‘Mongrel’ and ‘freak’: Singer Mitch Tambo’s brutal reality

Abuse is a fact of daily life for Australian singer Mitch Tambo, who has just released a new single titled Yugul Yulu-gi in Gamiliraay language.

Australian musician Mitch Tambo.

Abuse is a fact of life for singer Mitch Tambo, who says he is called “a mongrel” and “a freak” daily.

The celebrated artist and former Australia’s Got Talent contestant this week felt the weight of the negativity as he released new single Yugul Yulu-gi in his Gamilaraay language.

“It is just another day in my life,” Tambo told Confidential.

“Whether it is Monday, Sunday, it is the Voice or NAIDOC Week or your everyday working week, it doesn’t change anything. It comes consistently my way.

“I basically get pulled apart like I am a mongrel bred dog and everyone wants to know my breed and what is my papers.

Singer Mitch Tambo.

“Us black fellas, for a lot of jobs and things we go for, we actually have to show our papers and those papers are our proof of Aboriginality.

“I understand that but on the flip side, when you are in my position, you are constantly treated like you are at the pound and people want to see your papers of authenticity.”

Tambo was born in Sydney and grew up in Tamworth.

He chooses not to live with anger, or hate.

Tambo gets many comments on his “look”.

He says he is not what people expect.

“If you are not careful, those comments can just take you out,” he said.

“I choose to walk in love. My whole point is to put as much love out there as I can with my music and allow people to feel.

“I want through me rising up and being authentically who I am, I want that to flow through.”

Tambo explained that he doesn’t fit “the look” of what some people might expect.

“Generally I get attacked for my look because I don’t fit the stereotypical look of what a First Nations person should look like or predominantly what has been put in school text books over the course of the last few decades,” he said.

“I predominantly get it handed to me all of the time that I am a freak: ‘What is this white boy doing with a feather on his head?, it is just a joke, it is just a party trick.’

“We are fair-skinned and multi-toned in our skin colour because of the horrific acts against humanity that happened throughout colonisation and the policies in the early days.

“We are also this colour simply because our parents fall in love from different backgrounds and decide to have a child.

“Whatever it is, I feel like it is not about colour, it is about spirit. It is not like I deny my other heritages, it is that I grew up here connected to my beautiful community.

“My purpose and cause in life is to do what I am doing, and that is to share and celebrate our culture and hopefully help others to believe in who they are and where they come from, to stand tall with their shoulders back and for us not to walk in division but to walk in unity together.”