TRANSCRIPT
That's artist Ziggy Ramo performing his new single, titled Sorry.
It’s a look back on Australia‘s 2008 apology over the Stolen Generations and explores what has really changed in the years since.
"We apologise for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families ..."
"The message of Sorry, is that words have meaning. Of course we long for apologies and we long for accountability, but most of all we long for action. Sorry means you don't do it again. Right. And unfortunately, I think we as a nation are still grappling with really understanding what we're apologising for. The outcome of the referendum highlighted that we have such a different level of understanding and we have such a different of opinion about some things that are facts, but people don't know them."
Ziggy Ramo has lived experience of stolen generations in his own family history.
Raised across Arnhem Land and Perth, he is the son of a Scottish-heritage mother and a Wik and Solomon Islander father.
"I didn't have the privilege of growing up on my ancestral country because my great-grandmother was stolen. Intergenerational trauma works in a compounding effect because those scars aren't ever healed, it feels like it's us who's taken. Dispossession isn't, it's not an identity, it's a state. And for me, when I connect to making art, I'm connecting to a lineage of thousands of years and whether or not it's my specific song lines, it's within the practice of doing it, I'm finding reconnection."
For the 29-year-old, that reconnection means exploring ancestral trauma and barriers in the modern world.
And he is intensely proud of his culture, and his family name.
"Ziggy Ramo Burrmuruk Fatnowna. Ramo is from Malaita which is Solomon Islands. Ramo was a title within the society and a Ramo was almost like a score settler. And then Fatnowna is Solomon Islander last name. So Fatnowna was the first of our ancestors, my great-great grandfather that was Blackbirded."
Race history is a constant thread in his music, calling out colonial dispossession and injustice.
His new album, called Human?, released this month, also has a companion book and artwork.
"I wrote a book and an album at the same time because I love it, I love making art. E ach chapter of the book is a song on the album. And why I wanted to create this immersive physical experience for people was that I'm very conscious that only 3 per cent of us have a lived experience in this lens. Or our voices aren't always put in platforms and spaces for people to learn from. R eading the chapter makes you understand the song in a different way. And hearing the song makes you understand the chapter in a different way."
It’s not his only innovation.
For the first time Ziggy Ramo has pressed a new album, and this is his third, on vinyl.
"When you listen to vinyl, there is a physical experience that is a lot more visceral because the sound is in the space with you and it is being generated by a physical artifact with you. Music has forever been a ceremonial and spiritual experience and I think when you have this artifact that is the thing that is generating it, you can't even compare what that feels like."
It’s a view shared by Luke Bevans, managing director of Impressed Recordings.
His bespoke record store sells limited editions on vinyl and he has pressed Ziggy Ramo’s new album.
"Your record is a physical manifestation of your art. And for some artists such as Ziggy Ramo, a great example, he's had I think a 10 year career in music, but he's never pressed anything onto vinyl until today. To be able to create little 200 runs creates scarcity around the product or the vinyl itself, means that the record is more valuable to not just collectors, but it's more valuable to fans."
And Ziggy Ramo is not alone.
Worldwide, the vinyl trend is exploding with famous names like Taylor Swift leading the charge.
Records were the main medium for music 50 years ago.
Mr Bevans says there are valid reasons to turn back the clock.
"Vinyl sales have increased worldwide and in Australia. Vinyl is not compressed. So, for an audio file, the fact that the vinyl is not compressed in any way, it is supposedly exactly as the artist intended it. And that is the purity of vinyl that audio files love."
Globally the vinyl record market is worth $16 billion annually and that’s expected to double by 2031 to $30 billion.
Aria CEO Annabelle Herd expects Australia’s vinyl trend to continue growing, too.
"People have a connection with vinyl that goes beyond what they have with streaming. So in 2023 we saw growth in vinyl of around 14.1 per cent in the value of sales, and that went up to a total of around $42 million, which is quite impressive. Seventy per cent of all physical sales are of vinyl. It is a really important strategy for Australian artists to connect with fans, to be able to make a beautiful, beautiful album and put their whole heart and soul and their look and feel into a vinyl album."
A vinyl record is a plastic disc, originally made of graphite, which is then pressed with shellac and engraved with bumps to record sound.
Records can warp and scratch, yet even so Glenn Mabbott treasures his collection.
"I've got about 1400 albums, it's the total experience. We now live in the digitisation of everything world. And music is this thing that just streams on your phone or it's somewhere, but that's kind of ephemeral. Whereas if you go back to what a record is, it's actually tangible and you can own it and you can hold it and you can actually pull it out and you can put it on a turntable."
Ziggy Ramo uses a multi-media approach to deliver his message, and each chapter has an original artwork by his sister Brydi and QR code linked to a recording of the song.
"As an artist you don't get to decide when your work resonates, um but by creating physical artifacts, you give it a chance to connect when it's supposed to. We live in a country that is unable to recognise and be accountable for what they've done, what they've continued to do. That terrifies me, not just for our country, but it creates apathy globally. And when we look at what is going on in the world, when we refuse to be accountable because it makes us feel shame or it makes us feel guilty, we remain desensitised to the point we can see other people as not human. And when we don't see each other as human, we can justify genocide. And that is so terrifying to me."
