Lyrics: Matthew Hsu/Alinta McGrady/Chelsea Watego/Jonathan Sriranganathan/Nima Doostkhah
Music: Matthew Hsu
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
BADASSMUTHA:
How do we live in survival
How do we love when all the time goes
Dipping into the you, us, multiverse
My heart heals and I’m just trying to feel first
And it’s funny when the times align
Ish gets crazy but I know I’m fine
Mystical like Wakanda, wait
‘Cause if we had it that way
You know we could be great
Life be like honey
Raw, it’s real, it’s sweet, evolving
And if love ain’t the medicine, I’ll f-ing starve
System chew you, spit you out and make you hard
Baby girl beside me, and I wanna teach her rest
We can’t continue in colonial stress
And I am being and doing all that I can
OBSCURE ORCHESTRA:
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
Live, laugh decolonise
CHELSEA WATEGO:
Our power is found within; it is embodied and it is enacted everyday.
It is in knowing one’s own power, even – and especially –
in those most violent encounters that we are able to remember
how powerful we really are.
NIMA DOOSTKHAH:
Tell Keith we’re bringing urban back
Chuck a couple laps with the Persian cat
Follow rainbow tracks where the serpent’s at
You know the mood’s right, when we in the move tight
Get used to bright lights, being around mics
Hitting the town charged, ain’t looking for no fights
Sights on the prize, I’ll be looking to book flights
Come get your hooks sang, watch how we do thangs
Cane Cutter Clan from Cranbrook to Cairns
Carving up critics who can’t understand
How we use slang, this ain’t a new thing
Pemulwuy was right, so F the new king
Brown nosing blokes getting down on one knee
To kiss the new ring, we in same court, facing the same charge
that’s the same crown, and that’s the same judge
Same DPP trying to blame us
OBSCURE ORCHESTRA:
Live, laugh decolonise (F your imperial ish)
Live, laugh decolonise (Resistance can be joyful)
Live, laugh decolonise (F your imperial ish)
Live, laugh decolonise (Resistance can be joyful)
CHELSEA WATEGO:
Still here is a short form way of saying sovereignty never ceded. This phrase finds itself on Black bodies, on belt buckles and t-shirts, etched on tourist signs and Facebook memes, song titles and protest banners from cities to shorelines. It is a refusal to subscribe to the myth of our demise. But still here is not an appeal to be seen; it represents a victory lap for Blackfullas, a fierce reminder to the colonisers that they didn’t succeed; never have and never will.
JONATHAN SRIRANGANATHAN
We should be tearing down walls
But they tricked us into laying bricks
Candle flame illumination need thicker wicks
Sing of solidarity and talk politics, but you’re only at the rallies for the likes and the clicks
Do you want a revolution or just publicity
Is apathy just a weaker flavour of complicity
Make love, make art, make joyful jam sessions
but you’re never actively resisting systems of oppression
brown foot soldiers of a white invasion
conscripted into roles we don’t fully understand
brightly coloured wrapping paper for colonisation
decorative diversity painted onto stolen land
prison guard or prisoner, the migrant’s false dilemma
assimilate into oppressor? nah we’re standing together
They’re not gonna fund us to fight for liberation
Lighting candles at vigils, we should be lighting up police stations
OBSCURE ORCHESTRA:
Live, laugh decolonise (F your imperial ish)
Live, laugh decolonise (Resistance can be joyful)
Live, laugh decolonise (F your imperial ish)
Live, laugh decolonise (Resistance can be joyful)