Check Out Isabella Manfredi's Brilliant 'Keep Sydney Open' Speech

Joining Hoodoo Gurus, Royal Headache and Art Vs Science, who were all present and in support of the event, Isabella Manfredi of The Preatures took to the stage to let rip an absolutely amazing speech about how we're feeling about what's going on at the moment. Check out the full transcript below.

 

You can check out some photos of the rally here.

 

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"Well, I know that there was already an acknowledgment of country over at Belmore Park but I would just like to start by paying respect to the traditional custodians of this land, the people of the Eora nation. To elders past and present, I meet you, I see you, and I extend that respect to any aboriginal people here today. It is a privilege to share this city with you, the city we call ‘our city’, and to have a rally like this on what is and always will be Aboriginal land.

"About 8 years ago I got a call. I’d just finished a long shift at the restaurant I was working at. It was about 1am and it was my best friend telling me to get my arse up to Oxford Art Factory. It had just opened and everyone was there. And by everyone I mean everyone that we knew.

 

"The great thing about OAF was that it took a couple of scenes that were sort of criss-crossed and disparate: the skaters, the street artists up at China Heights, and the post-punk goths, which was me, and gave them a place to converge, to listen to music, to make art, to watch live bands, and that’d really never happened before for us. I started watching bands like The Nevada Strange, The Scare, Mercy Arms, Warhorse, The Atrocities, Dark Bells, Psychonanny and The Babyshakers – and the people I met and these bands told me that I could do that. And I wanted to do that, and I did. I formed a band called The Preatures a couple of years after that and we cut our teeth at venues like Flinders Bar, Q Bar, Spectrum, Oxford Art Factory, Low 302, Club 77, Candy’s Apartment, World Bar, Dean’s at the Cross, and many others. Almost all of these venues are now gone. And the ones that are left are fighting to keep their capacity to put on live music because of these laws.

 

"Now if the wider community, the Daily Telegraph, and the government don’t recognise any of the names of bands and artists and venues that I’m talking about, that’s OK, they’re not supposed to. This was and is my scene. It shaped my identity, it catered to me, my tastes - it told me that I belonged and that I was part of something. I’m talking about a subculture, and the definition of a subculture is that it is not the dominant culture. It’s not mainstream. It is not liked by all.

 

"The most distressing thing about these laws was the way they were implemented with NO consultation of the community. It took a whole lot of venues, small businesses and entrepreneurs young and old and lumped them all together under one culture. And they called that culture Antisocial. You know what I call antisocial? Shutting down neighbourhoods. Shutting down communities. Now we know that these laws are being planned to extend into Newtown, to Marrickville, to Erskineville, to Glebe, to Double Bay. This really is a question of democracy.

 

"At one of the early community panels that included the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing representative Samantha Torres who drew up the legislation, and the Police lobby group ‘Last Drinks’, which had been advocating curfews for 5 years because they were concerned about violence in Kings Cross, they said to me that it wasn’t their job to think about subcultures, it wasn’t their job to consult the community. It was their job to create legislation, and it fell to us to create our own lobby, and voice what we wanted. So here we are. This is our lobby. And it will only grow.

 

"I’d like to share a little story with you. We were in Tassie last night playing a festival and I was watching a friend’s band, a band called Bad//Dreems, and I was thinking about one of the big issues – that unexpressed rage, or inexpressible feeling turned into male violence, male aggression. I was watching these boys take to the stage and it just captured for me the greatness and importance of  music, of starting bands and making art.

 

"They took to the stage and they were like fighters getting ready for war, great athletes preparing for a game, adrenaline pumping, their camaraderie as great or greater than any sporting team. And they get up there and they’re thrashing around – they’re singing and they’re yelling and kicking the monitors, and they’re beating their chests and beating their heads. And then they get off the stage and they’re these gentle, kind, loving, polite young men. And it made me realise that they’re like that off the stage because they can get up and say what’s in their heart. And that is the most important gift we can give young people. Young men, young women, young trans people; any minority is offered a voice through music.

 

"Tyson wanted me to get up today to talk about what it’s like being a young person today in Sydney, a young musician, young creative. To be young. Well it feels like being crushed. While our generation struggles with rising rent and the reality of never owning our own home, increased regulations, the war on noise, our Universities corporatised, our social services cut, we are at once dismissed as lazy, selfish, and entitled. Now our venues and livelihoods are being taken. Did they think we wouldn’t notice? I don’t need to be moralised for wanting my city to feel ALIVE, and I don’t need to be told that my passion for my community is hysterical.

 

"I wonder if the government understands that these laws say to young people:

Your preferences don’t matter

Your expression doesn’t matter

Your places don’t matter

Your music doesn’t matter

Your fun doesn’t matter

Your release doesn’t matter

You don’t matter.

 

"The Preatures have been lucky enough to tour all over the world and together we’ve experienced big cities with 24 hour economies - like Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Austin, and Melbourne. No culture is immune from ugliness. But it should be treated as something we tackle as a community. Where we consult, we debate, where we stand up and say: this what we want and this is what we don’t want.

 

"We do not want violence. For this reason I think it’s more important than ever that we give young people the opportunity to go out and dance. Thank you."