arts yarn up - autumn 2012

Autumn 2012 • ISSN 1442 5351 KEEPING CULTURE STRONG

2 Autumn 2012Arts Yarn Up

The Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body. For comments or submissions to Arts Yarn Up: The editor, Arts Yarn Up AustraliaCouncil for the Arts, 372 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010, email [email protected] or phone 02 9215 9000. © Australia Council 2012 This work is copyright.Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, all rights are expressly reserved. ISSN 1442-5351. The Australia Council respects Indigenous communities andculture. Readers should be aware that this publication may contain images or references to members of the Indigenous community who have passed away. Cover: Warren H Williams. Photo: Karen Steains.

Editorial

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to: S

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ence.SHAPING THE FUTURE TO KEEP CULTURE STRONG

To all arts workers, practitioners and cultural keepers – I wish you a positive future and hope that the Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander Arts Board and Division continuethe great legacy of providing support, career paths andacknowledgments of all our creative endeavours.

Sadly, my term as Chair has now expired. I hope that Ihave left something that future Board members, staff andthe Australia Council, and the Federal Government, canaspire to continue. One important achievement to note isthe inherited legacy, from all previous Chairs and Boardmembers, that has delivered a fair and accountablefunding process since the Board’s inception in 1973. Ourcountry is much the richer when we see the significantrole that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts rightfullyclaim in the Australian landscape.

One of my passions has been the elevation and profilingof the role of our Law and Cultural Bosses. They haveassisted all of us in our identity, our wellbeing, ourspirituality and our place within Australia. Theirempowerment is vital to our future concrete existence – if we fail to recognise and understand this, we are lost.The old assimilation policies will have won over ourculture, resulting in the loss of the pure form of our ancientexistence forever. Our art, in whatever medium or form,has its Dreaming, its roots and its spirit wrapped in ouressence of being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. Wemust remain united, strong, and carry forward into thefuture the quality and soul of who we are. We do thisthrough the arts, including law and culture, for thebetterment and enrichment of ourselves, our inheritance,our future and our country.

To those non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoplewho engage with, work with, and support Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander artists and practitioners inadministrative, creative and reconciliatory roles – I thankyou on behalf of all our people. Your support, contributionand guidance assist us all collectively to be so muchricher. Your genuine love of our country and its ancientcultures – along with your own diversity, history, originsand cultures – makes our country a greater place in which to live.

With my wife Tania, I send a big thank you to everyonewho has supported me, believed in me and trusted me. I look forward to bumping into you somewherethroughout Australia as I assist Mary G with her luggage in continuous journeys.

I am honoured to have served as Chair, in the footsteps ofa long line of decision-makers since the 1970s whoshaped the national landscape for Indigenous arts. I knowthat we in turn have shaped the future landscape for thenext generation.

I hope our identity, cultures, languages, dances andceremonies will not be neglected like the ancient rock artsof the Pilbara. I am excited for the next generation ofleadership for the Board. In closing, I would like to thankour entire arts community for their vision, passion andcommitment to keeping culture strong.

Dr Mark Bin BakarChair, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board

‘I am honoured to haveserved as Chair, in thefootsteps of a long line of decision-makers sincethe 1970s who shapedthe national landscape for Indigenous arts.’

Held every four years since its inception in 1972,FOPA brings together 2,500 performers, artists andcultural practitioners from 27 countries and

territories across the Pacific region.FOPA offers Indigenous peoples the opportunity to

share customary practices in dance, music, food andcrafts. The festival bridges the gap between traditionaland contemporary cultural expression, while revitalisingand reflecting on traditional arts and culture.

FOPA 2012 will be the largest event ever hosted in theSolomon Islands, which received the festival flag duringthe 10th festival, hosted by American Samoa in 2008.

The 2012 program includes traditional andcontemporary visual and performing art: music, dance,oratory and storytelling, theatre, film, handicrafts, literature,tattooing, fire walking, culinary arts, fashion, photographyand traditional healing.

Australia will send a 76-strong delegation to FOPA2012, to be held in the Solomon Islands’ capital Honiara.

The curatorial team behind the Australian delegation isQueensland Theatre Company’s Wesley Enoch; visualartist and ProppaNow co-founder, Vernon Ah Kee;independent choreographer Marilyn Miller; and creativedirector of the Queensland State Library’s kuril dhagunIndigenous Knowledge Centre, Nadine MacDonald Dowd.

FOPA 2012’s theme, ‘Culture in Harmony withNature’, recognises both the traditional link betweenIndigenous cultures and the natural world, and themodern day threats posed by climate change, naturaldisasters and rising sea levels.

‘FOPA is a hugely significant event for Indigenouspeoples both here and throughout the region,’ saidVernon Ah Kee. ‘It’s more than an artistic and culturalexchange between individuals: it’s a social and politicalexchange between peoples.

‘The Australian delegation will be strong and diverse.The nature of the festival lends itself to performance butwe are taking a strong delegation that also includes visualartists, writers, singers and musicians.’

The interaction between delegations, as they explorelinks and differences between traditional andcontemporary culture, may be the highlight of FOPA 2012.

‘We value our traditional culture but we’re not limitedby it. Australia is a first-world country and most of us livetechnological lives – our art demonstrates that realityalongside our traditional roots,’ said Vernon.

This year FOPA will reach a much wider audiencethan ever before, thanks to an innovative online strategyincluding digital storytelling.

Fellow member of the curatorial team,Nadine McDonald-Dowd, said that the Australiandelegation is using technology to open up FOPA to online audiences.

‘We have a team creating digital stories so that peoplewho can’t be in Honiara can still participate in the festival,’she said. ‘A dedicated blogger will also travel with us,uploading podcasts, interviews and images from FOPA towww.fopa.australiacouncil.gov.au.’

Nadine said highlights of the Australian delegationinclude ‘great new dancers and choreographers who arepushing into new areas and combining traditional dancewith contemporary styles’.

FOPA was conceived at a 1969 Conference of thePacific Community with the aim of supporting themaintenance of traditional practices. FOPA’s aims havebroadened to include building solidarity and pride acrossthe region, and bridging the gap between traditional andcontemporary cultural expression.

Vernon believes FOPA should receive much greaterrecognition. ‘This is our region and we need to engagemore, not just between nations but within nations,including significant communities from around the Pacific,living in Australia.’

Images of two of the 76-member Australian delegation to FOPA 2012. Above left: The Chooky Dancers from Elcho Island.Photo: courtesy of Joshua Bond.Above right: Sharon Phineasa. Photo: Amily Phimeasa.


www.festival-pacific-arts.org.sb

Thousands of artists and performers will gather in the Solomon Islands from 1-14 July 2012 for thePacific’s largest, most colourful and dynamic cultural event: the Festival of Pacific Arts (FOPA).

11th Festival of Pacific Arts:Traditional meets contemporary

The Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Arts Board is proud to present this year’s Red Ochre Award to Western Aranda country music

singer and songwriter Warren H Williams for his outstandingcontribution to the music industry.

After learning of his award Warren was ‘in disbelief’. He said it was incredible to be considered in the company of big names like Jimmy Chi, Bob Maza and Uncle Jimmy Little.

‘Now I feel like I’m right in the middle of the countrymusic scene – I’m inside looking out,’ Warren says. ‘It’s agreat achievement to receive this award. I hope it helpsmake it easier for the younger people from the bush tofollow in my footsteps.’

Warren has been a professional musician for the past 20years but says his whole life has been all about music. Hisfirst musical experiences were with his parents living in theNtaria community (formerly Hermannsburg) in the NorthernTerritory, where the whole family would sing.

‘We used to go to a sing-song in the Palm Valley in theFinke River Bed with the community, and mum and dadwould sing for the tourists. I must have been about four orfive years old,’ Warren said.

Warren’s father was his biggest inspiration when it cameto his music, and he feels a lingering sadness from his dad’spassing in 2010. In the late 60s and early 70s, his dad wasin a band called the Western Aranda Band, with some of thelocal men. They would tour through the communities andinfluenced many others to form their own community bands.

Warren was only six years old when he started learningthe guitar and, with his dad’s encouragement, learnt all theband’s instruments. Later, if some of the members of hisdad’s band didn’t turn up, Warren would step in and playthe missing instruments.

To date, Warren has released eight albums. His latestoffering is a move away from country music to a languagealbum Winanjjara, or ‘song man’ in Warumungu language. Itwas recorded with the song men of Tennant Creek andsung in two of his maternal ancestor’s languages:Warumungu and Western Aranda. The project saw himwork with family members from Tennant Creek.

His first solo album, Western Wind, was released in1995. It was followed by Country Friends and Me (1996),Where My Heart Is (2001), Places in Between (2002), Be Like Home (2005), Looking Out (2009) and Urna Marra (2011).

Many of his songs are about his Western Arandacountry, west of Alice Springs in Central Australia.

‘I love my country, because that’s where I’m from andwho I am. I feel really, really free when I’m on country,’ saidWarren.

And it loves him back. His favourite song is ‘WesternWind’, from his first album of the same name. It’s the firstsong he ever wrote.

‘When I finished that song, I thought, “I can actually writea song”. It was my first attempt because I’d played music all

the time and had a lot of tunes. Then someone said “whydon’t you put words to your instrumentals?” So I went outbush and was sitting at home and the country inspired meto write about it,’ Warren said.

Now he writes easily because he’s always playing music.He will write a whole album in a day and each song willsound different, creating a natural ebb and flow that’s so vitalfor a story and an album. The best environment is usually athome, with the whole family around, or sometimes on theroad where he sees new things all the time.

The turning point for Warren’s success came when hesang country music singer-songwriter John Williamson’s‘Raining On The Rock’.

‘Suddenly it took me from just being an Aboriginal in acommunity to being a singer who people know and nowrecognise.’

He met John while broadcasting remotely at Ntaria,through the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association(CAAMA) in Alice Springs. At the time he used to play all the


Red Ochre Award for Warren H WilliamsA life in music acknowledged.


THE RED OCHRE AWARDThe annual Red Ochre Award pays tribute toIndigenous artists for outstanding, lifelongcontributions to Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander arts at home and abroad.

Red Ochre Winners 1993-20112011 Archie Roach2010 Michael Leslie2009 Gawirrin Gumana 2008 Doris Pilkington Garimara2006 Tom E. Lewis2005 Seaman Dan2004 John Bulunbulun2003 Jimmy Little2002 Dorothy Peters2001 Banduk Marika2000 Mervyn Bishop1999 Justine Saunders1998 Bob Maza1997 Jimmy Chi1996 Maureen Watson1995 Rita Mills1994 Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri 1993 Eva Johnson

country music artists from mixed-track cassette tapes.Graham Archer, a fellow worker from CAAMA, asked him ifhe’d like to cover John’s song ‘Raining On The Rock’.Warren’s first reaction was to reject the offer but, as he sangit, he started to identify with the track.

