A. B. Original's “Dumb Things”

Decolonizing the Postcolonial Australian Dream

Dados Bibliográficos

ID22158368
AutoresBenjamin Miller (0000-0002-4003-1587, autor correspondente)
Ano2021
Volume4
Fascículo1-2
Páginas103-123
Data de publicação2021-12-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
Periódicoab-Original (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2470-6221 • E-ISSN: 2471-0938
EditoraThe Pennsylvania State University Press (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.5325/aboriginal.4.1-2.0103
OpenAlexW4205211252
IdiomaEN
Referências citadas7

In 2016, Aboriginal hip-hop duo A. B. Original joined Paul Kelly live on radio to cover his iconic song “Dumb Things” (1987). Kelly's original version presented a critique of nationalist rhetoric in the lead up to the Australian bicentenary celebrations. Kelly's development of an itinerant counter-dreamer as a voice against nationalism, however, fashioned a brand of innocent, postcolonial whiteness and, thereby, remained complicit with colonial domination of Indigenous people. This article explores A. B. Original's commentary on institutional, systemic, and discursive racism, and their criticism of postcolonial whiteness through a close reading and contextualization of their music output in 2016. With particular emphasis on “Dumb Things” in its original context and its most recent context, this article argues that A. B. Original issues a call for, and demonstrates, the decolonization of postcolonial narratives of the Australian dream

Aesthetics · Art · Colonialism · Criticism · Dream · Indigenous · Linguistics · Literature · Narrative · Nationalism · Political science · Politics · Rhetoric · Sociology · Australian History and Society · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · Psychology