3% on the importance of community and the great honour of taking the stage at Treaty Day Out 2025.
Taking place on Saturday, 8 February at the Gippsland Sport and Entertainment Park in Morwell, the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria is bringing together a showcase of Indigenous Australian artists and performers for the Treaty Day Out music festival.
Platforming the voices and experiences of Aboriginal Australians, the day of song and spoken voice strives to celebrate First Nations culture within Gunaikurnai Country in southeast Victoria. 2025 marks the fifth Treaty Day Out of the festival series, and continues to bring Aboriginal artists to a wide audience of Blackfellas and non-indigenous Australians alike.
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Moving toward a treaty between First Nations Australians, as original custodians of the land, and contemporary Australian governance remains an ongoing mission for the First People’s Assembly of Victoria.
It is also a key theme at the heart of Indigenous hip-hop group 3%. Comprised of members Nooky, Angus Field, and Dallas Woods, the troupe’s name refers to the proportion of the population comprised of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.
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For Angus Field, who played at the festival last year, Treaty Day Out remains a highlight of his musical career.
“It was such an amazing festival thanks to a couple of things,” he recalls. “For me, it was the biggest crowd I’ve played in front of before – not for the boys, they’ve played much bigger – but also, there was just mob there,” he says.
“The feeling of mob was so great, just the feeling of comfort; our people were there with us. It’s such an amazing festival, an iconic festival. They put on all these Indigenous acts, it brings a lot of the mob together – and people that the young mob might not always get to see.”
This year’s festival sees legendary Indigenous hip hop duo A.B. Original and Troy Cassar-Daley as the headline acts, to whom Angus refers as “iconic Indigenous artists. For me, growing up as a young Blackfella, Troy Cassar-Daley is an idol of mine.”
A key component of last year’s festival, for Angus, was the prominent sense of family and he remains hopeful as to this same feeling again next month. The songs comprising 3%’s set in 2025 firmly revolve around the audience and what they want to hear.
Their performance begins and ends with the community members who will come to see them onstage. “We’re gonna put on the best show that we can for them,” Angus says. “Our performance is all about the inclusion of the mob. We’re there performing to our people and that’s why it’s so great for us and we love the festival so much. We feel so at home.”
The placement of long-running Indigenous acts such as A.B. Original is a strong example of “mob helping out mob” Angus says, giving a platform to important artists who are able to engage with a new generation of audiences. 3% are proud to continue this tradition, spreading the message of Treaty and getting more and more fans involved.
“First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria are doing an awesome job of putting this festival on,” he adds, “bringing the big Indigenous acts that are happening now in Australia so that young mob in Victoria can come and see them.”
The importance of Indigenous exposure and sharing these voices with audiences across Australia is an important part of how 3% came to select the name of their group.
“Aboriginals make up 3% of the Australian population,” he says, “and for us – for what we believe in and for what we write our music about – we thought it was a really fitting name for the messages we’re putting out in our music.”
Topics within 3%’s songs include issues surrounding Aboriginal rights, as well as prominent themes and stories within Aboriginal culture. Their songs also speak to more universal issues such as mental health and overcoming adversity.
Yet, within all of this, the core of their artistic drive is that of Aboriginal people and the experiences of this minority within Australian place and history.
“We thought it was only fitting,” Angus says, “to call it 3%, as no matter how little we are, in the population, we always stand out and we never give up. We always push forward and stand up for our people.”
As much as Treaty Day Out serves as a reminder that Australian land Always Was and Always Will Be, Angus and 3% will continue to sing the song of his people, be that onstage, in the studio, or on the ground among his mob.
For more information or to get your tickets to Treaty Day Out 2025, head here.