American podcast host Joe Rogan has been criticised after he made fun of a song written with Indigenous Australians to raise awareness about substance abuse.
During a discussion with American online commentator Andrew Wilson, Rogan, 59, was told he would ‘laugh himself to death’ over the music.
The track, which the pair played a snippet of during the episode, was created by an educational group run by rock musician Adam Thompson, MusoMagic and Outback Tracks.
The workshop developed the song with Indigenous communities, including children, to address the issue of petrol sniffing – an intoxication that had previously devastated some Aboriginal communities.
‘What I’m about to show you is going to make you laugh to death,’ Wilson told Rogan, before falsely claiming the song was made by the Australian government.
After laughing as the clip was played, Rogan said it was a ‘catchy’ song.
‘Imagine you got that and you think you’re going to fix that problem with a catchy song?’ he added.
Their laughter at the song prompted harsh criticism from Tony Shaw, the director of Indigenous Services Australia.
American podcast host Joe Rogan (pictured) has been criticised after he made fun of a song written with Indigenous Australians
The track, which the pair played a snippet of during the episode, was created by an educational group run by rock musician Adam Thompson
‘Watching grown men sit in a studio thousands of kilometres away, completely ignorant of the context, laughing at those children and turning their efforts into a joke was disgraceful,’ Mr Shaw told news.com.au.
‘Joe, perhaps before ridiculing something like this, it would have been worth finding out what you were actually watching.
‘You have an enormous audience. You could have taken five minutes to learn the story behind what you were watching. Instead, you chose to mock it.’
Mr Shaw said Thompson had worked with children to write lyrics and create the song.
‘In this case, they chose to address petrol sniffing, a very real and devastating issue that has affected many remote Aboriginal communities in Australia,’ he said.
‘If writing and performing a song gives those kids pride, brings them together and plants even one seed that petrol sniffing isn’t something they want for themselves or their friends, that’s a bloody good outcome.’
Petrol sniffing was a serious issue in remote regions during the 2000s but community initiatives and the introduction of low-aromatic Opal fuel have helped significantly reduce its prevalence.
Rogan was introduced to the song by American online commentator Andrew Wilson (pictured)
Thompson highlighted that the song was written with children in Indigenous communities leading the creative process.
‘We sat down with the community, used their own language, and gave them a platform to express things they could do,’ he said.
‘When you have no lived experience, it’s easy for the squeaky wheel majority on the internet to look from the outside and comment on things they know very little about.
‘I don’t come into these communities as an outsider handing down rules – I come as someone who walks alongside them.’
During the podcast episode, Wilson and Rogan compared petrol sniffing to the ‘crack epidemic’ and suggested the Australian government ‘makes deals’ with Aboriginals to give them land.
They also claimed that when young Aboriginal Australians undertake a walkabout rite of passage they ‘go out to the middle of the desert with warm beer’.
