Indigenous rapper Birdz has described comments by NSW premier Chris Minns as “ignorant”, in response to a backlash over one of his songs being played at a Sydney school.
Birdz, real name Nathan Bird, spoke out after criticism of a public primary school’s decision to choose Bagi-La-M Bargan as a bell song for Reconciliation Week.
“This all raises bigger questions around education and what we’re teaching kids in schools about inclusivity and covering Indigenous perspectives,” says Birdz.Credit: Chris Hopkins
The song, told from the perspective of an Indigenous warrior, describes Captain James Cook as “a murderer without licence” and mentions a “desire to kill any white devil [that] wanna test my will”.
A father of one of the school’s pupils made an anonymous complaint on Tuesday to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, which led to senior members of the NSW government making public comments on the decision to play the song.
“Rap songs, in general, [are] probably not the best for NSW schools,” the premier said.
Birdz said Bagi-La-M Bargan has been used inside classrooms for years and he had previously been invited to schools to speak about the context of his music.
“Teachers and schools reach out to me all the time, pretty much since the song came out, wanting to know more about it and the context, or even just saying how much they appreciate it,” he said of the song, which was originally commissioned for an NITV documentary on Cook’s landing.
“Hip hop is the biggest genre in the world right now. You ask any kid, and they’ll tell you that. That’s what they listen to, whether [Minns] likes it or not,” said Birdz, adding banning rap in primary schools was “very archaic”.