues – how about actually get Indigenous people on the panels rather than an all white panel discussing Indigenous social issues? Then we can understand how life is for an Indigenous person and the daily struggles they face, it would teach the general public to show more empathy and compassion towards those in different circumstances therefore minimizing the cultural gap.
Education man it’s the key. My biggest thing right now is education. I’ve learnt Australian children are taught the bare minimum on Indigenous culture throughout primary school. Our kids are being taught more about the First Fleet and making James Cook out to be a hero, when in fact isn’t true. I’ve learnt that our real history is hidden. Is it because Australians are ashamed of their history?
So you see if young people aren’t learning the truths of what our First Nation people went through then how can we expect them to have empathy or understanding on their current situations?
It’s accountability and more than anything acknowledging the past, it’s the only way we can change the cultural gap. The issue we have in Australia is people don’t want to acknowledge the truths of the past.. so if we can’t do that than how can we move forward. We need to all be educated on what our First Nation’s were put through, how their peaceful lives and culture were uprooted from colonization. How it still affects people in this day. I think Australian’s also don’t recognize how recent these events really were and they really need to understand that’s it’s not as simple as ‘getting over it’.
I know we can’t change the past but we can definitely change the cultural gap by acceptance and acknowledgement of the past. That way we can all start living together and respecting one another as one nation but until we make some huge changes, starting with our government and policies, than we still have a long way to go before any kind of reconciliation.
The fact our Prime Minister was to justify Australia Day staying where it is just shows still how the people ruling our country haven’t the slightest idea of Australian history or culture.
We have the oldest culture in the world, which should be something all Australians are proud to be part of and instead we’re so far from that. I’ve spoken to so many Indigenous people and they’d do anything to share that culture with all Australians, which would be such an honor, but of course that can’t happen till we make many of the changes I’ve just touched on.