The obscenity of the idea of freedom of speech to First Nations peoples

What is it about?

In the same year that Adam Goodes quit the game of AFL, soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham refused to sing the Australian National Anthem at the AFL Grand Final because she could not bear to sing the words ‘for we are young and free’. In this article, we examine why the act of singing about being ‘free’ would be both absurd and obscene for Blackfullas in Australia. Engaging with the songs of Black people, locally and globally, we reveal the fiction of free speech and freedom for all and the interests those fictions serve.

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Why is it important?

This article shed light on the violence of governing structures on First Nations peoples especially, and people of colour more broadly.