Steven Oliver’s Poem ‘Real’, Tops 2 Million Views. And Then There’s ‘Hate He Said’, About To Nudge Half A Million #changethedate

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We had a strong reaction last week, to this poem from Aboriginal writer and performer Steven Oliver. And so, with that in mind…

Real – a poem about Australian racism – has been going viral for a while, with the NITV footage of the performance from the 2015 NAIDOC Awards now surpassing two million views.

Seems folks can’t get enough of the Cloncurry born Aboriginal writer and performer.

So, with that in mind….

When New Matilda posted the story last week about Real, we were contacted by a reader whose father has memorized a poem he saw performed by Oliver, and delivers every year on January 26.

It’s called ‘Hate, He Said’, and was penned by Oliver to explain another way of thinking about Australia Day celebrations. Its appearance on Kindred Surprizes’ Facebook page has had almost half a million views. Here’s the original version, which appeared on the Brisbane Indigenous Media Association’s Vimeo page.

Writings from the Dark – 1st Night, Hate He Said from BIMA on Vimeo.

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