Indigenous Representation at the Eurovision Song Contest: A Quintessentially Australian Identity

Abstract

The inclusion of Australia in the Eurovision Song Contest since 2015 is both novel and geographically controversial. Even more striking is the predominance of Indigenous performers, Jessica Mauboy and Isaiah Firebrace, among Australia's first representatives. The choice of performers by Australia's multicultural broadcaster, SBS, can be perceived as an attempt to present Australia as a modern, multicultural, and postcolonial nation, that has achieved the European goal of "unity through diversity", by choosing Indigenous performers along with those from other minority backgrounds, Guy Sebastian and Dami Im. However, a perception of Indigenous marginality from a predominantly non-Indigenous white mainstream Australian viewpoint may not be an accurate perception of how the European audience view an Indigenous identity. Indigenous musical performers articulate identities that confound the non-Indigenous binaries of traditional and contemporary culture, manifesting a cultural identity that is dynamic, both ancient and modern, and uniquely Australian.