Miss Kaninna: ‘It's Our Responsibility To Keep The Door Open For The Next Generation’

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you that a lot can happen in 16 months. For Miss Kaninna, a proud Yorta Yorta, Dja Dja Wurrung, Kalkadoon, and Yirendali woman and Naarm/Melbourne-based artist, she knows that better than anyone.

After all, it was only in May of last year that she released her debut single Blak Britney, and since then, the metaphorical floodgates of her career have burst wide open. Amongst numerous singles, international trips, global acclaim, and plenty of live appearances, she’s also been preparing the release of her debut EP. 

Of course, one could easily forgive the immensely talented artist if she neglects to take the time to look out for herself amid the hectic nature of her hustle.

“It was only about four days ago that I actually had a whole day where I said, ‘Okay, this whole day is going to be about me’,” she recalls via Zoom. “I went and got a massage, I went and got a facial, and all that sort of thing. 

“It’s few and far in between where I get to just spend days doing like regular stuff, but it's good,” she adds. “I enjoy being busy and it just means that the busier I am, the more money goes in the pocket.”

For Miss Kaninna, the bulk of her focus lately has been on the release of her debut EP, KANINNA, which releases today. It’s been a long time coming, and while she admits she’s not yet had the time to reflect on the hard work she’s put into it, she is feeling the palpable excitement of such a record.

After all, it was late last year in which she spoke to The Music, noting that in the aftermath of singles such as Blak Britney and Pinnacle Bitch, she hoped that her debut EP would see audiences treat her as a true artist, rather than lazily relegating her to the catch-all term of hip hop.

Since then, audiences have had a greater chance to preview the work she’s done, with tracks like Dawg In Me and the decidedly more pop-focused Push Up showcasing her versatility.

“I've never really associated myself as being a hip hop artist,” she admits. “I feel like I’m a guest in hip hop when I do jump into those genres.

“I just see myself as an artist, but for other people… I mean, racism comes into it as well – people look at me and they see an Indigenous girl and they're like, ‘Oh, put her in the hip hop box’. Hip hop is such an umbrella of music and has paved the way for so many, so I appreciate that.

“I feel like people are now kind of catching on that I don't want to be boxed in and that just labelling me as a hip hop artist doesn't really fit,” she adds. “It's been nice to be recognised the way that I've been seeing myself.”

Anyone who listens to the KANINNA EP will certainly see the scope of Miss Kaninna’s artistry. Among the previously-released singles, there’s also some more sonic left-turns by the way of the infectiously-bouncy Kush, or the Middle Eastern-influenced Friends. Working with producer Jacob Farah (aka YAOB), she’s managed to set herself up as a musician unafraid to try new things, open to adopting new approaches, and simply eager to try and create something entirely singular.

“I'm still figuring it out,” she says of the music-making process. “I feel like because I'm such a new artist and I've only really been doing music for the last couple of years, I haven't really found one particular method of writing music that works.

“I just like to do all different types of cool shit.”

The aforementioned cool shit also extends to the live stage, with Miss Kaninna taking her music around the country with a trio of headline shows this November. As a testament to her success, the Dawg In Me Tour sold out its pre-sale tickets within 24 hours, indicating that fans are excited about seeing her debut headline tour in action. For the artist behind it all, it’s a surreal moment.

“I'm just so grateful that I have the opportunity and have the privilege to be able to tour in the first year of releasing music,” she says. “Not a lot of artists get that, but I think it's because I came up through the live music scene and I love performing live, so it's only natural to be able to put on a headline show.

“I've been opening for other people, I've been on festival lineups for the last two years, and I feel like it's just an organic step forward, but it's very nerve-wracking,” she adds. “I'm very nervous for the tour because the attention will be solely on me rather than sharing the lineup with other people.”

Nerves aside, the excitement appears to be overflowing, especially when it comes down to the scope of the show, and the fact that audiences will get a chance to hear some music which likely won’t make it out of these upcoming shows.

“We've got some incredible Black and POC artists opening up for me, we have a whole band as well, and I'll be playing some older stuff that probably will never be released,” she reveals. “It's like my little baby.”

When discussing Miss Kaninna’s success, it’s hard not to be drawn to the fact that she’s succeeding in a music industry which has typically been blind to the successes of not just Black artists on the whole, but Black women as well. With her swift rise turning heads and garnering so many impressive accolades, she’s been at the forefront of contemporary musical conversations, and has been described by some as an inspiration.

Miss Kaninna, however, isn’t viewing what she’s doing as particularly inspirational. Rather, the wider community is long overdue to listen to what Black artists are saying.

