The hotly anticipated first local season of the hit drag queen competition is missing the mark when it comes to race and representation.
But not everyone's happy with the outcome so far. And like many controversies surrounding pop culture in Australia, many of the criticisms are to do with race.Only the most awarded reality competition series in Emmy history, and dubbed by the New York Times as possibly the "Drag Race has been responsible for taking drag from the fringes to the mainstream, making many see it as a legitimate art form in its own right for the first time.
The show was filmed in January in Auckland in the midst of COVID-19 restrictions. It premiered worldwide in May. "Which is a fast turnaround for Drag Race – and for most reality shows," Richards says.For a country where roughly one in three people aren't Anglo, half are first- or second-generation migrants and one in five speak non-English languages at home – and with one of the most multicultural drag scenes – some felt the casting was … qwhite odd.
"There are so many queer performers of colour throughout Sydney [alone]: Tyra Bankstown and Felicia Foxx are two obvious examples for anybody who has the slightest idea of drag in Sydney." Jojo Zaho left the competition with this message emblazoned her cape: "Always was, always will be [Aboriginal land]."
Tyra Bankstown is a 34-year-old Sydney-based Mangarai First Nations queen who has done drag for 10 years and worked full-time in the scene for five years. As she points out, "There are no Māori queens there – and this is shot in New Zealand. Having [only] one First Nations Australian queen was a bit tokenistic. The cast just isn't really as colourful as I thought it could've been.
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