The Wisdom Of Black Privilege: 'Survival Ain’t That Beautiful I’ve Just Made It Look This Good For You'

Where can I begin with Miiesha’s (pronounced My-ee-sha) music? In a few simple lyrics, she has addressed centuries of bias. And, she has ‘only’ released one collection of nine songs.

Miiesha Gained The Spotlight with her debut single Black Privilege, released in June 2019. And her debut collection, Nyaaringu, released in May 2020.

Though the album only reached no. 28 on Australia's music charts, Miiesha is already in Australia's history books for winning two prominent Australian music awards and nominated for many more.

Listening will take 30 minutes of your time, yet will remain with you forever.

As a Gen X, I don’t exactly have my fingers on the pulse of the movers and shakers in Australia’s music industry. This is why I tend to rely on the national radio station Triple J. The only national service to go out of their way to promote undiscovered talent.

This is how I first heard Miiesha’s irresistible voice. And this is my favorite song, Neon-Moon:

Triple J featured Miiesha’s debut collection of songs during Reconciliation Week and in connection to the death of American George Floyd.

Reconciliation Week is when Australia, as a nation, recognizes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture and tries to address racial tensions.

Triple J website has this to say:

“Her velvety vocals pillowed by mellow synths and airy percussion, she tackles discrimination and empowerment in a swaying yet searing hook: Survival ain’t that beautiful/I’ve just made it look this good for you.”

[Black Privilege lyrics]

21-year-old Miiesha is a singer-songwriter hailing from Woorabinda in Central Queensland (of approx. 1,000 people). Of Aṉangu and Torres Strait Islander descent, she employs the Pitjantjatjara language in some of her music. With no obligation to explain it to the rest of the world.

The title of the collection Nyaaringu translates into English as ‘What Happened.’ The voice of her deceased grandmother threads the collection together, via interludes of spoken wisdom of an Elder, to any willing to listen.

Miiesha prefers to describe Nyaaringu as a ‘collection’ rather than an ‘album’. The borrowed word is from the art world to describe an exhibition of work. This is her exhibition of 9 songs with common themes on her life, community, and people.

In 2020, with her ability to convey inequality and empowerment simultaneously, Miiesha the New Talent of the Year award at the National Indigenous Music Awards. And she won the Best Soul/R’n’B Release award in the ARIA’s (Australia’s music awards).

The outbreak of Covid-19 in Australia had Miiesha in locked-down Melbourne, Victoria. She had been on tour at the time with another Indigenous artist, Thelma Plum.

Covid-19 seems to be the only force on Earth to have tripped her momentum to achieving national and international recognition.

A Voice To Address Racial And Political Tensions

Though Miiesha seems to shy away from making direct political statements, she has let politicians speak for themselves. This is why Tony Abbott’s 'welfare is a lifestyle choice’ quote starts her song Drowning.

Tony Abbott has said:

“If people choose to live where there’s no jobs, obviously its very, very difficult to close the gap. It’s not the the job of the tax payer to subsidize lifestyle choices.”

This is in context to Tony Abbott shutting down 150 communities. 'Close the Gap' reference is explained below.

Miiesha has explained via a Triple J interview this quote wasn’t meant to be used politically, but rather serve as an example of Australia’s inborn attitudes toward the BLM movement.

I’m always drowning

I’m drowning naked

And all I can see was

A sea of faces

Out Of Sight And Out Of Mind

The Australian government created Aboriginal remote communities. For the purposes of protection (Black or white 'protection' is debatable). It also creates benchmarks for a ‘good’ or ‘successful’ community, and will use its power to shut down and move communities if they are ‘bad’ or ‘irredeemable.'

Miiesha’s hometown of Woorabinda is one example of a remote community, formed by the Queensland government. Though generations now call it home, it is still remembered how the population became dispossessed of their way of life, their homes, and sacred places.

"You hear lots of things about Woorabinda, all the bad stories, none of the good ones... People say dumb things like, ‘you’ll get speared if you go there,’ or think that we’re all violent or drunk and things. Only people that have been to community and spent time there know how beautiful the people are and how strong we are.”