‘It was written about my country. The rock is blackpeople’s country.’

The relationship with John was formed, and the pairremains the only act to receive a standing ovation at theTamworth Country Music Festival awards. Their duetbecame an anthem for reconciliation across Australia.

After that, Warren’s career took off and some of his bestexperiences were on tour. In the late 90s he borrowed hisdad’s 4WD champagne-coloured Pajero, attached a trailer,and took his three cousins on a round trip from AliceSprings to Cape York, via Cairns, Doomadgee, Arakoon,Bamaga and Hopevale.

He didn’t think the little car would make it, with a splitpetrol tank held together by a belt for most of the trip home.

‘People accepted us up that way. They really enjoyed usplaying music for them. It was just so good to be on theroad and meeting so many people.’

He says he didn’t realise he had so many followers untila US tour to St Louis and Springfield in 2000. ‘It wasamazing that the American people were so interested in meand my culture,’ he said.

With his Red Ochre prize money, Warren plans to go tothe country music capital of Nashville (USA) to create analbum. He hopes to meet some of the people who haveinspired his music—people such as Ronnie Milsap, Dolly Parton and George Strait—and connect with industryfriends he has met over the years.

‘Country music is about singing about home or a place,’Warren said. ‘It’s not about loss or losing anything as somepeople say. It’s about gaining your love for a place.’

Above: Warren H Williams.Photo: Karen Steains.

‘I love my country,because that’s where I’m from and who I am. I feel really, really freewhen I’m on country.’


Dreaming Award for Nakkiah LuiYoung playwright to work with mentor on new script.

Emerging playwright Nakkiah Lui has been awarded theinaugural Dreaming Award by the Australia Council’sAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board.

A 25-year-old Gamilaroi and Torres Strait Islanderwoman who grew up in the Sydney suburb of MountDruitt, Nakkiah Lui exudes enthusiasm about her workand future career.

‘I’m really excited about receiving the Dreaming Award– especially in its first year,’ Nakkiah said.

The award comes with a prize of $20,000, whichNakkiah will use to create a major body of work with hermentor – director and dramaturg Andrea James. Nakkiahis currently a resident playwright at the Belvoir St Theatrein Sydney. The award will allow her to continue her workwith Belvoir and to write a new play that will have aprofessionally-read staging in 2013.

Nakkiah fell into being a playwright. She was involvedin theatre from a young age as an actor and alwayspreferred to write her own scripts.

Nakkiah sees playwriting as storytelling and pursued iteven when she went overseas as an InternationalBaccalaureate student at the United World College onVancouver Island in Canada.

‘I wrote my first play there because I wanted to sharemy culture with this international community,’ she said.

That first show was called Proud. It was influenced byLeah Purcell’s Box the Pony, and Wesley Enoch andDeborah Mailman’s 7 Stages of Grieving.

Nakkiah draws heavily from her own life and communityin Sydney’s Mount Druitt, which has a large Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander population. She says they all knoweach other and she’s met many of the locals through herparents’ work with a local community organisation.

Nakkiah is also studying law and working part-time inthe legal field. At Belvoir, she aims to explore the role of anAboriginal Community Liaison Officer’s conflicts whileworking in the police force.

‘I read The Tall Man by Chloe Hooper and wasinterested in the character of the Aboriginal Liaison Officerin that book. It’s sad – the scope of that tragedy. I’m goingto look at how deep these tragedies go and focus on thepersonal relationships of the people involved.’

Nakkiah says the prize money will give her the resourcesto do the required research. Her dream is to be able to workfull-time as a writer, and to stage her plays overseas. Shehopes to follow in the footsteps of Lachlan Philpott andBelvoir’s playwright-in-residence Tommy Murphy.

‘They are both really successful playwrights andbeautiful writers,’ said Nakkiah. ‘To be able to have thecareer and the time to write, not just in Australia … I’dlove to be able to do that.’Above: Nakkiah Lui with Andrea James. Photo: Karen Steains.


See back page for more information on Australia Council Fellowships.

Midden will celebrate unsung heroes and previouslyunspoken events in a non-linear documentary.Jenny will use shells, along with screen-based

and performance elements to enhance, reframe and remixstories, and create new ways of engaging audiences.

Much of Jenny’s work as a screen-based visual artist,writer and curator defies categorisation. She’s beendescribed as a ‘digital native working in fluid screentechnologies’ and an ‘activist working to emancipatethrough sovereignty in the arts’. She says her work isthreefold: a screen-based, curating and writing practice.

Her Indigenous online gallery cyberTribe, formed in1999, was the first of its kind. It exhibits cutting-edge andpolitically important artworks from Indigenous artistsaround the world.

Jenny continues to strive to affront and question theabsurd, and she said she works best when challengedwith an idea for an exhibition.

Jenny’s family hails from Mununjali/Yugambeh lands inQueensland. She is developing Midden with the supportof a two-year Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ArtsBoard Fellowship.

The idea of being at a concert without the musician, orexperiencing a place that you’ve never been to, bringsexcitement to the retiringly shy singer Gurrumul.

Especially when audiences of his new digital installation willbe able to hear the ocean and its smells, and experience theland and the community of the remote Elcho Island.

‘It’ll be incredible for people to experience more than justseeing and listening to my concerts,’ he said.

The curious digital project started when a friend saw abeautiful space in New York and imagined it filled withGurrumul’s voice. Gurrumul, along with the team at SkinnyfishMusic and managers and friends Mark Grose and MichaelHohnen, developed the concept of an experiential event.

The concept gives audiences total immersion intoGurrumul’s work, life and culture, and is likely to be in 3D.

‘We hope people will just walk in and say, “Wow, this isso unlike what we thought Indigenous culture was about,”‘Mark said. ‘Here is the oldest living culture in the world andthe oldest songs and stories in the world presented in acutting-edge format.’

The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts BoardFellowship is worth $45,000 per year, over two years.

Seashells sing Jenny’s storiesThe bold Murri woman Jenny Fraser is set to challenge audiencesagain with her latest unusual storytelling project, Midden.

Digital immersion in Gurrumul Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu’s new installation takes his work to an Americanaudience, thanks to an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board Fellowship.

Above: Jenny Fraser. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Above: Gurrumul. Photo Adrian Cook.


Jessie Lloyd provides mentoring, professionaldevelopment and other support for VictorianAboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians.

‘Melbourne is a hub for music and things are new andfresh. There are a lot of gigs and proactive artists andcommunity events within the Indigenous music industry. I wanted to get into the thick of it,’ says Jessie.

Jessie was snapped up by Songlines thanks to hereight years developing Aboriginal music in Perth, herexperience as a singer and songwriter in the acousticthree-piece band Djiva, and her role as promoter in theNITV television series Chocolate Martini.

‘I think Indigenous music is important because it givesthe community a voice. It’s something everybody canrelate to, have ownership of and identify with forourselves, our events, social functions and festivals,’ she says.

Jessie loves her role of supporting new artists throughworkshops and gigs and performance skills training.

She believes that the future is about embracingIndigenous music as an Australian culture.

‘We’re not competing with mainstream. We don’t want

to be treated differently. It’s about getting the rights andrecognition we deserve from sheer hard work, talent andskill. That’s what makes a successful music artist,Indigenous or not,’ she said.

Jessie Lloyd received an Australia Council Aboriginaland Torres Strait Island Arts grant (New Work) to recordan eight-track album of contemporary original songs.Above left: Jessie Lloyd. Photo: James Henry Photography.

Dave Arden, musical director and performer with The Black Arm Band, has been a professional musiciansince the 1980s. Back then, he was in a trio called the

Altogethers, along with Red Ochre award-winning musicianArchie Roach and the late, great Ruby Hunter. He has sinceperformed with illustrious artists such as Bart Willoughby,Tiddas and Paul Kelly.

His career began when he was given the EP From My Eyes by No Fixed Address. He loved it so much thathe taught himself to play it all. Dave played guitar on ArchieRoach’s ‘Took the Children Away’ on the album Charcoal Lane.At that time they recorded on quarter-inch reel-to-reel tape,cutting and splicing things together.

Dave spent 20 years learning how to record in ‘his trade’with Archie and Ruby. ‘Our motto was what we did in thelounge room or campfire we took into the studio,’ said Dave.

Record producers did not initially have the same approach,but Dave said they ended up teaching the producers to do ittheir way. The new album will be about ‘country, aunties,uncles, mums, fathers and communities, injustices, humanrights and love songs’. It includes ‘Freedom Calls’, a duet thatDave wrote, and which lured in co-singer Paul Kelly.

Dave says determination and dreams got him from acommission flat in Collingwood to where he is today. ‘I’vealways loved music; now music loves me.’

David Arden received an Australia Council Aboriginaland Torres Strait Island Arts grant (Presentation &Promotion) to record, engineer and master an albumof eight new, original songs.Above: Dave Arden. Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Passionate mentorwelcomes all stylesMurri woman Jessie Lloyd is a composer and musician who heads up the Victorian basedSonglines Music Aboriginal Corporation. Nancia Guivarra reports.

Dave Arden’s second time soloGunditjmara man Dave Arden is producing his second solo album, Remember You.


Queensland to Virginia: parallel livesAn overseas residency inspired Waanyi woman Judy Watson’s explorationof the experiences of African slaves and Indigenous Australians.

Visit the Kluge-Ruhe collection at www.virginia.edu/kluge-ruhe/

HEY, WHICH WAY?

Anew suite of etchings, experimental beds, marksJudy Watson’s residency at the University ofVirginia (UVa) in the United States, a centre that

specialises in showcasing Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

The university’s Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collectioncomprises over 1,700 objects including paintings on barkand canvas, works on paper, sculpture and ceremonialartifacts. It is the only museum in the United Statesdevoted to the exhibition and study of AustralianAboriginal art.

‘Our mission is to advance knowledge andunderstanding of Australia’s Indigenous people and theirart and culture worldwide,’ explained Margaret Smith,director of the collection.

‘We work with living artists, international scholars andarts professionals to provide a wide range of learningexperiences to the university community and the publicthrough exhibition, research and educational programs.’

In 2011, the Kluge-Ruhe Collection acquired Judy Watson’s heron island suite, a set of 20 etchingsexploring climate change on the Great Barrier Reef. Judywas also invited to give talks and participate insymposiums and discussions at the UVa.

Her new work was inspired by a previous visit to theUVa, where Judy had seen an exhibition of Americanpresident Thomas Jefferson’s architectural drawings of his‘Academical Village’.

‘I was interested straight away in using thosedrawings in a body of work. I also wanted to incorporatesome research I’d collected on the enslaved people ofVirginia,’ Judy said.

Sally Hemings was one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves.It was alleged that she and Jefferson had a relationship,and a number of children.

