Amnesia Day | Honest Government Ad (Patreon)

Dear Patrons, happy new year and welcome to our first video of 2019 - freshly published this morning! 

This is a topic close to my heart.

As those who watched my end of year video might recall, prior to dedicating myself to the craft of impersonating fuckwitted Governments, I completed a phd in history (Australian colonial history, to be more specific). So as you can imagine, I've been wanting to cover this topic in an Honest Government Ad for some time.

(As always, if you want to skip my long-arsed rant and just want to watch the video, you'll find the links at the bottom. Otherwise, here's some thoughts I wanted to share with you about this video.)

Back in 2012 we produced a classic episode of our previous series, Rap News, on the topic of Australia Day - (I'll share the link below). If you saw it, you'll recognise the character I played in that video, Ken Oathcarn - who makes a brief appearance in this Honest Government Ad. You might also recognise the term "Amnesia Day" - which I came up with in that Rap News episode and decided to re-deploy in this latest HGA.

Anyway, back then when we made that Rap News video, there were ZERO videos on YouTube covering Australia Day from a comedic and critical angle. Well, apart from a couple of videos poking fun at bogans. Meh. That Rap News episode was the first Australia Day video of its kind. Today it's a completely different story: each year there are new videos engaging critically with Australia Day. Which is really promising; it shows that, together with the huge marches on the streets of our capital cities, the cultural tide is slowly but surely changing. 

Sure, as many are pointing out, changing the date by itself will not fix all the problems facing Indigenous Australia.

But why should those two things be mutually exclusive? Surely we can aim to do both. In fact, I reckon they will go hand in hand; coz when a majority of Australia understands that celebrating our national day on January 26 is messed-up, we will also be close to collectively having the level of historical understanding required to meaningfully address the problems facing Indigenous Australia - starting by adopting some, if not all, of the recommendations of the Uluru Statement from the Heart - a brief and eloquent document which I strongly encourage you all to read (I'll post this link below, too).

As I said when we posted the preview: I know some of you will disagree with me on this issue. But that's okay - we don't have to agree on everything (just most things!). And I kinda like knowing that we're not all just engaging in some big groupthink exercise here. So if you're sceptical, I hope you'll indulge us by giving it a listen with an open mind. We made it not because we hate Australia - as some might say. But on the contrary, because we love Australia (and want it to be better).

IN OTHERRRR NEWS:

A warm welcome to the 148 (!) new Patrons who joined us over the new-year period - you've given us an awesome boost to kick off 2019! And to all the legends who supported us in 2018, 2017 (or even 2016!) thank you so much for sticking with us. We couldn't have gotten here without you.

I hope you all managed to have some quality rest time over the xmas and new-year period, and that you're ready for 2019. We sure are, and I can't wait to get stuck into our fuckwitted Government ahead of the upcoming federal election :)

Catch you all for the next video soon!

Giordano + team

THE LINKS: 

- Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BaA0hZ406YY

- Facebook video: https://www.facebook.com/thejuicemedia/videos/312515069377395

- Twitter video: https://twitter.com/i/status/1087183556680400896

- Uluru Statement From The Heart: https://www.commongrace.org.au/the_uluru_statement_from_the_heart

- Rap News: Australia Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRhBRg-XkWY (language warning!)