Hip Hop and The Block

Rates of policing and over-incarceration of Indigenous people is at an unacceptable, all-time high, with over 500 deaths since the recommendations were handed down from the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody in 1991 and still no one made accountable. There is a desperate need to change certain provisions within criminal justice laws that allow police and corrective services to carry out their duties with complete or partial immunity from criminal prosecution (see Stephen Gray’s “You Can’t Charge Me I’m a Cop”2018 http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/journals/UNSWLJ/2018/24.html).

We are also in the midst of a housing crisis, which is disproportionately affecting poorer communities. Urban development and gentrification is pushing poorer peoples out of the urban centres, including generational Aboriginal families who resided on the Block Redfern, who have been forced out to live in the neighbouring social housing precinct of Waterloo. Social Housing has been replaced with “affordable housing” and the prices are determined by developers, landlords and real estate agents. the Block is no longer affordable for Aboriginal peoples from low income or government subsidised families but the block was set up to support these families in finding work and finding stolen generation members.

The Block is also central to the history of the Aboriginal community controlled sector and is an icon of Aboriginal self-determination and resistance against colonisation. The legacy of Redfern needs to be told but should also be a reminder to the state that all people deserve the right to an urban life.

This film’s purpose is to engender empathy for First Nations Australians, advocating for their human rights protection. Through the ubiquitous culture of Hip Hop and its mass appeal to young people globally, this film has a real opportunity to reach a large audience, using the lens of Hip Hop to engage them in discussions around social justice. This film speaks to the impact of colonialism on Australia’s First peoples, the exertion of their sovereignty over stolen lands, including The Block Redfern, which is now only available to University students and upwardly mobile Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples and property owners now enjoyig sky-rocketed rents. Gentrification of poor to working class neighbourhoods is felt the world over with the ever expanding frontier of colonialism, displacing poor people and denying their access to the right to an urban life. This film will encourage the public to fight against urban renewal at the expense of minority groups and their freedoms.

We want the film to contribute to a national conversation on criminal justice reforms, supporting the work of justice advocacy groups, eg National Justice Coalition, Black Lives Matter movement, National Justice Project and Aboriginal Legal Service .

We want to contemporise our educational resources, providing a medium that speaks to and empowers First Nations young people, honouring their cultural capital and retaining them to year 12 and beyond.

We wish all students to be more engaged in matters of social justice, Aboriginal politics, society and history.

We want governments and the general public to understand the importance of the right to an urban life for all and demand this right for the generational families of The Block Redfern.

Another important outcome for the main character and other featured independent artists, is that the film promotes their work, making their music viable commercial product, allowing them and other aspiring artists to make a living from their art.

I have connections to First Nations Social Justice advocacy groups, whose activism continues to inform and inspire my own activism, writing and filmmaking. For this project these partnerships will help to keep my film contemporary and relevant, ensuring the most pertinent and authorised information is relayed in the film’s final cut. I also have connections with legal academics and through their connections hope to establish further partnerships with criminal justice advocacy groups like Department of Community and Justice. In the education space, I have been involved in Aboriginal education directly and indirectly since the early 1990’s and over that time I have developed strong and lasting relationships with those operating at the coal face and those helping to shape policy. I hope to strengthen these relationships and bring key stakeholders together to test the benefits of Hip Hop based education (HHBE) in primary, secondary and tertiary education spaces through an evidence based HHBE research project.

We want audiences to identify the problems with our criminal justice system, and join us in advocating for Australian Law reform that specifically addresses the accountability of our police and corrective services and to lift the legal age of incarcertaion currently allowing 10 yo kids to be locked up.

There are a number of petitions and issues papers already created that speak to these matters that event-based screenings will help to point audiences to. It is hoped that audiences will then engage with the issues, sign these petitions, contribute submissions to the Australian Law Reform Commission and join in the fight for our human rights.

It is hoped that teachers will utilise the film as a teaching resource within history, social studies, English and Aboriginal studies classes to engage students in social justice issues in Australia.

Additionally, it is hoped that audiences will support local Aboriginal artists by purchasing CD’s, downloads, and hire their entertainment.