‘Apparently some visitors to Monticello, an historiclandmark in Virginia, remarked on how some of the childslaves waiting on the table looked like Jefferson. There isnow DNA evidence that connects the Jefferson line tothese African American families.’

The title experimental beds refers to the experimentalvegetable gardens at Monticello (where Jeffersoncultivated plants from around the world), and the sexualliaisons between white men and enslaved black women inplantations and houses throughout Virginia.

Her prints use the bones of Jefferson’s architecturaldrawings and historic material found at the slave quartersat Monticello.

Having an Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal background,Judy says she could relate to the experience of theenslaved black women and children.

‘Many members of my family worked on cattlestations in north-western Queensland where there were alot of mixed-race children as a result of sexual liaisonsbetween white pastoralists and Aboriginal women. I wasinterested in the idea of cultural dominance. I think I’dalways been aware of the parallels between the AfricanAmerican experience and our own.

‘In my late teens I was studying African American andNative American literature at college and could see therewere correlations in the power structures we experienced.Aboriginal people working on cattle properties wereenslaved people. There are similarities in the treatment ofmen and women in my matrilineal Aboriginal family’shistory and how they tried to escape from that situation.’

The UVa’s artist residency program began in 2011,with featured artists including Gamiliroi man Reko Rennie,and Ricky Maynard, from Big River and Ben Lomond.

Reko’s residency resulted in him painting the gallerywalls with his unique stencil patterns and iconic pinkkangaroos, and a collaboration with Native American artistFrank Buffalo Hyde. Ricky delivered lectures, taughtphotography and large-format classes. He also lent artistproofs of his work Portrait of a Distant Land and Returning to Places That Name Us to the Kluge-Ruhecollection. Above left: experimental beds 5, experimental beds 2.Photos: Carl Warner.

Above right: Judy Watson’s workshop at the University ofVirginia. Photo: courtesy of grahame galleries + editions.

Enterprising 30-year-old Lucy Simpson and hercompany Gaawaa Miyay are the new face ofcontemporary Indigenous design.

Based in Sydney, the Yuwaalaraay woman of the Walgettand Angledool areas of northwest New South Wales isinspired by family, identity and country.

If I had to describe my mob in three words, theywould be ... funny, musical, sincere.

I am happiest when … I’m with family.

The ultimate song to dance to is ... ‘Mission RationBlues’ by Archie Roach.

It’s not cool or fashionable, but I love … wearingtrackies.

My greatest fear is … losing a loved one.

Knowing what I know now, if I had to go back andchoose a non-arts related career, I would be … asprinter or netballer.

I’m always being asked … Walgett or NarranderaSimpsons?

My most torturous/challenging creative work was …preparing for my first trade show.

My greatest arts achievement so far is … a three-waytie between designing the ‘Welcome to Cadigal-Wangalcountry’ signage for Marrickville Council in Sydney,exhibiting my textiles at the London Design Festival, andsinging with my sisters in our band Freshwater for thePrince of Jordan.

The artists I most admire ... are the pioneers ofAboriginal art and design that for generations have madeit possible for us to do what we do today.

My hero in real life is … my Mum.


Lucy SimpsonDirector, Gaawaa Miyay

RarriwuyHickDancer, actor, choreographer

http://gaawaamiyay.com/

BLACK CHAT

Born in Sydney, Rarriwuy Hick is a Yolnguwoman from north-east Arnhem Land whocombines urban and traditional influences

in her work.

Rarriwuy has performed with Bangarra, of whichher mother, Janet Munyarryun, was a foundingmember. She was a lead actor in Wrong Skin andteaches at NAISDA.

If I had to describe my mob in three words ...Yolngu people are strong in culture, very humble,and very generous in sharing our culture with the world.

My mother always told me … to keep doingwhat I love. If dancing and acting makes me happy,then that’s what I should keep working hard toachieve.

I am happiest when … I’m out bush in ArnhemLand with my family and dancing.

A book that changed my life is … I like to readfantasy books. It helps me keep my imaginationalive.

The ultimate song to dance to is ... Traditionalsongs are great, but when you want to have a littlefun I love to shake with my sisters to ‘Wipe Out’ bythe Beach Boys.

It’s not cool or fashionable, but I love … eatingcheese and honey together.

My greatest fear is … spiders.

Knowing what I know now, if I had to go backand choose a non-arts related career, I wouldbe … a school teacher.

My hero in real life is … my fiancé and my family.

Above: Lucy Simpson. Photo: courtesy of the artist. Above: Rarriwuy Hick. Photo: Grant Sparkes-Carroll.

Creating the 21st century

As a moment in time, the founding of the Tent Embassy in 1972 was pivotal.

Michael Anderson, Billy Craigie, Tony Coorey, Bertie Williams – and theirbeach umbrella – created an event thatdelineates the starting line for a period ofIndigenous history that is explosive: notonly politically, but culturally and artistically.

Arts Yarn Up explores Indigenous artthrough the past 40 years, through the eyesof some of our leading voices in dance,literature, music, theatre and visual arts.

We review the highlights of four decadesand beyond, acknowledging just some ofthe legends who blazed the trails andbroke down the barriers.

We cover a selection of the promising and exciting Indigenous artists makingwork today, understanding that for everyartist named there are many more whoneed to be recognised.

And we gaze into the future, thinking big,dreaming provocatively, about creating the 21st century.


Left to right: Bob Maza, Bindi Williams, Aileen Corpus (front) and Gary Foley in 1973 in ABCTV’s Basically Black, based on a Nimrod Theatre production. Photo: ABCTV.

SPECIAL FEATURE

Our sense of identity, belonging and place in the worldis creating the 21st century as we live our art,culture, language, heritage, our relationship to our

lands and seas, and our law. In the 20th century, the dominant colonial society

constructed its cultural narrative to diminish and alienateAboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. A culture ofpropaganda effectively rendered social control over the livesof Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Colonial dominance made Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslanders the ‘Other’ in their own country. Government policiesover the 20th and 21st centuries reflected rhetoric changingfrom protection and assimilation to self-determination,reconciliation, shared responsibility and closing the gap.

Since Federation in 1901, with the introduction of theWhite Australia policy, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeople were removed from their homelands ontogovernment and church controlled missions and reserves.

The infamous Aborigines Acts were established by stategovernments. These laws controlled every aspect ofAboriginal people’s lives. Children were removed from theirfamilies, movement was restricted, and languages andcultural ceremonies banned. Decades later in 2008, theFederal Government would follow international trends andissue an Apology to the ‘Stolen Generations’, thosechildren removed from their families and communities.

During the 1960s, Aboriginal people and Torres StraitIslanders protested against inequality, injustice, desecrationand dispossession of land, and protectionist policies. The1938 Day of Mourning was established by the AustralianAborigines Progressive Association to oppose the NSWAborigines Protection Board. The monthly newspaperAustralian Abo Call highlighted the issues. The Yirrkala Barkpetitions asserted the Yolngu people’s ownership of lands inaccordance with their law. FCAATSI, the Federal Council forthe Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders,was formed in 1958 and campaigned for constitutionalchange, resulting in the 1967 constitutional referendum.The 1960s also witnessed the Cummeragunga walk off,and the Pilbara, Palm Island and Gurindji strike actions.People then took their campaign to the United Nations,highlighting Australia’s denial of human rights.

As we reflect on 40 years of art and culture, the wordsof the poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal resonate: ‘Let no-one saythe past is dead, the past is all about us and within.’

Artists such as Oodgeroo Noonuccal, who campaignedfor the 1967 referendum, called for recognition of Aboriginaland Torres Strait Islander people at a time when they wereconsidered little more than native fauna and flora. KevinGilbert wrote The Cherry Pickers in 1968, the first playchronicling the lives of itinerant cherry pickers on the fringesof white society. Painter Albert Namatjira, unveiled throughhis beautiful watercolour paintings the magnificence of hiscountry in central Australia. Opera tenor Harold Blair gracedthe Sydney Opera House in Dalgerie in 1973 whilecampaigning for rights.

The 1970s saw the rise of political action. ManyAboriginal people returned to their home estates as part ofthe outstation movement. The decision of the NorthernTerritory Supreme Court to grant mining company Nabalcothe right to mine on Aboriginal land on the Gove Peninsulaspurred a new wave of political action.

In the early 1970s, Aboriginal people established theirown community-controlled services. In Redfern, we sawthe emergence of Aboriginal health and legal and services,preschools and the Black Theatre. In Queensland, theAborigines Act banned cultural practice and censoredreading matter, mail, recreation, and sexual relationships. Inmany cases, wages were quarantined by stategovernments, resulting decades later in the ‘Stolen Wages’campaigns.

There were achievements in the mainstream in sportand politics, but there was also a growing demand for therecognition of human rights for Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander people in their own lands. The Federal Governmentof the day instituted a policy of self-determination and wesaw the establishment of the Land Councils to representour people and negotiate land issues.

In 1972, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was set up on thelawns of Parliament House. The heady days of the 1970s,


Special Feature: Creating the 21st century

Art connects and creates our culture into The 21st century is a future of limitless possiblities and potential.

with the National Black Theatre and the Tent Embassy,placed the oppression of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander people firmly on the national and internationalagenda.

In 1974 the Aboriginal Land Rights Commission underJustice Woodward acknowledged Aboriginal people’slinkages to their land. In 1975 the White Australia policyended and the Racial Discrimination Act was instituted. ThisAct was suspended decades later in the Northern Territory,under an Intervention that now controls Aboriginal people’slives once again. The Koowarta case challenged theconstitutional validity of the Racial Discrimination Act 1975and the discriminatory acts of the Queensland Governmentwhich the High Court upheld in its 1982 decision. In 1976,the Commonwealth Land Rights Act was implemented in the Northern Territory, giving statutory recognition to theNorthern Land Council, and the Pitjantjatjara Land Councilwas formed.

In the 1980s we witnessed the consolidation ofdecades of rights advocacy into institutions with the LandRights Acts in New South Wales and South Australia, andthe Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody. In1988, following the Barunga Statement, the FederalGovernment opened discussions for a potential Treaty,

however this disappeared under pressure from mining andpastoralist interests.

The 1988 Long March responded with a protest againstthe Bicentennial, the biggest assembly of IndigenousAustralians from every corner of the country.

Gary Foley later wrote: ‘Prominent among those critical... were Indigenous artists and performers who developed astrategy of challenging the powerful cultural mythology ofwhat the Bicentennial represented. (Through the concert)Building Bridges, which was designed to communicate towhite Australia an alternative understanding and vision forthe future …This moment clearly showed that BlackAustralians were able to culturally subvert the underlyingthemes of the Bicentennial. Simply by surviving and resistingboth the original invasion and 200 years of attempts toeliminate them through programs of assimilation1.’

