“Disenfranchised” mallrats need the support of Geelong’s “caring community”, according to a City Hall manager.
Brett Luxford was responding to widespread criticism of Geelong’s council this week for funding a rap song defending young people frequenting the mall as victims of “broken homes”.
City Hall and state body Creative Victoria provided almost $25,000 for a video of the Mallrats song and two others in a project to inspire new perceptions of Geelong.
Mallrats was popular with viewers on YouTube but news reports prompted a public backlash, with many social media users slamming the council for funding the video and others accusing the content of glorifying anti-social behaviour.
A lesser number of comments supported council and the video for addressing issues confronting some youths in the Lt Malop St mall.
The video and backlash made national headlines, including TV news interviews of people in the mall criticising the area and other users for bad behaviour.
Mallrats was part of the Connecting Songs project to help people “think about Geelong and our region in a different way”, Mr Luxford said.
“The Mallrats song is a really good way of getting people to engage with the mall and think about the space. It encourages us to think about some of the challenges the people who occupy some of our streets face,” Mr Luxford said.
“The song helps us to understand that some of the people who use the mall are marginalised and need our support.
“They are disenfranchised people who are part of our community, and we need to do everything we can to include them in our community.
“We are a caring community.”
The Connecting Songs project responsible for Mallrats did “a great job in getting people to think and talk” about central Geelong’s “possibilities”, Mr Luxford said.
Geelong musician Shaun Fogarty created Mallrats under rap name Fatty Phew.
The song includes the lyrics, ‘You find us lurkin’ the streets and sittin’ on benches, face from the papers, our names scribbled on fences … Stop seein’ us as a problem, and start helpin’ with ours’.
