Bad smoke: Artists take a stand against tobacco industry

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists and young leaders have launched a national creative campaign challenging the Tobacco and Nicotine Industry, unveiling a new anthem of resistance titled Voices of Resistance.

Released as the centrepiece of Warraay Puthu (Bad Smoke in Ngiyampaa), the track is positioned as a unified call to action that insists “a line has been drawn.”

The campaign highlights historical and systemic exploitation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities by the Tobacco Industry and urges communities to “stand up and demand the end to the harms” attributed to it.

Key Points

Written and filmed on the lands of the Gadigal and Bidjigal people, the project is described as anchored in culture and driven by creativity and truth-telling. Warraay Puthu is presented as a youth-driven creative movement grounded in sovereignty, storytelling and truth-telling, transforming individual voices into a united vision for change.

Collaborative creation across communities

Young leaders and Tackling Indigenous Smoking (TIS) program workers from Cairns, Geraldton, Torres Strait, Perth, Coffs Harbour, Brisbane, Canberra and La Perouse collaborated with health leaders and artists Nooky, Soju Gang, RIAH, Fred Leone and Dallas Woods to write, record and film Voices of Resistance and build the broader campaign.

ARIA winning rapper and proud Yuin and Thungutti man, Nooky (Corey Webster), fronts the campaign alongside other Aboriginal powerhouse musicians for the song Voices of Resistance.

“Tobacco and vaping were never meant to be in our communities.”

— Nooky

Nooky said the impacts have been devastating and called for their removal from communities. He also underscored the human toll, stating that one in three Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are dying from tobacco-related diseases, and warned the damage is visible in lost knowledge, language and culture. He further noted that tobacco “was introduced as a way of control, and through rations and payments until the 1960s,” and that communities are still paying the price.

Lyrics, cultural grounding and a call to ancestors

Voices of Resistance includes pointed lyrics calling out those profiting from harm, encouraging smokers who want to quit to seek help, and challenging everyday normalisation of tobacco. The track features respected Butchulla Songman Fred Leone, who sings in language calling on ancestors to stand up and rise up. He said the song highlights what he views as a systematic pattern of targeting by an industry he characterises as being built on disease and death for profit.

“It is time to stamp it out,”

— Fred Leone

Associate Professor Raglan Maddox (Bagumani (Modewa) Clans, Papua New Guinea), lead of the Yardhura Walani Tobacco Free Program at the Australian National University (ANU), said the evidence was overwhelming. He questioned the continued widespread availability of tobacco despite decades of knowledge about its harms.

According to Dr Maddox, the song and campaign emerged from conversations with young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health leaders who are asking why communities continue to be blamed for smoking and vaping, while the role of the commercial Tobacco and Nicotine Industry in targeting and sustaining addiction is largely overlooked.

He described Warraay Puthu as a call for structural reform to protect current and future generations. With nearly half of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples under the age of 25, he emphasised the critical opportunity to prevent uptake and move toward ending health, social and cultural harms linked to tobacco and nicotine.

Youth-led design and campaign art

Naarm-based leader, DJ and proud Wiradjuri, Gunnai/Kurnai & Yorta Yorta woman, Soju Gang (Sky Thomas), said youth leadership is central, noting that many programmes are designed externally and expect young people to opt in. In this case, she said it has been created by young mob first, with the programme built around their work.

The campaign name, Warraay Puthu (Bad Smoke in Ngiyampaa), draws from the accompanying artwork by Wiradjuri and Ngiyampaa visual artist Matthew “Melnunnie” Brettschneider, from far Western New South Wales, now living on Bidjigal land in Maroubra. The artwork employs symbols to communicate the benefits of tobacco and nicotine-free communities, including:

• A Fist for resistance, Blak power and Blak excellence
• A Heart with healthy heartbeats for a healthy body and mind
• Young people connecting to Ancestors in the stars
• Country, and being healthy to go out and connect with Country
• Culture, and the importance of using art and Culture to heal and connect back to Country
• Strong Community, coming together as one to stand firm against the commercial Tobacco Industry