Artists reflected these times through theatre, music,dance, writing and visual arts. We witnessed a culturalrenaissance with the prolific rise of artists and artistic works.

The beginnings of the 1990s were auspicious with theHigh Court of Australia establishing native title in the MaboCase, ending the legal fiction that Australia was terra nullius,or empty land, when the British arrived in 1788. Theassertion by Torres Strait Islander Eddie Mabo of hiscontinuing culture resulted in successive challenges in theHigh Court from the Wik and Thayorre peoples. In some ofthose cases, art explained the integral linkages between art,culture, language, heritage, land and sea rights, and theconnection to law that determined how people derived theirrights in Aboriginal society.

Richard Walley, as Chair of the Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Arts Board from 1992-1996, said: ‘Art hasalways been integral to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderpeople’s lives, as an expression of our spiritual connectionwith the land and sea, and as a ceremonial and educationaltool of lore and Dreaming ... Diversity abounds through ourarts and cultures, with every community realising their owndistinctive interpretations. Arts often powerfully reflect ourpolitical, legal, historical and cultural concerns, with manyartists bringing issues of dispossession to non-Indigenousaudiences – from land rights to Aboriginal Deaths inCustody to the Stolen Generations. Art has therefore playeda vital role to our survival since colonisation, allowing us toaffirm and assert our individual and collective identities.’

In the 21st century, artists are creating the present inrecognition of the past and imagining a future of endlesspossibilities. This journey is our shared experience of livingthrough these times. It is an experience and reality thatconnects everyone to each other, nationally andinternationally.

Above: Prime Minister Gough Whitlam pours local sand intoVincent Lingiarri's hands and hands the Wave Hill station back to the Gurindji people (1975).Photo: Mervyn Bishop. Courtesy of the Australian Government.

1 Gary Foley, 2005 http://www.kooriweb.org/foley/essays/collision.html


the 21st century


Fundamental to cultureThe Indigenous sections for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games’ Opening andClosing Ceremonies were a significant expression of the strength and resilienceof Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures today. Djakapurra Munyarryun,women of the central desert, Torres Strait Islanders, Yolngu from North-EastArnhem Land, Koorie kids of NSW, and Bangarra dancers came together for anIndigenous contemporary theatrical presentation that resonated with peopleeverywhere. The next generation of Indigenous dancers, choreographers anddesigners is very exciting. I have commissioned new works for Bangarra byartists such as Frances Rings, Elma Kris, Daniel Riley McKinley and Jacob Nash, so we are seeing a new generation of Indigenous storytellers. I hope to see traditional dance continued and practiced as a fundamental,natural part of culture within community. — Stephen Page

More support, more opportunitiesOver the past 40 years we’ve seen Torres Strait Islanders, especially Elders,accept that contemporary dance and traditional dance can both represent ourpeople. That is a huge step forward. For performing artists such as myself, whowant to utilise our technical training and incorporate movements that are foreignto a lot of our people, it is a blessing to know that the people you are representingare proud to say that you are one of them. The support that has been given toIndigenous dance today is the reason there has been progress. Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander independent artists and groups now have moreopportunities. This has built a sense of confidence and hope among our mob. Inthe future, I hope to see Indigenous arts organisations given the authority topenalise any artist who knowingly breaks cultural protocol. Many cultural groups,tribes and clans are misrepresented when some artists perform outside of theircommunities. Such protocols should be mandatory. — Rita Pryce

Photo: courtesy of Bangarra.

Photo: courtesy of Vicki Van Hout.

Photo: Lovegreen Photography.

Tell our storiesWhen I started at NAISDA in 1989, we used to imagine what it would be like todance with the Australian Ballet. I ended up doing that twice, first in 2001 inBangarra’s Rites of Spring, and then in 2002 as a soloist in Spartacus. Since those days we’ve grown. It’s good to see more Indigenous dancers coming up. I’d like to see Indigenous dance companies with training schools established ineach state. This would help retain young dancers who get homesick when theyhave to leave their country. It would also help us tell stories from our own country,something I want to do a lot more of. — Albert David

Photo: courtesy of the artist.

Combining innovation and traditionThe emergence of the Black Theatre movement in Redfern, Sydney, was crucial tothe growth and visibility of Indigenous dance in Australia. Without it NAISDA,Redfern Dance Theatre and companies like AIDT and Bangarra would not exist, aswe know them. I in turn wouldn’t have examples to lead the way and a platform tocontribute to the diversity of Indigenous dance. Looking ahead, I hope to seemeaningful discourse between Elders and contemporary practitioners facilitated ina more tangible way than just a book of rules and protocols. We need morefinancial investment and active forums so that we can discuss possible breaches,and why these may be crucial to the growth of the contemporary form. Innovationand tradition need not be enemies. Understanding comes with time andinvestment, not just a blanket cure all. — Vicky Van Hout

Dance voicesDancers on their art: past, present and future

Creating the 21st century: Dance


Iam one of the five founding students of the NationalAboriginal Islander Skills Development Association(NAISDA) dance college (the others were Wayne Nicholls,

Dorothea Randall, Cheryle Stone and Daryl Williams). In 1977myself and four other NAISDA dancers, including Roslyn Watson, and other Aboriginal Australians, were invitedto participate in the Second World Black and African Artsand Cultural Festival in Lagos, Nigeria. There were blackdancers from all parts of the world, including New York, the West Indies and Cuba.

Our presence and talent at the festival made peopleaware that there were contemporary dancers in Australia.We were only students and yet we were performing asprofessionals and representing Aboriginal Australia at aninternational level. Consequently, NAISDA studentscontinued to travel and perform overseas, in Tahiti, New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea, and at theFestival of Pacific Arts and other festivals abroad.

In 1981 I was awarded a Winston Churchill Fellowship,which enabled me to study at the Alvin Ailey AmericanDance Centre in New York. I graduated in 1983. The lateWayne Nicholls went on to London and danced with theWest Indian dance company Mass Movers.

Then there was a steady flow of other dancers in the80s and 90s who attended both the Alvin Ailey andMartha Graham schools in New York. There was also aninflux of international practitioners who contributed to thetraining of Aboriginal dancers at NAISDA, and then camethe Aboriginal Dance Theatre Redfern, the AboriginalIslander Dance Theatre and the Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Ballerina Roslyn Watson went on to study at theDance Theatre in Harlem, New York. On her return Roslyndanced with the Dance Company (NSW), now the SydneyDance Company, as well as with the Queensland Balletand the Australian Dance Theatre.

The thousands of young Aboriginal people over theyears who have attended NAISDA have all done so withpassion, and the aspiration to be professional dancers.They studied in order to enrich their life and invest in theirfuture as well as the future of Aboriginal Australia and theircommunities.

The current trend is that students entering NAISDA areaged 17 and over. This is far too late for such acompetitive industry. The dance talent identificationprograms conducted by NAISDA and Bangarra, whichtarget our most gifted youth in primary schools, shouldhave happened years ago. This early training will equip ouryouth with the necessary skills, confidence, discipline andhunger they need.

We need to lift both our training and our professionalstandards. At present the training and skills obtained arenot transferable enough to allow our youth to beemployed by white mainstream dance companies or withinternational companies. Our training for our youth issecond-class.

Not enough of our many independent choreographersare given the opportunity to choreograph or create forBangarra – Aboriginal Australia’s premier dance company– or for mainstream or international companies.Bangarra’s responsibility in investing in futurechoreographers needed to be addressed in the 90s. If ithad been, then now, in the 21st century, we would havechoreographers working nationally and internationally.

Aboriginal peoples and their culture are Australia’sgreatest cultural asset. The performing arts is an area inwhich Aboriginal people can, and do, make an importantcultural contribution to Australia. To facilitate this thereneeds to be a continued investment in the training ofAboriginal youth at the elite level.

Where, though, is the political voice in dance?Aboriginal people are political people. Politics shape ourlives more than non-Aboriginal people, but where is theempathy and social conscience in our arts leaders?

I have been privileged to be among the trailblazers indance and now, in 2012, I should be celebrating theopportunities and international exposure of our youngdancers. But sadly this is not the case. Our AboriginalAustralian dancers should be known as some of the bestdancers in the world. I am proud of all I have been part ofand achieved on a personal level, but I am disappointedabout what has not happened for our people indeveloping opportunities and world-class training.

Michael Leslie was honoured for his lifelongcontribution with the 2010 Red Ochre Award. He wasnamed the 2011 International Unsung Hero at the 23rdInternational Association of Blacks in Dance, Los Angeles.He set up the Michael Leslie Foundation for thePerforming Arts. Above: Michael Leslie. Photo: courtesy of Rio Tinto.

Speak out, step upBy Michael Leslie


Diverse voices exposedThe emergence of new narratives in Indigenous literature is exciting — Vivienne Cleven and Anita Heiss are two writers in particular who haveperfected a modern version of the Indigenous woman and man. Thereare still many diverse voices underexposed. That talented Indigenouswriters are exposing them, and bringing those worlds to life, is a true giftfor Australian and international readers. I’m looking forward to youngerwriters coming through in the next few years, and continuing to besurprised by the fresh perspectives of what it means for our writtencharacters to be ‘Australian’ today. — Tara June Winch

Centuries of storiesOver the last 40 years we saw a phenomenal growth and interest in Indigenousliterature. We already come from the stories of our world, but we had great importantwriters such as our Oodgeroo Noonuccal, Jack Davis, Ruby Langford, Paddy Roe, BillNeidjie, Kevin Gilbert and many more who inspired and led us. They made us see howit was possible to use our own imagination, thoughts, voices, character and style insaying who we are and what we want to think about in our writings. What of the nextcentury? We already have many centuries of stories to tell. We battle everyday to carefor the spirits of our land and all the stories of laws greater than all of us. Many of ourpeople battle everyday just to stay alive. Even if we all took up the pen and wrote athousand books each about our world, I am still not sure how long it would take tocure our souls. — Alexis Wright

Endangered languages revivalThe original stage version of Bran Nue Dae is a highlight of the past 40 years. Partlybecause it introduced many Aboriginal people to a wider audience and gave a jump-start to their careers, but especially because it had such positive energy and brokeaway from stereotypes of what Aboriginal narratives might be. The Macquarie PENAnthology of Aboriginal Literature is another highlight. Writers are continuing to moveaway from merely confirming the expectations and conventions of the Indigenous‘niche’: the combination of energy and craft this requires results in the Englishlanguage’s possibilities for expression being enlarged. Another exciting possibility is inthe area of Indigenous language ‘revitalisation’, and how ‘endangered’ languages andstories can help rebuild community and also provide – paradoxically – new ways ofexpressing and thinking about contemporary Aboriginal identity. Then there is thecross-fertilisation between different art forms in which Indigenous people are nowworking. I’d like to see regional language and narratives becoming part of mainstreamliterature, and shared from regional Indigenous communities. — Kim Scott

Challenge the establishmentI turn the big ‘40’ this year. When I was born in 1972, there was only a handful ofpublished Indigenous authors and their books weren’t in my school library. We’vecome a long way since then. A milestone was the ripple effect caused by Rabbit Proof Fence and the worldwide attention that Aunty Doris’ story captured! I’mconnected to the Indigenous Literacy Project that is a branch of the Fred HollowsFoundation. The work that is being done by this dedicated team is producing the nextwave of Indigenous authors. Anita Heiss is going leaps and bounds and my sisterNicole Watson’s debut, award-winning novel, The Boundary, is damn fine writing! I’dlike to see the beautiful independent bookstores have sections devoted to Indigenousliterature. Writing in itself is a gamble and a hustle. You’ve got to have a thick skin! I’d like to see more blackfellas form their own writing groups and in guerrilla-stylechallenge the publishing establishment! — Samuel Wagan Watson


Photo: courtesy of Rolex.

