It shouldn't have taken a survey to move the Hottest 100 from Invasion Day
Iadmit it: I have not listened to the Triple J Hottest 100 for a number of years, despite my sworn love for independent Australian music and media. And no, it’s not because nowadays I am more the Double J demographic. Triple J has been my go-to radio station while I travel all over the country for a long time now.
Rather, I haven’t been listening because due to the fact that the countdown has been held on 26 January, I have been otherwise engaged. This year, for example, I was busy helping 50,000 other people shut down the streets of Melbourne at the Invasion Day rally. Last year I attended a protest and speak-out in Alice Springs. The year before, I was
at the Invasion Day protest in Mel-
bourne before we headed down the road to the annual Share the Spirit Festival. As an Aboriginal woman, 26 January has always been, and will always be, a day of protest to me. I can therefore imagine many other music-loving Aboriginal people will have been similarly excluded by the choice of date when it came to this countdown.
I am therefore happy to hear that next year I won’t have to wait until the countdown repeat the following week to get my music fix. With Monday’s news from Triple J that the countdown will be moving to 27 January next year, and will be subsequently held on the fourth weekend of every month, it means that I will have an opportunity to join in the festivities. Without the ability to cheer for your favourites, whinge when some terrible novelty track gets top billing and interact with other passionate music fans, the countdown experience has seemed empty.
It’s more than this though – I know just what an institution the Hottest 100 is. Indeed, when I have been talking about “Australia Day” and why any celebration of it is offensive, I have often been met with the response that to many, it’s just “Hottest 100 Day”. To therefore see that 60% of the people who responded to the Triple J survey supported a change of date for the countdown suggests that at least as far as younger generations are concerned, society is becoming more aware.
Unfortunately though, it seems that for Triple J itself, there’s still a way to go before the message permeates its own ranks. While its statement detailed that this was about
“celebrating the music”, it does not even mention that the major reason 26 January has become contentious is due to what the date means to Indigenous groups. In fact, the statement still mentions celebrating Australia Day with some “new programming”. Had there not been an online petition mounted by a pair of young activists to change the countdown date, Triple J might not have moved to do its own survey and consultation in the first place. Despite there now being majority support for a date change, Triple J states that it “expected a lot of different opinions, this is a complicated issue with no one correct answer.”
To me, it’s not a “complicated issue”. It’s a very simple one and one the Indigenous community have been trying to educate the public on for decades. To celebrate “Australia Day” requires historical erasure or even flat-out ignorance with regards to how this landmass was “settled” and what happened next. It requires the reinforcement of the false doctrine of terra nullius and the negation of Indigenous sovereignty. Triple J’s Hottest 100 countdown had not always been held on Invasion Day but the fact that this date was eventually chosen amounts to Triple J capitalising on a holiday with this kind of baggage for its own ratings gain.
This date change should never have taken a survey. This year, I saw some pubs and small businesses I frequent announce on social media that they would not be opening on “Australia Day” because they planned to join Invasion Day marches. I saw bands issue statements of solidarity with Indigenous people in a bid to educate their fans. Protests have been running since 1938 and this year’s ones saw record numbers in most capital cities. The awareness is there and growing at a steady rate. Triple J could have chosen instead to make a stand and use the opportunity, as a national youth broadcaster committed to local content, to educate its listeners. Instead, its listeners have ended up educating it.
So while I applaud this move and look forward to hearing the countdown live for the first time in years, I also hope that it leads to further education within the ranks of Triple J and a stronger commitment to engaging in political discussions with Indigenous groups. And possibly a few more listens of January 26 by AB Original.