“I think it's about damn time that people start listening to shit like this,” she says. “What I'm saying isn’t new, I’m not coming up with new ideas, I'm not saying anything that's fucking new. Everything that I'm saying has been said since you know colonisation; ‘We want our fucking land back.’

“It's only been because of the artists before me and because of my family before me who have paved the way for us and have dealt with so much anti-blackness that now we're coming to a society where it's, you can no longer ignore it,” she adds. “It's not as though white people have become more accepting, it's that Black people have just like worked so fucking hard that it's just in their faces too much to ignore.

“I'm really grateful for the artists before me; Warumpi Band, Aunty Emma Donovan, Aunty Ruby Hunter, Uncle Archie Roach, and Barkaa even,” she continues. “There’s all these incredible, massive artists who have really kicked down the door for us, so it's our responsibility to keep the door open for the next generation.”

As part of her rising profile, Miss Kaninna even found herself in the US earlier this year, performing in Austin, Texas as part of the annual South By Southwest event. While America has itself had its fair share of an embarrassing history when it comes to their treatment of both Native Americans and African-Americans, discussions were had about how to broach the topics of Indigenous Australians to an American audience. 

“Here in so-called Australia, the message hits home because they know the history, they know the oppression that my people have been through and they live amongst it every single day,” she explains. “It's easier to speak about those things because there have been people before me.

“In America, some of these people have never heard of Aboriginal people before, or their only real understanding of Aboriginal people is that we're the black community from here.”

Though it was initially difficult to find a balance between sharing both her music and her message in the allotted time, the result was the receipt of a lot more respect than would be experienced in Australia.

“How the fuck do you tell people about 250-something years of oppression in half an hour?” she asks. “At the start, I realised I was losing people pretty easily because it was just a lot to take in, but I found a really good in-between.

“I feel like Aboriginal people are always talking about our deficits and how difficult it is, but rarely do we get to speak on the beauty of our culture,” she continues. “We are such a loving culture, we are such an embracive culture, we are so caring, and I feel like that gets lost because people are so focused on he trauma or the fucked up shit that's going on in our communities.

“So I wanted to share with people that we are so staunch, we are so caring, and I wanted to let them into my community and understand the beautiful things and that balance between trauma and beauty.”

Miss Kaninna’s ability to blend the trauma and the beauty within her message to an international audience is just another one of the many successes she’s experienced over these past 18 months.

Alongside the likes of winning the title of triple j’s Unearthed Artist of the Year for 2023, she’s received three nominations at the Music Victoria Awards (including Best Song or Track for this year’s awards), and – just this week – a nomination for The Corner Hotel’s Corner Award alongside names such as KAIIT, Agung Mango, Grace Cummings, and more.

“It's nice to be recognized for your hard work,” she explains. “I feel like people really don't understand all the hard work that goes into releasing music. It's a whole fucking thing in itself, and for Aboriginal people – and especially for Aboriginal women – we have to work harder than anybody else and that's just a fact.

“To have people recognise that hard work is really great,” she adds, “But honestly I'm very grateful to even be nominated and be put up against incredible artists like KAIIT.”

Even with so many nominations and opportunities that have been coming her way, nothing compares to the recent shout-out from US music icon Kelis during her recent BIGSOUND appearance. 

“It was such a fucking ‘pinch me’ moment,” she explains. ”Some of my earliest understandings of who I am and what I wanted to be was listening to Milkshake, to Bossy, and to all of her music.

“Actually having the opportunity to meet her, connect with her, and talk to her about her music and how she was able to combat the industry was just so grounding and inspirational, and it made me feel like I was on the right path.”

While these past 16 months have been some of the busiest in Miss Kaninna’s entire life, it goes without saying that it’s been worth it. The massive rise, the constant acclaim, and now the new KANINNA EP are all just parts of the process, with a headline tour and a spot on the final Bluesfest lineup still to come.

She’s not eager to rest on her laurels, though. The validation from audiences has been immense, and with another new EP “pretty much” already written, she plans to keep sharing her music and message while fulfilling her lifelong dreams.

“Before I started music, I had a lot of self doubt and thought, ‘I'm not gonna make anything of myself, and I probably won't do very well in the industry,” she explains.

“I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self; ‘You can do it, and all this other noise, all this other racism and bullying, and all that shit doesn't matter because you're going to be able to fulfil your dreams.’”

Miss Kaninna’s KANINNA EP is out now on streaming services, while tickets to her upcoming tour are on sale now.