Photo: Michael Wearne.

Literature voicesWriters talk about literature: past, present and future

Creating the 21st century: Literature



www.austlit.edu.au/specialistDatasets/BlackWords

L ooking back over the past 40 years, there is muchto be celebrated in what we have achieved instorytelling through literature. Considering that

dancing, singing, performing and painting have been partof our cultural practices since the beginning of time, it is aphenomenal achievement to know that we have around5,000 published Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderwriters in Australia today.

Some significant milestones over the past fourdecades have included the establishment of community-based publishing houses like IAD Press (early 1970s),Magabala Books (1984), Keeira Press (1996) and Black Ink (2001). It’s also important to note the role ournational newspaper the Koori Mail has provided for thelast 25 years, in terms of publishing poetry.

An entire stable of writers has been ‘discovered’ byone main initiative known as the David Unaipon Awardestablished in 1988 through the University of QueenslandPress. The award acknowledges the work of the writerand inventor who appears on our $50 note, but it hasalso provided a breeding ground for some of our mostsuccessful authors. Past winners like Larissa Behrendt,John Muk Muk Burke, Doris Pilkington and Samuel Wagan Watson, have gone on to win otherawards and publish more books.

Those who have placed Indigenous voices and writinginto the mainstream should be applauded and recognisedfor not only raising the profile of their own works, butdrawing attention to Indigenous writing generally.Significant and influential writers of mention are Kim Scottand Alexis Wright, who have both taken out the MilesFranklin Award, the country’s most prestigious gong forliterature. In 2001, Scott was a joint winner for his novelBenang. In 2007, Wright took out the award for her epicnovel Carpentaria. And in 2011, Scott won his secondaward for That Deadman Dance. In the same year wehad the Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Children’sFiction presented to Boori Monty Pryor, who also becamethe country’s first Australian Children’s Laureate.

Most recently we have seen the profile of Indigenousliterature grow, with the marrying of the art form witheducation, and resources designed to get our stories andstorytellers into Australian classrooms. In 2008, theMacquarie PEN Anthology of Aboriginal Literature waslaunched (with the assistance of the Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander Arts Board). It showcased 81 authors, fromthe first published work in English by Bennelong in 1796,through to the award-winning author Tara June Winch in 2007.

In 2011, 14 Indigenous authors were introduced intoclassrooms around the country via novels about land,family, identity and law, as part of the Oxford UniversityPress Yarning Strong series.

At a professional level our mob still needs moredevelopment. We have very few established writersworking in schools and communities running creativewriting workshops. We have a very short list of skilledIndigenous people reviewing our writing for journals andnewspapers. We have few Indigenous people working atevery level of publishing: editors, managers, publicistsand publishers!

Over the next 40 years I hope to see some growth inour industry skills and greater diversity in our writing. Wealready have a very strong poetry, autobiography,biography and children’s list, and a growing pool ofnovelists. But we don’t have many writing genre fiction(be it choclit, crime, romance, fantasy). In 2011 we sawthe release of our first-ever graphic novel Ubby’s Underdogs by Brenton E McKenna, but we need more.

As peoples previously reliant largely on an oraltradition to pass on our stories, we have come a longway quickly. We have learned to adjust to the variousmediums needed to get our stories, histories, messagesout to as many and as varied an audience as possible.We too, are publishing e-books!

With all these achievements happening in a smallwindow of time in our history, I am confident, and veryexcited, about what the future holds.

To keep up to date with what we’re doing, and howand where, check out BlackWords: an information richwebsite and database showcasing Aboriginal and TorresStrait Islander writing to the world.

Dr Anita Heiss is from the Wiradjuri Nation. Her latestbook is ‘Am I Black Enough For You?’.Above: Dr Anita Heiss. Photo: Amanda James.

Celebrate Indigenous literatureBy Anita Heiss


Folk leads wayIt’s very difficult for Aboriginal people to get the recognition we deserve, to competein the mainstream, but things are slowly getting better. The folk scene is probablythe most prolific genre for our people and that has opened a lot of doors. Over thepast 10 years we’ve seen every folk festival establish an Indigenous stage. The NITVmusic show also offers a platform. But there’s still a way to go. I hope that moreIndigenous artists get record deals with major companies. One genre that stillpresents barriers to our people is country music. Our people support country musiclike no-one else, but we don’t get a lot of recognition. If you ask me for my highlightin Indigenous music over the past 40 years, there are many, but I keep coming backto one album: Wrong Side of the Road by No Fixed Address.— Dale Huddleston

Foundation for futureI feel that musicians are the voice of the Aboriginal nation. Demonstrations havedied down and Aboriginal music has become the voice, saying it in a moremelodic way. We used painting, dance and music to communicate with peoplespeaking other dialects. When you see a painting, there’s a dance to go with it. Inthe last 40 years we’ve come back to that way of communicating. Most of ourstories have a moral … of respect, how to survive, how to find food if you’rehungry. When I listen to Gurrumul, he’s a link to people singing their language. He has a style of singing the old way but he’s modified it and uses Westerninstruments. I feel that for the future a foundation for Indigenous songwriters andperformers needs to be set up. I also want to see the Australian Governmentrecognise and enforce our intellectual property rights through the IndigenousCultural and Intellectual Property law. — Joe Geia

Sounds of the WestThe great thing about the 40 years since the Tent Embassy is the Indigenous musicsoundtrack that punctuates our recent history. It’s not just about the song, but aboutwhere you were when you heard it. Being Noongar and Gitja, I feel really connected tomusic from the West Coast. The Pigram Brothers are incredibly important. So is Lorrae Coffin. People like her give other musicians hope. At a national level, Uncle Jimmy Little, Archie Roach, Yothu Yindi and so many others are influential andinspirational for me. Ruby Hunter was an amazing performer and very generousoffstage with her support and advice to other female artists. The most exciting trendnow is the cross-form practice where musicians are involved in other forms of art. Youmight not hear our music on commercial radio, but you are hearing it in theatres, withorchestras and in films. In the future, I’d love to see our aspiring emerging musiciansrecognised as great musicians who happen to be Indigenous. — Gina Williams

On strong pathIndigenous music is an extension of the strong connection we have to country,community and family. Our music has come a long way in 40 years, thanks tothe persistence and strength of people like Archie Roach, Ruby Hunter and Kev Carmody. Uncle Jimmy Little, Auriel Andrews, Vic Simms, to name a few, all made that path really strong so that we could follow it. Being involved in The Black Arm Band is a phenomenal experience: to be singing one day on abasketball court in Papunya, then performing at the Sydney Opera House, thentravelling to London. That shows the strength of our songlines. There is so muchto choose from now – hip hop, folk, reggae – we’re all on that strong path. In the21st century, the whitewash of the mainstream needs to end so that Indigenousmusic takes its rightful place in the music lands of Australia. — Lou Bennett

Photo: Daybreak Films.

Photo: Rawshorty.


Music voicesMusicians talk about music: past, present and future

Creating the 21st century: Music

Photo: R. Stewart.


Over the last 40 years, policies forced upon a oncefree people have imposed themselves on both ourlives and the music that represents us.

Forty years ago the Aboriginal Tent Embassy protestplaced our people in the media forefront when it came tofighting for our rights. Today we are fighting for what is left ofour traditional music – which needs to be formally listed as‘endangered’ – while we witness our contemporary musicexpand across many music genres.

Aboriginal radio stations have become a vehicle forexposing our awesome talents to our people around thecountry. Appearing in the mainstream media was merely adream for our people before Jimmy Little graced himself onmainstream TV and radio. Auriel Andrews was not farbehind and soon we had many more. Bob Randall’s early1970s song ‘My Brown Skin Baby They Take Him Away’became imbedded into the psyche of many households,while Anungu harmonies blessed the desert with theErnabella Choir’s beautiful Pitjantjatjara language.

Bart Willoughby’s band No Fixed Address, with singerssuch as Joe Geia, gatecrashed the mainstream musicindustry in the early 80s, followed by an awesome era ofAboriginal music that many still hang on to.

Kuckles, Coloured Stone, the Warumpi Band, Scrap Metal, the Mills Sisters, Areyonga Desert Tigers,Blekbala Mujik and so many more became the essence of contemporary Indigenous music culture and lifestyle.

Bart Willoughby’s band Mixed Relations dominated themainstream music arena for a couple of years. Then Kev Carmody, Archie Roach and Tiddas took us further,ensuring that Indigenous acoustic soul became our blues genre.

Grassroots legends such as Roger Knox wooedliterally thousands each performance. Harry Williams, Vic Simms, Bobby McLeod, Black Lace and so manymore were amongst our impressive multi-genre creationsof country and rock.

Yothu Yindi then exploded into the charts with ‘Treaty’,blowing the whole industry away in awe of traditionalharmonies and rhythms pumped out with our politicalcries. Those who didn’t know what a Treaty was soonlearnt that this meant our ‘freedom’ from an oppressionbeing enforced upon us. Christine Anu’s version of ‘My Island Home’ placed our Indigenous women on themap, as well as highlighting the richness of culture fromthe Torres Straits.

The populisation of Indigenous music became animmediate exploitation arena resulting in mainstreamcontrol. A strategic assimilation of our voice became atemplate for mainstream music. However, Indigenousmusic has maintained some traditional cultural aspects thathave survived into contemporary music. This survivingaspect is storytelling. Many of our traditional stories areheld in songs and many of our music artists continue thistradition by telling stories from their country.

Other music aspects that have survived from ourcultural traditions are ‘traditional harmony’ and even‘traditional rhythms’ which have merged themselves intocontemporary formats, allowing the ‘Blackfella’ sound weare naturally accustomed to.

