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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-03-06 Daily Xml
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Eurovision Song Contest

The Hon. M. EL DANNAWI (14:28): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Will the minister inform the council about Australia's recently announced representatives at this year's Eurovision Song Contest?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector) (14:28): I thank the honourable member for her question. I have lived my parliamentary life waiting for a question about Eurovision and I am glad our side has provided it. I hope to get more about Eurovision in the future. I think it is safe to say that Eurovision is a highlight on just about everyone's social calendar, particularly since Australia was invited to join the fold in recent years. The contest puts artists from all corners of the artistic spectrum on the international stage, in front of some 180 million viewers worldwide each year.

Australia has been represented by a number of extraordinary artists at Eurovision in the past, household names like Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy. I have been beaming with pride to learn just in the last 24 hours that at the 2024 song contest, to be held in May of this year, Australia will be represented by none other than South Australia's own Electric Fields.

Electric Fields are an electronic music duo comprised of vocalist Zaachariaha Fielding—who hails from Mimili in the APY lands—and keyboardist Michael Ross. The pair have gone from strength to strength over the past decade, winning best New Talent of the Year at the National Indigenous Music Awards in 2017, being nominated for Artist of the Year in the same awards the following year and performing at things such as the 2020 AFL Grand Final and having their song, We the People, be the official song of Sydney's WorldPride in 2023.

The incorporation of Yankunytjatjara language into Electric Fields' songwriting has become a defining feature of their music, and I was delighted to hear they will take to Eurovision a song called One Milkali, which translates loosely to 'one blood', with the song centred on the message of all people being united together as one. Having Aboriginal language up in lights on the world stage will be such a special moment and highlights the importance of valuing and preserving languages.

I have been pleased to inform the chamber in the past about some of the achievements of other Anangu artists such as the hip hop group Dem Mob, who I ran into walking down the street today on the way to parliament, and who are thought to be the first rap group in Pitjantjatjara to have their sound and language taken to music festivals both in the US and Europe. Young and innovative artists like Dem Mob and Electric Fields give us much to be excited about and are extraordinary representatives of not only their local communities but the state and this country. Their efforts to preserve and showcase language are worthy of recognition and praise.

I wish Electric Fields the very best of luck at Eurovision in a couple of months' time. In particular, I wish to say how proud I am of Zaachariaha doing extraordinary things, showcasing culture and language in so many ways—a Wynne art prize awarded visual artist, a vocalist who is going to be capturing the attention of the world. The regular catch-ups with Zaachariaha are an absolute joy to me. I must say, palya wirufrom one very proud kamuru (uncle).

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