Ziggy Ramo has fired back at Perth’s City of Joondalup council after it issued an apology for the “language and comments” he made during a free outdoor concert that it had booked him to play.
Apparently, some locals were clutching their pearls when confronted with the content of the First Nations’ artist’s performance during the all-ages event, Music In The Park, which was held in the suburb of Hillarys this past Saturday (January 14). And they consequently slung a bunch of complaints the Council’s way.
Ziggy Ramo ft. Alice Skye – ‘Sugar Coated Lies’
“We know that many in the audience were offended by the language used and comments made during one of the performances on the night,” the City Of Joodalup posted in a Facebook statement on Monday.
“We will review the event and the feedback we have received, and consider it carefully when planning future events.”
The council’s statement continued: “Music in the Park has earned a great reputation over the years as one of the City’s best-loved family-friendly events. The City strives to offer diverse cultural performances, and we want to make sure that we continue to present respectful acts that our community will appreciate and enjoy.”
However, because the local government’s website had previously billed Ramo as an “Indigenous Australian singer, songwriter and activist” with “powerful and poignant lyricism,” the rapper believes it would have been fully aware of his lyrical content ahead of time.
During a chat with the ABC, Ramo said he originally believed the City of Joondalup had “made a conscious decision to give their community this opportunity to think and learn and engage with” the themes presented in his music.
He also said he nixed all the coarse language from his songs for the event.
“I’m not naive. Even when you remove the curse words, the subject is very explicit. It’s talking about genocide. It’s talking about oppression. It’s talking about violence,” he explained.
“It’s deeply uncomfortable for people who maybe haven’t grappled with their own privilege, but it’s asking people to grapple with what is our understanding and our experience.”
Ramo said he was “deeply disappointed” in the council’s public apology, which was allegedly made without any direct communication or engagement with him.
“So, what part of me telling my lived experience was so offensive that it warranted an apology?” he asked. “If I’m not swearing, but I’m just talking about our history.”
He also accused the council of hypocrisy, as it claimed to champion “diverse cultural performances” but then simultaneously apologised for doing just that.
“It just feels quite backhanded. It’s like, diverse cultural performances, that means you’re going to have different viewpoints, but you’re saying, ‘We will only strive to offer diverse cultural performances that our community agrees with’,” he said.
“If you want me to go up there and look Black but not be Black, how does that work? Me looking and being culturally diverse comes with completely difference experiences than the majority of your community. So if you put me on that stage and you want to celebrate cultural diversity, this is what cultural diversity is.”
Ramo added that the council had “every single one of [his] lyrics typed out in advance”.
“It was literally advertised as Ziggy Ramo, singer-songwriter, Indigenous activist, talking about Indigenous issues from the Indigenous perspective. If you got to that performance and you were surprised by what happened, I don’t understand how that’s falling onto me, because it wasn’t like I ambushed anyone.
“We’ve just swept it under the rug and kept the status quo,” Ramo said. “I’m just trying to do what I had hoped that the City of Joondalup would have done, and that was engage in actual meaningful conversation.”
Further Reading
Watch Ziggy Ramo’s Vital And Powerful Cover Of Paul Kelly’s ‘Little Things’
Watch Paul Kelly, Ziggy Ramo and Eves Karydas Cover Rihanna’s ‘Never Ending’
Ziggy Ramo Has A New Album And Book On The Way Titled ‘Human’