We need more Indigenous producers in this country.Many signed artists are provided with non-Indigenousproducers who often lack comprehension of traditionalrhythms and elements. Wrong choices of time signaturescan squash a traditional rhythm’s existence if the produceris not aware of the rhythmic notations begging for breath.

There is something special when the producer of analbum captures the essence of what an Indigenous artistis trying to express. In the case of Christine Anu’s Stylin’ Up album, David Bridie managed, sensitively yetboldly, to capture the existence of the traditional harmonyand rhythms of the Torres Strait in a contemporarymainstream music format.

In the light of the recent successes of Frank Yamma,Troy Cassar Daley, Seaman Dan, Gurrumul Yunupingu,Emma Donovan, Cassie Donovan, Last Kinection andJessica Mauboy, we can safely say that Indigenous musicis going to be around for a long time to come.

Musicians such as Buddy Knox and Dale Huddleston,and impressive newbies such as Tjimba Possum Burns,ensure that if music can survive from the ancient timeswith some cultural elements intact, then if supported it willsurvive the decades ahead, ensuring that the core of ourculture, our songlines, will continue on as our culturalcelebration of survival.

Alice Haines performed in the band Mixed Relations, inthe original stage production of ‘Bran Nue Dae’ andextensively around Australia and overseas. Alice hasproduced music for the past 10 years. Above: Alice Haines. Photo: courtesy of Alice Haines.

Ancient stories live in our musicBy Alice Haines


Drive by talentWhile our work remains firmly driven by politics and grounded by culture, language andstory, Indigenous theatre has steadfastly tapped away at the edges of mainstreamtheatre styles and forced the medium to virtually reinvent itself to harbour our expansivedreamings. Aboriginal artists have provoked and enhanced the broader Australiantheatre industry. Our cultural and artistic influence is global. Aboriginal theatre makersneed physical places to create work. Land. Ceremonial grounds. Theatres. It’s good tohave Aboriginal theatre companies, but we also need state-of-the-art theatre venues tomake our work in. We are still beholden to many non-Aboriginal gatekeepers who holdthe key to the success of our work. Every theatre organisation has a responsibility to develop and present Aboriginal people and a culture that is driven by talent and self-determination. — Andrea James

Tell diverse storiesI want to see more of our stories on stage and on the screen. There is a hunger forAboriginal stories. And while there are many magnificent stories to tell, of people whohave led fascinating and challenging lives, I think it’s limiting if we only do stories aboutreal people and events: ‘documentary theatre’. The parallels are in literature – we needwell-researched non-fiction but we also need great fiction, which has a wider reach. I’mbeing provocative, but if we only tell stories that romanticise Aboriginal characters, this isanother form of the noble savage construct. Many Aboriginal people live in cities, arehighly urbanised – indeed ‘middle class’ – so we need to be telling more of thosestories. They are no less Aboriginal, and no less complex or fascinating. We will matureas to what we think an Aboriginal story is. Also, while our own backyard is always themost important audience, let’s expand to a global audience. — Jane Harrison

Honesty, power, spiritTo me one of the biggest highlights of the past 40 years is the groundbreaking theatreshow Basically Black in the early 1970s. This production was political, bold and non-forgiving. I’m excited by the variety of theatre that Indigenous artists are creating andthe way we are truly developing our own style of theatre. I love that our work melds allperformance styles from movement, music, song, dance and storytelling. I hope to seemore mainstream productions happening and filling our theatre spaces in Australia andworldwide. I hope to see more Indigenous theatre here in the Top End and our differencesand uniqueness celebrated in our work and stories that we continue to create with suchhonesty, power and spirit.— Ben Graetz

Recognise enormous potentialOur sector has been growing over many years. There is now a groundswell of work andas an industry we have matured. There is enormous potential for our performing artiststhrough cultural tourism and enterprise, partnerships with varying arts companies andcross-arts practices, as well as the national and international touring circuit. I would liketo see a huge shift in audience development across all sectors. For the performing artsto be more effectively targeted, we must build capacity and growth through multi-artscollaborations. When Australians pay to see our works on the stage and applaudwithout questioning the guilt or relying on raw emotion to get an effect, I know we willhave turned the tide. Our industry needs to look at sustainable practices and our owncommunities need to recognise the social and cultural benefits, and to personally comeand support our artists and purchase tickets, like we do at the very well-paid footballseason. — Rhoda Roberts

Photo: courtesy of Currency Press.

Photo: Helen White.

Photo: courtesy of Ben Graetz.

Theatre voicesTheatre artists talk about theatre: past, present and future

Creating the 21st century: Theatre

Photo: courtesy of Rhoda Roberts.


The 40th anniversary of the National Black Theatre was celebrated in January 2012 at Carriageworks,as part of the 36th Sydney Festival.

More of a vision than an actual working theatrecompany, the National Black Theatre spawned landmarkplaywrights such as Kevin Gilbert, Robert Merritt andJack Davis and the careers of remarkable actors such asBob Maza, Lillian Crombie and Justine Saunders, as wellas cultural activists Gary Foley and director Brian Syron.

I was 14 years old when I saw my uncle, Brian Syron,playing Sweet William in The Cake Man at Bondi Pavillionin 1977. Seeing that play at such a young age was adefining experience, as it must have also been for mycontemporaries who are also mostly either descendantsof these champions, or who grew up inspired andinfluenced by the courage, the generosity, and theresilience of the many mentioned above.

We are inseparable from this past. Forty years on, wenow own these narratives. And 40 years from now theywill belong to our descendants. How then might theypresent these stories?

Theatre was the preferred medium during the early70s for portraying the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderexperience. English and American theatre canons heavilyinfluenced those times (and to some extent still do), andwere perceived as the measure of ‘good’ theatre.

Now, however, Aboriginal theatre sits at the thresholdof change. We still draw from our own continuous culturalinheritance and practices, but these days Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander theatre and performancepractitioners are quietly developing innovative ways ofproducing productions relevant to our times.

In shows like Posts in the Paddock, a co-productionbetween Moogahlin Performing Arts and My Darling Patricia; Bully Beef Stew by Sonny Dallas Law, Colin Kinchela and Bjorn Stewart at PACT; To Soothe the Dying Pillow by Andrea James atPerformance Space; and to some extent I am Eora byWesley Enoch; audiences now experience not only aperformance (which includes music, theatre, and dance)but also visual representations of that narrative throughthe use of installation and/or video components.

The ability to tell stories (in some cases old stories) innew ways is something consistent to Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander cultural expression. And althoughthese are new technologies, these elements of productionare used in ways similar to how culture was expressedand enacted historically in Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander societies. Then, culture and knowledge wereexpressed and enacted concurrently through themediums of performance, painting, and dance.

The future of any culture or society depends on itsability to adapt and change, and not simply to conform tothe practices of dominant traditions. In saying this,however, I fully understand why Black Theatrepractitioners of the past used the popular theatre canons

of the day to present their stories. After all, it was radicalenough to challenge the prevailing narratives of Australia’shistory.

It would have been doubly difficult to also introducenew performance approaches at that time. And althoughperformance practices today are still very much perceivedas having been developed by Western and Europeantheatre makers like Peter Brook, Eugenio Barba, and tosome extent Jerzy Grotowski, they did look to thediversity of cultural practices from across the globe insearch of new approaches. We also need to look furtherafield than what is customary.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander theatre inAustralia is well placed to succeed in the future. It has notonly a unique cultural heritage that practitioners can drawfrom and develop into new techniques and approaches tomaking theatre and performance, but practitioners alsoseem willing to embrace some of the new and emergingtheatre and performance influences globally.

We need not duplicate the practices of the past butlook to recreate them in the context of all ourexperiences, including the pre-colonial and the post-modern. The future may remain hidden. We view briefglimpses of what is possible through curtains not yet fullyraised.

And yet this is a good thing as it gives us somethingto look forward to over the next 40 years, and that is thecontinual unveiling of new Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander forms of production.

Liza-Mare Syron is a descendant from the Birripipeople of Tuncurry, northern NSW. She is currently the Senior Aboriginal Cultural Development Officerat Arts NSW.

Above: Liza-Mare Syron. Photo: courtesy of Liza-Mare Syron.

Black Theatre then and nowBy Liza-Mare Syron


Blood-red moonI am really inspired by nature. I think for me a visual highlight was the blood-red moon in June 2011 – it was just so amazingly surreal. The Marina Abramovic retrospective at MOMA in New York was a wonderfulshow of a deserving artist. I like that an artist can be as recognised as she isand be alive to experience it. The Artist is Present was so simple, just her in achair looking into the eyes of an audience member. What it revealed to me isjust how distant we are from each other as a human family and how wecollectively yearn on some level to be embraced and acknowledged. — Christian Thompson

Our art a forceThe highlight of the past 40 years is the appearance of Indigenous art as aforce in Australia – full stop. We can go and see artworks in the regions,the cities and overseas. I like the fact that there is so much variety today.Indigenous artists are coming from all sorts of levels, with all sorts of ideasand practices. There is a good mix of pasts and futures to pump up ourpresent realities of Australia. In the 21st century, I hope that more of uscan make a living at it.— Destiny Deacon

Still going strongI started painting in the 1980s, so I’ve been working for nearly 40 years. I really want to continue working for a long time, 50 or 60 years. SometimesI’m busy with other things, but I always get in and paint. I’ve been around along time and I know what it’s like. It’s been really great. It’s a hard job but I did some really good work. I can help solve problems. I speak to manypeople and I like going to Sydney and Melbourne. I make myself a goodname, for me, Bobby, and try to make it better for my children in the future.I looked at it and I thought about it and the young people are doing goodwork, but I’d like to see more happen. I like to see it continue becausethat’s the only way for each other. Four of my children are artists. Thatmakes me proud. My son Jeremiah wants to be an artist like me. I’m teaching him and my nephew. — Bobby West Tjupurrula

Bennett spoke to meIn 1999, I saw History and Memory in the Art of Gordon Bennett at the Museum ofBrisbane. It was the first art exhibition I ever attended and it changed my life forever,Bennett’s paintings spoke to me. Not long after, I discovered Tracey Moffatt’sScarred for Life (1994) photographic series which looked at issues associated withthe human condition, including race, gender, and sexuality. Both these artistsopened up a whole new world of possibilities and showed me that art did not justhave to be a beautiful picture but could also comment on the political, social andcultural. Bennett and Moffatt opened many doors and their stance has helpedartists in this country stand on a level playing field with their internationalcontemporaries. What I hope to see over the course of this century is for all artmade by Aboriginal people to be seen as contemporary art. — Tony Albert

Photo: Nadine Saacks.

Photo: Andrew McLeod.

Photo: Papunya Tula Artists.