- Miiesha, ABC Triple J interview.

Where does the Australian government’s responsibility begin and end in a problem of its own creation? What is the dividing line between helping those who feel they are drowning and interfering with those who want independence?

I could always ignore it and say ‘it all happened before I was born, so I’m not responsible.’Or ‘I never voted for this to happen.’ And ‘I’m only one person, so I can’t do anything about it.’

I admit I used to say, ‘it’s just what they (the Aus. Govt.) did back then. They don’t do it now.’

I learned in school that the only people rounded up into trucks and taken to ghettos, just because of their race, happened to the Jews before WWII.

I’ve since learned that it has happened in my country and in my own lifetime. And Miiesha’s lyrics in Drowning - helped out by Tony Abbott’s own incriminating words - will educate the generations of Australians after my time.

Close The Gap

When life and death become a statistic, in the comparisons between a European descended Australian and an Indigenous Aboriginal, there is a 'gap.'

There are huge gaps between our education, our employment, and our healthcare. My life expectancy can be anywhere between 80+ years of age, compared to some members of Miiesha’s family who may die of natural causes between 70+ years of age (it used to be lower).

Some criticisms of healthcare include a lack of any help for the local medicine men/women. Australian clinics and hospitals, only. And one of the health problems affecting Aboriginals is New Wold Syndrome.

New World Syndrome is a collection of illnesses caused by a western diet and lifestyle. E.g.: One example is Type 2 diabetes caused by the introduction of refined sugar and junk food. It exists in America just as it does here in Australia.

The striking difference between white privilege and black privilege has been measured!

This status quo inspired Miiesha to title her debut single, Black Privilege.

Funny when I lose, you keep on complaining

Then write the new rules just to be bent on breaking

Told me that I choose the noose that you’ve been making

Then I need to prove I’m worthy of the saving

There are other contentious benchmarks, such as the statistics in a population with an addiction to cigarettes, alcohol, and other drugs.

The statistics are much higher in remote communities than in my predominantly white city. So, the government initiative is also tackling to close the gap between these statistics as well.

It is a moral quagmire. Is it the white's fault for legalizing and introducing alcohol, or is it the black individual’s fault for drinking to the point of addiction?

Is it the white government's responsibility to create jobs, or is it the black citizen responsible to become an entrepreneur?

Is it the white government's responsibility to deny a citizen’s legal right to buy fast food and cigarettes, or is it the black responsibility to eat a vegetarian diet and go jogging every morning?

Both are right and both are wrong, and the moral arguments go on so much deeper than this.

Some misinformed opinions of white people on black people, yet to be changed by the BLM, include the opinions Aboriginals ‘choose’ to live a life of addiction and dependence. ‘Choose’ high suicide rates. ‘Choose’ domestic violence. And so on.

Miiesha has answered these opinions with the song Blood Cells, featuring Briggs, in which she sings:

Freedom

Don’t just mean you’re given keys

And told you’ve got the right to leave

As Miiesha commented (above), mainstream media portrayals of remote communities are mostly negative. Australia will hear about alcohol abuse, child abuse, and violence (and judge with double standards), before hearing anything about the strides achieved in building community, overcoming mental illness and addictions, or overcoming systematic racism and prejudice.

Miiesha’s grandmother says in Interlude (Hold Strong):

I think we as Aboriginal people we have learned to turn the other cheek. We just, if we get too wrapped up into, into responding to the newspapers and newsfeed. That’s all we’ll ever be doing

Miiesha sings in Hold Strong:

[you talk]… of rope and not of the throats

***

Blame my shadow for stealing the light

Drown the swimmers

Then tell me to

Jump to your side

I Am Only One Person

I am only one person but I know I can open up conversations on BLM topics via Miiesha’s music. Just to start with.

I can make an effort now and then to support an Indigenous-owned business. And actively participate in Reconciliation Week, and other awareness campaigns.

I can listen to my local Aboriginal spokesperson and make my vote count locally and nationally.

Thank you. I hope you now love Miiesha as much as I do. Please give a ❤ for appreciation and share via social media. Follow me for more articles @aujasminewolfe on Twitter.