North Queensland-bred, Brisbane-based rock outfit The Medics will release a free single, Wake Up, on 26 January in an effort to raise awareness about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, perspectives and history — particularly with respect to the effects of colonisation — among the wider population.
"For the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this country, Australia Day is not a day of celebration; it is a day of mourning as the rest of the country gathers together to commemorate colonisation," frontman and songwriter Kahl Wallis explained in a statement. "But, for us, the 26th of January is a day of sadness, grief and, most importantly, a day of remembrance. It is a sacred day for our people to pay respect to those we lost and to support our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer now."
"The time has come for us as a country to wake up to our history," he continued. "The time has come for us as a country to heal and move forward. The time has come for us to change this date."
The track came to life at Byron Bay's 301 late last year, produced by Carlo Santone (Blue King Brown/One Rebel Creative) and engineered/mixed — somewhat fittingly — by Nick Didia (Rage Against The Machine, among others). Although it's still a few days off official release, you can catch a snippet in this teaser clip The Medics posted to Facebook early this week, and it's easy to tell even from the short piece of footage that the band's statement of intent is a sincere one.
The Medics will release Wake Up via SoundCloud this Monday, 26 January. You can have a preview look at the 2D, few-hundred-pixel version of the single's artwork now:
Read Kahl Wallace's full statement about the release of Wake Up, and the significance of Survival Day below.
"For the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of this country, Australia Day is not a day of celebration; it is a day of mourning. As the rest of the country gathers together they commemorate colonisation. But for us the 26th of January is a day of sadness, grief, and most importantly, a day of remembrance. It is a sacred day for our people to pay respect to those we lost and to support our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer now.
It is also a day to march and honour our survival.
We march for those who lived.
We march for those who triumphed.
We march for those who fought fiercely to pass on our culture and our stories.
We march in honour of our ancestors and in reverence of our dreamtime.
And we march for a better Australia.
An Australia that is compassionate to all who live here now and respectful to all who came before.
The time has come for us as a country to WAKE UP to our history.
The time has come for us as a country to heal and move forward.
The time has come for us to change this date."
Story amended at 2:45pm.
