At the height of his career, singer-songwriter Mitch Tambo found himself laid low.
It wasn’t because the singer had countless gigs cancelled due to the global pandemic, rather it was the effect cyberbullying had on his mental state.
Prior to one of Tambo’s gigs last year, family friend Aunt Bernadette caught the singer off guard by saying "You’ve got to come home. You're sick. You look no good."
“They could see something was up,” Tambo told Living Black's Karla Grant.
“My mum was like 'You need to come home for a bit. Get you all right.'"
To hear these comments from loved ones came as a shock.
It had only been a couple of years earlier that Tambo’s career had been on the rise after his performances on Australia’s Got Talent led to him signing with Sony Music Entertainment Australia, and performing ‘You’re The Voice’ alongside music legend John Farnham at the Bushfire Australia Charity Concert.
It was off the back of SBS’ Eurovision Australia Decides program that the singer began to face toxic cyberbullying.
Mitch Tambo performing in Eurovision Australia Decides 2021 (Source: SBS) Source: SBS
“I got hammered on my Eurovision campaign and I just wasn't ready for it... and I didn't have the skill set to navigate it”.
Speaking to Living Black’s Karla Grant, Tambo said he was surprised at how the vitriol impacted him.
“It impacted and rocked me in the spirit. It made me question everything. I felt alone, like when you step out on stage or when you’re in front of the camera.”
Tambo says he always expected to encounter negative online comments.
“When you look like me, dress like me, but are a proud, strong cultural man and rock that with your head dress and ochre, very quickly people have got opinions about that.
"Everything about you is ridiculed and pulled apart and dissected. You start to feel like a dog in the pound.”
Taking his mother’s and Aunt Bernadette’s advice, Tambo bravely went back to Country to help himself heal.
“What gave me strength was coming back to the strong people in my life, my community. I went straight back on country and yarned it out.”
Healing culture
Mitch Tambo with his mother Roz (Source: Supplied)
His mother Roz saw that by his early teenage years, Mitch needed some direction and encouraged him to learn from Elders.
“It's the strength, the power in it."
“I think she could see straight away that going down a path of embracing my identity and culture would do everything it needed to do for me.
"It would be medicine; it would guide me, and it would connect me to where I needed to be connected.”
Tambo’s pride in culture has grown ever since.
“I think it's the strength, the power in it. It's the stories that when you sit and yarn with the old fellas, there's always something that comes out of those yarns that just pumps you up spiritually.”
For Tambo, learning Gamilaraay traditional dance would have a lasting impact.
“The first time that I ever witnessed Gamilaraay style, dance or movement, I remember what that did to me. It lit a fire inside of me, and from that point on, I could just never escape it wherever I went.”
Social work
Tambo leapt at the chance to include culture in his school life, performing at his school as part of a dance troupe.
However, Mitch would find himself disappointed once he finished high school that his HSC marks would prevent him from going onto further education.
“After school I decided I wanted to be an academic, so I rang the [university] programs and they looked at my report and just said, 'Sorry, but I don't think your report meets the mark.'
Mitch Tambo as a teenager (Source: Supplied)
"I told them I wanted to do performing arts and they said to me, 'We don't do performing arts, but you could do social work'.
This advice would spur Mitch on. Taking a chance, he called the university program manager every day until they let him into a bridging program.
“I harassed them until they finally just said, 'Look, you're in, but you better not do the wrong thing by us.'
"And I remember [once I started] Aunty Sue Green came knocking on my door, and she just gave it to us. She didn't muck around. [She said] 'You step out of line, you're gone. Don't let me down or make a fool out of me.'
Auntie Sue Green’s hard words would be the wakeup call Tambo needed.
“I just switched on and for that whole four weeks, I went as hard as I possibly could. I went from literally failing my HSC to topping my faculty and got into university and got a special award.”
Making change by being brave
Mitch’s bravery to pursue a course in social work would pay off.
Straight out of university he set up his business now known as ‘Walanbaa’ where youth are encouraged to explore their own identity through cultural performance, mentor workshops and art.
“I really wanted to empower kids to embrace their identity regardless of their background, and to educate educators with the truth so that they could in turn pass that on to kids. [I wanted the teachers] to be a part of change.”
Mitch Tambo and his wife Leah in a publicity photo for 'Walanbaa' (Source: Supplied)
Even with the rise of his music career, Tambo has remained focussed on wanting to help bring change for First Nations kids.
“If it wasn't for COVID, I would've toured extensively and done a whole run of schools. I made that commitment when things got busy for me musically.
"I didn't want my passion for kids to fall by the wayside because it's important. It's at the middle and at the heart of what I believe is my purpose.”
The brutal insights that cyberbullying brought Tambo have left him feeling philosophical.
“I knew that in that moment [as I got cyberbullied], I was on the right track and that when the hate comes, it obviously means in my case, you're doing something good.
"I just had to wear the brunt of it so that the next generation don't have to.
“Yes you learn that not everyone's aligned with your vision and what you're representing, but if you resonate [with it] then let's go. And if you don't, you know what, I still love you anyway.”
With talent and bravery to match, Tambo has his sights set on using his culture and language to reconcile us all.
Catch the full conversation on Living Black, Tuesday 31 May at 3.30pm on SBS One, or catch up on SBS On Demand.
Mitch Tambo with Journalist Karla Grant at the Minya Winery while filming for Living Black (Source: Living Black)
