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I AM BOGAN
Last week someone, let’s say a man, on social media called me a bogan. And a cunt. It was meant to shame me. To humiliate me. To put me in my place. To remind me that not only am I a useless woman but I’m also lower class. Uneducated. Unrefined. Crass. Those words are meant to reduce my value. To silence me. Those words are sent as a reminder of my deep unworthiness. Those words are meant to devalue the actual words that I speak. Words are powerful. Ugly words have a violence intended to cause harm. They are arrows layered with meaning. It’s why some words go so deep. They carry with them generations, sometimes centuries of shame. Like poisoned tips. They are words like nigger, wog, spic, poof, spazzo, abbo, retard, hippy, gypsy, loony… those words are meant to keep people down. To seed self-hatred and then inflame it. They are words that remind you that you are NOT privileged. They are words that relegate you to the margins because you DO NOT belong. It is a tiresome exercise to attempt to hurt people with poisonous words. To throw rocks of shame at the heart of another. But even the most well educated persist with name calling. These words must be unpacked. Disempowered. A kind of semiotic disarmament. So lets start with Bogan. We all love calling people bogans. In a politically correct world it seems that bogan is still permissible as a word to diminish people. But should it be? Aren’t we just calling someone working class? Aren’t we just saying someone is lower status than us because they haven’t enjoyed our privilege? The dictionary tells me that a bogan is ‘an uncouth or unsophisticated person regarded as being of low social status.’ Low-status-people tend to be uneducated, from low socioeconomic areas or origins, and as a member of a lower class have none of the refinement of the more privileged. They probably say fuck a lot. I say fuck a lot. They probably speak loudly and don’t have a filter. I speak loudly and don’t have a filter. We all know that low-status people aren’t perceived as valid or as esteemed as high-status people. High-status people come from the upper classes; they have power and privilege. I may well be a bogan. In fact, if we’re throwing around labels, I’m probably a redneck. Sometimes it’s hard to find the right label to diminish yourself with. I grew up in housing commission in a regional town. The holes in our fibro walls were all fist shaped from my alcoholic father. No-one in my family had been past year 10. We lived on welfare. There was no talk of literature in my home. Or classical music. Or art. We didn’t own land. We didn’t have prestigious jobs. My family were tradies. They painted houses. They cut hair. They got drunk and they fought. On pay day they partied until all the pay was gone. They loved footy but they also watched the news. They were staunch Labor voters. My neighbours played Slim Dusty so loud that the Lights Coming over the Hill nearly deafened me. My dad came home drunk and howled along to Chad Morgan’s classic 78 The Sheik from Scrubby Creek. Ironically Chad comes from the same town as me. Growing up I had one brother. And one sister. She’s Indigenous. Is she a bogan too? Another sister came along later who was born in Sri Lanka. Is she bogan? Wow, it’s so easy to reduce people, but so hard to define them… I find books, I start to read. I find life hard, but learning easy. It becomes clear to me at an early age that education and achievement are the way out of my struggle street. And so this bogan working her bogan arse off because no-one was going to rescue me. There were no fancy schools. No trips overseas. No after-school tutoring. No Mummy and Daddy setting me up in my first home. I decide at an early age that if I want anything I have to make it happen. I became a feminist at six when my father died and I vowed to never let a man beat my mother again. A 6-year-old feminist bogan. Probably about the same time I became a cunt. That is, a female person who believes that her life, her voice and her story is equal to that of a man. How dare I. So to all my bogan cunt friends out there, those of us who strolled libraries in our thongs, scared we would never be taken seriously: Take heart. We’re no longer controlled or diminished by your fear and inadequacy. The bogan cunts are coming for you.
