In an iconic pairing, Briggs and Gumbayyngirr country music legend Troy Cassar-Daley have come together to share some painful history and necessary truth-telling in a new track called Shadows.
Cassar-Daley said that he brought his original track Shadows On The Hill to the rapper with the intention of delivering the song's message to a new generation.
"'Shadows On The Hill' started its song line around a fire on Gumbaynggirr country at our men's camp," Cassar-Daley shared in a media statement.
"There was one powerful moment for all of us when a massacre was mentioned that happened up the river from where we camped... the wind died down, the air around us was still and not one bird sang.
"My old uncle stood up and said, 'Don't be scared the old people know we are here... I believe the old people gave me this song to acknowledge the pain and... to share the truth."
Briggs said he was honoured to have Cassar-Daley bring the song to him to keep the momentum of truth-telling going.
"There was so much depth and this haunting truth that is woven through his words," the Yorta Yorta rapper said.
"As a kid, I'd often remember rumours about what parts of Melbourne were old 'graveyards'. Which I guess is a way to explain a massacre site... for young ears.
"Where the bodies dropped, they built a f**kin' parking lot."
With lyrics that echo Governor Macquarie and his well-documented call to massacre of Dharawal people in 1816, Shadows is a call from Briggs to keep sharing the true history of our country and the well documented 'frontier wars' that took place.
"The first war began in 1788. It had all the symptoms of war. There were opposing nations, a clear objective of taking land, everything in it and the expansion of the Crown. Australia enjoys its cherry-picked history.
"Genocide isn't just rifles. It's in introducing dependency and then removing the care. It's exclusion from the health care system, it's exclusion from the economy and society."
Produced by JayTee Hazard, on hearing the re-imagined track Cassar-Daley said it was 'spine-tingling'.
Shadows will be featured as part of an upcoming 2 part TV series on the ABC called 'Going Country', which explores iconic country music songs and their story.
