Bracks, William ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0058-6684 (2022) Decolonizing Music: A History of Australia’s Rock Against Racism Movement. Research Master thesis, Victoria University.

Abstract

In the late 1970s and early 1980s Aboriginal communities in major Australian cities and their/our supporters put on a series of RAR concerts with the aim of promoting new Aboriginal talent in music, combatting racism, raising awareness, and raising funds for Aboriginal community organisations, bands and protests. Though there was no explicit mention to the original RAR movement in the United Kingdom, this movement came off the back of the hugely successful RAR movement in the UK between 1976 and 1982 which saw the near eradication of the influence of the National Front political party and a unification of high-profile musicians against racism. This thesis aims to tell a history of the RAR concerts in Australia for two key reasons. Firstly, for the reason that it is a largely undocumented part of Australia’s history of music and Aboriginal activism, and secondly because the period in which RAR took place saw an explosion of contemporary Aboriginal bands and musicians forming a significant musical tradition that hadn’t been seen before in Australia. This thesis draws on the decolonial theories of Tracy Banivanua Mar, Crystal McKinnon, Clare Land and Jarrett Martineau to understand the RAR concerts as forming decolonial spaces in the Australian music scene as part of the Aboriginal land rights and self-determination movement. Using an oral history approach interviews were conducted with Gary Foley and Kelli McGuinness to understand the history of Aboriginal activism surrounding the RAR movement and the ways in which RAR was organised as well as its key objectives. Additionally extensive use of archival sources from the Aboriginal History Archive have been used, without which this thesis would not be possible. This thesis argues that RAR was a critical site of activism in music that advocated for the exposure of new Aboriginal bands and created a decolonial space that promoted pride in Aboriginality, raised awareness for the key issues in the Aboriginal struggle at the time and provided a gathering space for the Aboriginal community and its supporters.

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