32 October 3, 2018 The Byron Shire Echo
MUSIC VANNS Formed in high school in their hometown of Wollongong, The VANNS’ story centres around Jimmy Vann (vocals/guitars) and Lachie Jones (drummer) when they casually threw a band together to enter a competition. Following 2017’s EP Shake The Hand That Starts The Fight, the four-piece are thrilled to announce the brand-new single How Was I Supposed to Know and a string of shows in support of the single. How Was I Supposed to Know is produced by Oscar Dawson (Holy Holy, Ali Barter, Alex Lahey) and showcases the band’s unique rock roaring sound. ‘This song is about the collapse of a relationship and the frustration, confusion and envy that comes along with seeing the other person easily move on while you’re still caught up in what was. “Baby, you don’t feel inside. Can you teach me how to feel how you feel?”’ explains vocalist/guitarist James Vann. When high school finished and members left to pursue other lives, Jimmy and Lachie reached out to bass player and long-term associate Tommy Teiko to complete a tightly wound trio dedicated to developing a sound around their shared love of acts like Cold War Kids, Band of Horses and Jeff Buckley. What followed was a series of two EPs and multiple singles beginning with the self-titled The VANNS in 2013, Scattered by Sundown in 2015 and culminating
with the release of the single Skinny Legs in 2016. While those EPs led to high-profile shows with The Griswolds and being handpicked for national tours with acts like Delta Riggs and Tired Lion, and festival spots at Party in the Paddock, the band really saw a change of fortunes when they enlisted a local guitarist/ songwriter, Cam Little, to try his hand at overdubbing some ideas during the recording process for 2017’s EP Shake the Hand that Starts the Fight. The VANNS at the Hotel Great Northern on Saturday. 9pm. Free
SHOW US YA WILLIE The wait is over! The former Old Crow Medicine Show star Willie Watson is one special cat, an oldtime troubadour of the highest order. His live shows are a journey in the history of folk, country and the blues. One-man band. Voice. Guitar. Banjo. His smokin’ second solo release appropriately titled Folk Singer Vol 2 was released last year and this will be the first time our ears will hear the joy, sadness and tales of these historic tunes. He is joined by Ash Bell and Sara Tindley at Club Mullum at Mullum Ex-Services on Friday 12 October. Tix $38.50, redsquaremusic.com.au.
A NUDGE FOR THE NEIGHBOURHOOD CENTRE October’s Nudge Nudge Wink Wink is all about raising money for local not-for-profit Mullumbimby & District Neighbourhood Centre’s More Than a Meal program, which produces an average of 45–50 meals per day, with some days as high as 75–80, equalling over 13,000 meals a year. October’s DJs bring soul-tisfying satisfaction to every set they plate up! Sunday’s first course starts with DJ Bango, a now Byron Bay-based DJ, journalist and radio programmer. Originally from Rhodesia, Bango launched his music career in London, ramped it up in Sydney, is featured at world-renowned festivals, and is now based locally doing what he loves for all of us – cooking up incredible music every set! Wetting your tastebuds for the second and fourth courses are the delectable Cunning Stunts resident DJs Lord Sut and Dale Stephen, who will be serving soul-satiating delights across multiple genres to whet your whistle and titillate your toes as you dine on their tunes. In between is the main course curated by Stephen Allkins, celebrating his 40 years in the industry; his special twohour set is guaranteed to be a culinary sensation for the senses! Sunday at Billinudgel Hotel at 2–9.30pm. cunning stunts.com.au.
BUNNY ROCK Get the kids rocking their nappies into the next gen with Bunny Racket. Pure rock’n’roll awesomeness delivered by the ‘Motorhead of children’s music!’ Forget everything that you thought you knew about entertainment for the kiddies. Bunny Racket are reshaping the way that children and their parents relate to music and each other. The new album, BunnyRumble, was recorded in Los Angeles with Brant Bjork (Kyuss) and Robby Krieger (The Doors) and has just been released on Spotify. Family car trips will never be the same again. That’s right! This band of bunnies deliver real music for people who care about such things! This Sunday in Byron Bay, it’ll be loud. It’ll be exciting. It will be the best rock show that you have ever been to before lunchtime! Like a cross between Sesame St and MTV, the pilot episodes of the upcoming Bunny Racket series will be shown on the big screen before the band takes to the stage. Get in early for tickets through www.byroncentre.com. au and don’t miss the show that every kid in town will be talking about! You bring the kids. Bunny Racket will bring the ROCK! Sunday at the Byron Theatre at 11am. $20. Tix at byroncentre.com.
Byron Shire Echo archives: www.echo.net.au/byron-echo