Seventeenth International Conference on the Arts in Society

Abstract

This workshop explores the role of Hip Hop for building the political voice of young South Sudanese Australians to resist Australian Whiteness discourse. It draws evidence from 35 interviews, artefacts and a youth participatory action research project facilitated by a small non-profit organisation, Footprints. Findings suggest that participants reject any goal or focus on ‘fitting in’, and instead together we developed the notion of being ‘born to stand out’. South Sudanese Australian Hip Hop artists actively define their diaspora identities in resistance to the backdrop of harmful political agendas relating to their presence. Through the topic ‘born to stand out’ artivists are carving out space in the face of Australian Whiteness discourse and essentially create their own lane or alternative subcultures. Through the lens of new social movements and critical race theory, this research complements recent scholarly work in Australian and international youth development studies by further incorporating race and ethnicity as a central theme. It does so by exploring how the political voice of this group of young South Sudanese Australians manifests in important new ways that conventional theories of activism and resistance may not capture. Findings point to the necessity to further explore racialisation discourses through the ways in which young people re-frame and assert their multiple identities through their Blackness; pride in culture and establish themselves as social agents in the world. Through a consciousness-raising journey utilising Critical Hip Hop Pedagogy, this challenges the perception that young South Sudanese Australians remain apathetic to issues surrounding their communities.