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Rapping out dreamtime stories: a new outlet for Australian Aboriginal youth

Mark Rickards explores 'desert rap', a new form of music created by the Australian Aboriginal community. From 2011.

Rapping out dreamtime stories: a new outlet for Australian Aboriginal youth.
For years the Australian Aboriginal community have struggled to be heard. But as Mark Rickards discovers, today the youth have found a new voice through music and 'desert rap'.

Speaking to the first rappers to use their own Aboriginal language, Mark Rickards finds that the traditions of dreamtime storytelling have been reinvigorated by rap music. Although the style originated in the USA, Aboriginal youth have adapted it to suit their own needs. It can be used to tell the stories of life in the outback or life in the city, and to represent the often unheard voices of the Aboriginal people.

Mark visits an Aboriginal radio station which has helped bring indigenous rap to a wider audience, and looks at the challenges of getting mainstream recognition.

Today younger rappers are talking about a brighter future for the Aboriginal people, and their music shows hopeful signs for the gradual evolution of Australia itself.

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2011.

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