Visual arts voicesVisual artists talk about art: past, present and future

Creating the 21st century: Visual arts



There have been so many milestones in the past 40years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists,but I think two key achievements have helped

advance the visual arts. One is the formation of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Arts Board. In terms of self-determination, this isone of our major achievements. The second is the growthof urban-based artist cooperatives such as Boomalli inSydney, as well as the growing number of art centres inregional and remote areas. Both of these areas of artisticendeavour have helped to build on the political precedentset by movements such as the Tent Embassy.

We’ve also been privileged to see so many talentedand groundbreaking artists paving the way over the pastfour decades. Lin Onus was particularly influential, notjust because he was a highly-regarded artist, but also forhis very important role as an arts administratorchampioning artists’ rights. There have been so manyothers who have also played a vital role; people like Mick Namarari Tjapaltjarri, one of the Papunya Tula artists– he was a quiet achiever and worked without muchfanfare in a career that spanned 30 years. Theincorporation of the Papunya Tula Artists Cooperative in 1972 was another indication of the benefits of self-determination.

Yvonne Koolmatrie is another influential artist whorevitalised the cultural traditions of her people bothnationally and internationally, representing Australia atmajor events such as the Venice Biennale, along withJudy Watson and Emily Kam Ngwarray. They were joinedon the international circuit by people like Rover Thomasand Trevor Nickolls, who exhibited at the 1990 Biennale.

One of the many other inspiring artists is Destiny Deacon. Her achievements are a standout forme, not just for her international renown, but because shehas been a real mentor and has encouraged people like

Christian Thompson, who is now studying for hisdoctorate at Oxford University. Then of course there’sJohn Mawurndjul – who recently had a Europeanretrospective, which is not bad for a bark painter!

That’s something else that has changed over the last40 years – artists such as Destiny and John, who havesuch different approaches, are now having their workshown side-by-side as Indigenous art.

We’ve come a long way, but I think if we are going tocontinue to grow we need to find more opportunities forour people to participate on the arts administration side ofthe fence, in all of the art forms.

We need places for up-and-coming curators orconservators or scriptwriters or set designers. We needmore behind-the-scenes people, and I think in this regardwe’ve got a ways to go.

First and foremost, we need our own cultural centre,as the appreciation here for our art and culture is not asdeep or pervasive as it could be. My dream for the 21stcentury would be to have a very large, flagship nationalcultural institution that is properly supported like the largemuseums in Europe and America. A big bucks, big deal,big-noting institution – that’s what we need to be able todo justice to the body of work that is out there.

It’s long overdue and we deserve the political will andsupport for that. It’s not only the obvious thing to do, it’salso the right thing to do.

Eastern Arrernte and Kalkadoon woman Hetti Perkinswas the Senior Curator of Aboriginal and Torres StraitIslander Art at the Art Gallery of New South Wales(1998–2011), as well as the curator for major Indigenousart exhibitions internationally. She is currently residentcurator at Bangarra Dance Theatre.

Above: Hetti Perkins with Water Brain (Rusty Peters).Photo: Susie Hagon, courtesy Jirrawun Arts.

Past milestones and big futureBy Hetti Perkins

www.australiacouncil.gov.au/top50Indigenoussongs

Journeys throughIndigenous musicFive music professionals talk about their all-time favourite black songs.

Grant Burns, Chief Executive Officer,Abmusic, PerthTook the Children Away Archie RoachThe song is so powerful it renders theaudience speechless every time Archieperforms it.

A Change is Gonna Come Ruby HunterThe song has the most incredible introduction that displayshow unique and powerful her voice was. Dancing in the Moonlight Coloured StoneI remember seeing Bunna Lawrie perform this song liveplaying guitar and didge at the same time!

Alex Doomadgee, Music Coordinator, Gadigal Music, SydneyBlackfella/Whitefella Warumpi BandWithout doubt the greatest Aboriginal rocksong and protest song of all time! We Have Survived No Fixed Address

This song is associated with every land rights rally, marchand protest that has ever taken place. Black Boy Coloured StoneThe first video clip from one of our iconic Aboriginal bands,plus the words are empowering and meaningful.

Jessie Lloyd, Artistic Director, SonglinesMusic Aboriginal Corporation, MelbourneAfterglow Jimmy ChiThis song is one of the most beautiful lovesongs ever from one of the original Bran Nue Dae cast. Gubberdee King Kadu

This is a wonderful narrative style song from the TorresStraits, beautifully told and sung.Moodjebing DjivaA moving story about a forgotten Aboriginal reserve in WestAustralia, with great movement and dynamics.

Michael Smith, CAAMA Music, Alice SpringsCoolibah Frank YammaMy favourite: the story, the emotion and thephrasing all come together to evoke anemotional response.

Blackfella/Whitefella Warumpi BandThis song is so funky and gets stuck in my head.Sometimes I wake up singing the chorus. An anthem.Prisoner Lajamanu Teenage BandThe feel of this song is totally Central Australian! It has all ofthe core elements of ‘desert reggae’.

Robert Lee, Station Manager, Radio Goolarri, BroomeAlien Nation Archie RoachThe lyrics leave it up to your imagination andhow you feel at the time you hear it. I feel heis singing about my past sometimes.

Me and My Hot Bottle of Wine Fitzroy XpressThis track is a great love song. If you’re from this area youwill understand the lyrics are a bit tongue-in-cheek.Last Train Christine AnuThis was the first of Christine’s tracks that I think made hernoticeable on the music front. It’s still very catchy.


50MUST LISTENBLACK SONGS

Took The Children AwayArchie Roach

Truck Drivin’ Woman Auriel Andrew

My Brown Skin Baby They Take Him Away

Bob Randall

Are You With Me Out There!Brotha Black

Underlying Message Busby Marou

Last Regret Casey Donovan

My Island Home Christine Anu

Black Boy Coloured Stone

Your Love is Like a Song Dan Sultan

Gumbayngirr Lady Emma Donovan

You Better Run Footprince

Everybody’s Talking Frank Yamma

Bapa Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu

Blues Down Under Georgia Lee

Redfern Girl Glenn Skuthorpe

Running Back Jessica Mauboy

Nothing I Would Rather BeJimmy Chi

Yorta Yorta Man Jimmy Little

Yil Lull Joe Geia

Thou Shalt Not Steal Kev Carmody

From Little Things Big Things GrowKev Carmody and Paul Kelly

Geygi King Kadu

Vision Lajamanu Teenage Band

50 MUST LISTEN BLACK SONGS

An-Barra Clan Letterstick Band

Blackfellas Local Knowledge

Malabar Mansion Mac Silva

Frangipani Land Mills Sisters

Aboriginal Woman Mixed Relations

Brisbane BlacksMop & the Dropouts

We Have Survived No Fixed Address

Music Makes Me Happy Oka

My Blood My People Patrick Mau

Black Baptism Radical Son

Koori Rose Roger Knox

Down City Streets Ruby Hunter

Swept Away Shellie Morris

Balooraman The Last Kinection

Joseph The Medics

Nowhere Else But Here The Pigram Brothers

Inside My Kitchen Tiddas

Hunters and Gatherers Tjimba and the Yung Warriors

They Don’t Make ‘Em Like That Anymore

Troy Casser-Daley

Genocide Us Mob

Stranger In My Country Vic Simms

Raining On The Rock Warren H Williams and John Williamson

Blackfella/Whitefella Warumpi Band

That’s How I Go For You Wilma Reading

Face My Music Wire MC

Treaty Yothu Yindi

Simplified Zennith

Arts Yarn Up: 50 must listen Indigenous songsTo celebrate the achievements of Indigenous musicians,Arts Yarn Up has compiled ‘50 Must Listen Black Songs’– you’ll find the bookmark in this edition. Of course, thelist is by no means definitive, so let us know if you haveany other favourites. Happy listening.


Jimmy Little Foundation: www.jlf.org.au

ValeDr Jimmy Little AO

‘I just want people to remember me as a nice personwho was fair-minded and had a bit of talent that [he] putto good use.’ – Jimmy Little, ABC Talking HeadsProgram Transcript, 2005

On 2 April 2012, Aboriginal and Torres Strait IslanderAustralians lost an artist of immeasurable talent whosesix-decade musical career made him a role model, elderand father figure. His passing is a great loss for allAustralians.

Jimmy, fondly known as ‘Uncle Jimmy’, was alegendary musician, statesman and true gentleman. From topping the music charts with songs like ‘Royal Telephone’ in the 1960s, to working with Aboriginalhealth and literacy in the last decade of his life, Jimmy wasa highly visible advocate for Aboriginal culture and identity.

‘[My parents] taught me well about the value of life,freedom, love, respect – all those basic things that weneed. As vaudevillians, I loved them. It was part of mydream to follow in the footsteps of Mum and Dad. I’mso proud that I was able to do that.’ – Jimmy Little,ABC Talking Heads Program Transcript, 2005

Jimmy Little was born James Oswald Little, the eldest ofseven children, at Cummeragunja Mission on the MurrayRiver in Victoria. He was a Yorta Yorta (mother Frances) andYuin Man (father James Little Snr); the son of travellingmusicians who began his musical career aged 13.

Jimmy had fond memories of his upbringing atCummeragunja Mission and Wallaga Lake in New SouthWales. He met his wife Marjorie Peters in Redfern andmarried in 1958. He is survived by his daughter, Frances Peters Little, and grandson, James Henry Little.

A pioneer of the music industry for Aboriginal andTorres Strait Islander people, Jimmy released his firstsingle ‘Mysteries of Life’ in 1956, aged 18. He was singerwith the All-Coloured Revue, a touring band in the 1960s,and his first hit single, the gospel song ‘Royal Telephone’,came in 1963—a time when few Aboriginal performerstook the spotlight.

Jimmy was very proud of his identity as an Aboriginalman, advocating a gentle but persistent approach toAboriginal rights and reconciliation. His songs have alwayssupported this sentiment, from his 1958 recording of ‘Give the Coloured Boy a Chance’, to his 1995 album Yorta Yorta Man. Recording 34 albums in total, other notabletracks included ‘Danny Boy’ (1959) and ‘Baby Blue’ (1974).

In the 1980s he took a break from his music to teach atEora College – Sydney Institute TAFE – and focus on acting.He performed in the play Black Cockatoos (1998), in artistTracey Moffat’s short film Night Cries (1989) and directorWim Wenders’ film Until the End of the World (1991).

In 1999, his music career made a triumphant returnwith the hugely successful album Messenger (1999). Hewas inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame, and received aDeadly Award for ‘Male Artist of the Year’ and ‘Best Album’ that year.

In 2004 he received the Order of Australia Medal forhis music achievements and work towards reconciliation,and became one of Australia’s National Living Treasures,an accolade awarded to people who have madeoutstanding contributions to Australian society in any field.In 2011, he received the Ted Albert Award for his lifetimecontribution to the Australian music industry.

