August 5, 2024
Artists

Australian artists denounce Labor’s support for Israeli assault on Gaza


Like their counterparts around the world, hundreds of Australian artists, musicians, writers and cultural workers across all disciplines have been speaking out against Israel’s war crimes in Gaza and the Labor government’s unwavering support for the Zionist regime.

Genesis Owusu

On Wednesday night, popular Australian-Ghanian rapper and musician Genesis Owusu called for support for Palestinians and a Gaza ceasefire at this year’s live broadcast of the ARIA music industry awards.

Owusu won the ARIA 2023 award for best album for his record Struggler, as well as prizes for best hip/hop release and best independent music release. It was the second time since 2021 that he has won ARIA awards in these categories. The Struggler album, Owusu says, was inspired by Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka’s 1915 novella.

In his short acceptance speech, Owusu said his album was “about humanity and our stubborn perseverance to wake up every day and make it through an oppressive existence. It’s an album about the strength of community.

“There are atrocious, atrocious things happening in the world right now that I think, as a community, we should be putting our minds, hearts and bodies behind to stop it at any junction that we can,” he said. “Ceasefire now, ceasefire now, ceasefire now. Free Palestine!”

Owusu’s brief but powerful speech is just the latest in a rising tide of statements by creative workers in Australia.

Late last month over 1,000 creative workers from every field—visual artists, photographers, writers, journalists, actors, filmmakers, musicians—signed an open letter to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Tony Burke, the federal arts minister.

Organised by Artists Against Apartheid and titled “Stop the genocide in Gaza,” the letter forcefully denounced the Labor government for voting down an October 16 resolution in the federal parliament “condemning war crimes committed by Israel in its ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people.”



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