In a move that reflects growing concerns with racial insensitivity in the music industry, the record label previously known as ‘One Little Indian’ has undergone a name change. Posting a statement onto the label’s official website yesterday, Co-Founder and Managing Director Derek Birkett announced that, effective immediately, the label would now be known as ‘One Little Independent’ (or as their new Instagram handle now reads, ‘One Little Indie’ for short), as well as pledging to make continuous donations to organisations that aid the welfare of Native Americans.
In the announcement, Birkett said that whilst originally the name had sought to embody his “respect and appreciation of [Native American] culture”, he had recently received an “eye-opening letter from a Crass fan that detailed precisely why the logo and label name are offensive”. Birkett did not relay these details in his own statement, though as the title was lifted from a 19th century minstrel song about “dark-skinned boys … never learning from experience”, and given the word ‘Indian’ was an exonym (and misnomer) White European invaders first applied to Native Americans, it’s easy to see why a term steeped in colonialism’s bloody legacy should be perceived as outdated.
Birkett went on to apologise “unreservedly to anyone that has been offended by the name and the logo”, saying that he “felt equally appalled and grateful” to the person who had made him aware of the name’s implications. It is of course worth noting that these implications have always existed; it is instead the public’s attitude towards testaments of Britain’s colonial history that has changed. When Birkett opened his statement with an acknowledgment that “the last few weeks have been a monumental learning curve”, it is more than likely that he was referring to initiatives such as Blackout Tuesday, as well as an open letter from Black British music executives, that have called for the music industry look inward at its own systemic racism.
One Little Independent’s previous logo.
Along with Sue Birkett and Tim Kelly, Derek Birkett first founded One Little Indian in 1985 as an independent record label based in Balham. One Little Indian arose from the ashes of Spiderleg Records, a short-lived anarcho-punk label that housed Birkett’s own band and partial namesake of Spiderleg’s successor, Flux of Pink Indians. Spiderleg began after the band had gotten to grips with releasing material after putting out their debut EP on the eponymous label run by fellow punk band Crass. Inspired by “the philosophies of the Indigenous People of the Americas”, Birkett and co. melded this outlook to the “DIY principles and anarchistic ideals” of their own punk origins, thus bringing One Little Indian to life. Their willingness to give “complete control to artists [they feel] deserve a shot at a wider audience” has helped enable the careers of Sigur Rós, They Might Be Giants, and most notably Björk.
Read the full statement from One Little Independent here.