Jimmy suffered kidney failure in 2002 and received akidney transplant in 2004—the same year he won the Red Ochre Award.

‘Unfortunately, I didn’t get check-ups often enough orsoon enough to realise the possibility that my kidneys couldfail. When my doctor told me I had kidney failure, it was likebeing hit by a bolt of lightning,’ Jimmy said in 2002.

His medication brought on diabetes and healthbecame Jimmy’s primary focus. He established the JimmyLittle Foundation to promote healthy living to Aboriginalchildren and raise awareness of diabetes around Australia.Jimmy was also an ambassador for Indigenous literacy.

We are all more enriched having had him in our livesand extend our sincere sympathies to his family, friendsand associates.

A memorial service and celebration concert was held forUncle Jimmy at the Sydney Opera House on 3 May 2012.

Above: Jimmy Little. Photo: John Ogden.


The two of us

Actor Jack Charles and Rachael Maza, artisticdirector of Ilbijerri Theatre Company, have known ofeach other since the early 1970s. As the daughter ofTorres Strait Islander actor Bob Maza, Rachael sawmany of Jack’s early performances. In 2010, theycame together to produce Jack Charles v the Crown,the one-man show of Jack’s colourful life, with theIlbijerri Theatre Company.

RACHAEL’S STORYI don’t remember a specific time I met Uncle Jackbecause he’s always been there. Growing up as a little kidin those early theatre days, Jack was just there.

I have quite a vivid memory of him and that’s becauseit was so shocking. These two whitefellas came out onstage, they each had on an old stage soldier’s uniform likethey’d come off an 18th century boat. They came outholding him under his armpits and a young Jack Charleswas absolutely naked. I just remembered ‘Omigod, he’sabsolutely starkers!’ I think I was six or seven years old.I’ve since learned that was called the Cradle of Herculesand it was at the Opera House and Uncle Jack wasplaying Bennelong.

He’s always been there and he’s always popped upthroughout my life. He was always walking around Fitzroy.He’s this kind of mysterious character. I didn’t know himintimately, but I’d know him and slip him a Redback orsomething. My impression is always of how charming heis – wouldn’t hurt a fly. Always got the time of day to havea conversation. He’d lend you the money for that

Redback if he had it, even if it meant he had nothing left inhis pocket.

Uncle Jack was appearing in the theatre sporadically. I saw him in the occasional production like the play Dead Heart by Nick Parsons. One thing that stood out –when I did see him perform – was that voice. It alwayscaught me off guard – that this huge resonant voice couldcome out of that tiny little body!

I was certainly aware of his reputation of not alwaysbeing reliable because of his habit. You figured that whenyou did bump into him and he’d rub you for a 20 orwhatever, that he’s probably off to get a hit or something.

When I saw Bastardy, I was absolutely bowled over athis incredible courage to be so candid and so generous intelling his story. It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen.He was able to give us an insight into a world we wouldnever have the opportunity of going into.

Only days later I was blubbering to him: ‘Omigod, youare amazing. That was an incredible documentary!’ And hewanted to give all the credit to Amiel [the director]. I boldythrew him the idea that we should do a stage show. His response was so unflinching, so absolute, that I wasbowled over.

Jack Charles is the most professional consummateactor/writer I’ve ever seen. He never lets his ego get in theway. He’s constantly generous and he trusts and hasconfidence in you. The week before the first show at theMelbourne International Arts Festival in 2010, it was stillbeing written and rewritten. I was having a nervousbreakdown! Uncle Jack never once chucked a ‘tanty’ or got


www.ilbijerri.com.au

down in the dumps. Yet he was the only person on thestage to face the audience and potentially get egg on hisface. Then I realised – here’s a man who’s lived this life. Thisis just a play. He’s seen much worse than just a play. Noone’s dying. No one’s going to die.

Ilbijerri developed the play Coranderrk, which Jack alsoperformed in, at the same time as Jack Charles v the Crown.While researching Coranderrk, we delved into the life ofJack’s great-great-grandfather, John Charles. We weresurprised to see his personal family story falling into place aswe worked on both shows. We’re telling Jack’s story at thesame time he is discovering his own story.

It’s the super highlight of my career to be able to have amoment like this, to see the work that we’ve created withJack Charles v the Crown. None of that would havehappened if Jack didn’t want to tread the boards at the ageof 69. Australia wants and needs to hear Uncle Jack’s story.

JACK’S STORYMy umbilical cord was cut at the Royal Women’s Hospital,Grattan Street, Carlton on 9 September 1943. Naturally,under the assimilations policy, and as a ‘half-caste’, I wassnitched from my mother’s breast, made a ‘ward of the state’and placed into a babies home in Brunswick.

When I reached the age of two, I was placed into theSalvation Army Box Hill Boys’ Home, opposite the big watertower on the corner of Elgar and Canterbury Roads. I spentmy formative years living there as the one and only person ofAboriginal heritage.

When I turned 14, I was fostered out to a family innearby Blackburn and directed by the AboriginalProtection Board to work as an apprentice glass beveller.When I qualified, I visited Fitzroy and Collingwood insearch of family and other Aboriginals. After that, my lifeseemed to take many a wrong turn along a crooked roadand I ended up lost in a criminal world of crime, drink andjail time.

Bastardy, the documentary about my life, gives a no-holds-barred account of my struggles. The documentarywas done to educate white Australia, through one stolenperson’s miserable existence—mine. It was done in thenational interest and with an aching need to display to thenation that I was totally powerless against the strong pullof a heroin addiction. I’ve not received any payments; Iwasn’t interested in that.

Suffice to say, I received a total cathartic healing andawareness of sorts and consequently am richer by farfrom the experience. I enjoyed giving of myself and mycircumstances, to the enquiring minds of the youngdocumentary-maker and his student mate Amiel Courtin-Wilson.

When my good friend Rachael Maza saw Bastardy onthe ABC, she quickly rang to seek my interest indeveloping a stage version. We had long monthscollaborating with my dramaturg mate John Romeril, andgave birth to Jack Charles v the Crown.

The show gave my profile a rise nationally and amongthose in the great struggle to stem the tide consuming allour communities. Since we premiered the show in 2010 inMelbourne, my life has changed markedly. My profile hasrisen to the stratosphere and beyond.

Working with Rachael has been a great journey. I let her into my world of the images of my great-great-grandfather John Charles, obtained from the Koorie Heritage Trust archives, and along came the scriptfor the show Coranderrk.

When the cast travelled to meet the family anddescendants at Healesville, I got to know more aboutJohn Charles, the Dja Dja Wurrung man from the Bendigoregion of central Victoria.

It makes me feel more complete to have found out thisinformation while I’ve been working at Ilbijerri. Rachael’sbeen doing absolute wonders maintaining connections tocountry—in theatre and life.

I place my good fortunes and future prospects firmly atthe feet of Bob Maza’s daughter, Rachael, and the mob atIlbijerri Theatre. I acknowledge and respect Rachael’swisdom, guidance and forbearance in this ongoingjourney and will always be indebted to her for a friendshipwell-forged.

Rachael has thankfully worked with me at an extremelysenior pace and her mind is ever watchful whenIndigenous issues arise which could enhance myperformances.

Rachael has even got me onto the lattes. I was a cupof tea man before I joined the latte set. I can’t startrehearsing nowadays unless I’ve my take away latte!

Rachael, Ilbijerri and myself make a formidable trifecta.Above left: Jack Charles and Rachael Maza. Photo: David Johns.

ROUND UPATSIA Board Fellowships

Gamilaroi man Reko Rennie was the 2009 recipient of the three-monthresidency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Photo: Bindi Cole.

50 must listen black songsinside this edition of Arts Yarn Up

50MUST LISTENBLACK SONGS

Took The Children Away

Archie Roach

Truck Drivin’ Woman Auriel Andrew

My Brown Skin Baby

They Take Him Away

Bob Randall

Are You With Me Out There!

Brotha Black

Underlying Message Busby Marou

Last Regret Casey Donovan

My Island Home Christine Anu

Black Boy Coloured Stone

Your Love is Like a Song Dan Sultan

Gumbayngirr Lady Emma Donovan

You Better Run Footprince

Everybody’s Talking Frank Yamma

G ff Gurrumul YunupinguAustralia Council for the Arts 372 Elizabeth Street Surry Hills NSW 2010PO Box 788 Strawberry Hills 2012T 02 9215 9000 • Toll-free 1800 226 912 • TTY 1800 555 677 • F 02 9215 [email protected] • www.australiacouncil.gov.au

New WorkThe closing dates for grants that support thecreation of new artworks by Aboriginal and/or TorresStrait Islander artists for public presentation are 16 July and 19 November 2012.

Presentation and PromotionThe closing date for grants to present and promoteAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artists andtheir work to audiences in Australia and overseasclose on 16 July and 19 November 2012.

Skills and Arts DevelopmentApplications for grants that support excellence in thearts by providing professional developmentopportunities for artists close on 16 July and 19 November 2012.

Indigenous Arts Workers ProgramThe closing date for grants that provide funding foran Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artsorganisation to employ an Indigenous arts worker is16 July 2012.

FellowshipsThe closing date for Fellowships for visual arts andliterature projects is 19 November 2012.

National Indigenous Arts InfrastructureProgram – Building categoryThe closing date for outstanding Aboriginal and/orTorres Strait Islander Arts organisations in theBuilding category (three years funding) is 16 July 2012.

Red Ochre AwardThis award recognises an Aboriginal and/or TorresStrait Islander artist for a lifetime of achievement inthe arts. Nominations close 19 November 2012.

Dreaming AwardThis award is for young and emerging Aboriginaland/or Torres Strait Islander artists aged 18-26years. Applications close 19 November 2012.

Cité ResidencyThe closing date for a three-month residency for anAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist,commencing in mid 2013 at the Cité Internationaledes Arts in Paris, is 16 July 2012.

Kluge-Ruhe ResidencyThe closing date for a two-month residency for anAboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander artist,commencing in early 2013 at the University ofVirginia, Kluge-Ruhe, is 16 July 2012.

For further information contact ATSIA’sProgram Team on 02 9215 9067, email [email protected], or visitwww.australiacouncil.gov.au/grants.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Board Fellowship grantsprovide established Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanderartists with financial support to develop a major creativeproject or program. Fellowship grants are available as follows:

2012: Available for visual arts and literature projects only.

2013: Available for music and theatre projects only.

2014: Available for dance and hybrid and cross-arts projects.

2015: Available for arts administration and visual arts.

For more information visit:www.australiacouncil.gov.au/atsia/fellowships or call amember of the ATSIA team.

Australia Council grant closing dates for 2012

arts yarn up - autumn 2012

Documents

bran nue dae

torres strait islanders

vernon ah kee

brown skin baby

macquarie pen anthology

black arm band

dr anita heiss

red ochre award