October 2011
2 posts
SINGING YANYUWA IDENTITY
This chorus is a rough...
September 2011
7 posts
An example of a collaborative song between Shellie...
The title track, ‘Winanjjara’, from...
August 2011
15 posts
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SINGING INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
THE INDIVISIBILITY OF LAW, COUNTRY AND KIN woven through the knowledge from the SONG PEOPLES.
The Song Peoples Sessions, is a collaboration between traditional and...
THE KNOWLEDGE KEEPERS
The Warumungu Songmen commenced their recordings at WMC tonight. After considerable reunions, yarning and consultation, the appropriate songs were selected and the metadata collected before recording commenced.
The songs sung and recorded included public songs about the Flying Fox - Pirttangu, Dog - Kunapa and Turkey Kurtinja dreamings and totems that represent...
WINANJJIKARI MUSIC CENTRE - SINGING FOR BELONGING
Thanks to Adrian McNamara and his crew at Winanjjikari, consultations and planning with the Warumungu Song Peoples have been under way in Tennant Creek over the last week. Mark Johnny has joined the team and is working closely with his old mate Lex Holt to liaise with all of the elders involved in the recording. They are planning the songs to...
THE SONG PEOPLES SESSIONS returns to TENNANT CREEK to work with WARUMUNGU, WARLMANPA and ALYAWARR Song People.
Ancient songs have echoed for thousands of years throughout what is now the Barkly Region of the Northern Territory. From the Barkly Tablelands to Banka Banka Station, Phillip Creek Mission to Attack Creek and from Jurnkurakurr to the Gosse River and the Davenport Ranges the Barkly...
WINANJJIKARI MUSIC CENTRE - INDUSTRY TRAINING
WMC is improving the music industry skills of their crew through daily Pro Tools workshops with Tim Cole in the recording sessions. Mark Smerdon is providing daily musical notation classes to develop the WMC musicians’ musical literacy.
More songs, more music, more gigs, more recordings!
SONG PEOPLES SESSIONS - KEEPING LANGUAGES STRONG at the WINANJJIKARI MUSIC CENTRE
The translations begin!
Valda Shannon and Heather Rosas have been translating some of Warren’s songs from English into Warumungu and helping with the correct pronunciations and phrasing for the recordings. ‘You gotta grab that language, youngfella,’ Valda said to Warren. ‘That’s...
FIRST STUDIO SESSION
The first Warumungu recordings started today at WMC. Warren was able to record his first song in Warumungu thanks to the Plummer family (Rosemary, Ronald, Cameron and Desmond) who assisted with translations and interpreting.
More to come tomorrow!
SONGMAN WARREN H WILLIAMS: RETURNS TO WARUMUNGU COUNTRY
Warren H Williams has arrived at the Winanjjiakri Music Centre to begin the Song People Sessions in Tennant Creek working with his grandmother’s Warumungu family to write and compose new songs in local languages.
A big thank you to Jeremy Finlayson for assisting with an active day preparing the WMC studio for the recordings!
The Borroloola and McArthur River Song Women
YANYUWA PEOPLES
GARRAWA PEOPLES
GURDANJI PEOPLES
BAWUJI!!!!
Thanks to all the Borroloola and McArthur River people for hosting us. Off to Tennant Creek now, we hope to come back soon!
The Borroloola and McArthur River Song Women performed dances for the Song Peoples Sessions crew at the end of the pilot recording to wish us well on our journeys home. We were treated to a great day with the families sharing the songs from the project,...
LAYERS OF LANGUAGE MAINTENANCE AND MUSIC MAKING
Leanne Norman, Joanne Miller and Mavis Timothy interpreted, transcribed and translated lyrics of the traditional Yanyuwa songs and, along with Mr Lansen and Whylo McKinnon, shared their knowledge of the composition and historical context of the traditional Yanyuwa, Garrawa and Gurdanji songs.
CONTEMPORARY COLLABORATIONS
Leanne and Joanne also...
BLENDING THE TRADITIONAL WITH THE CONTEMPORARY
After a week of recording over 35 traditional Indigenous language songs with Yanyuwa, Garrawa and Gurdanji singers, Shellie Morris is now working on new compositions, paying respect to the ancient melodies and stories from her grandmother’s Yanyuwa country in the Borroloola region.
INTERGENERATIONAL LANGUAGE TRANSFER
Teaching language to...
ISLANDS FIELD RECORDING
Thanks to Chris Francis and his team at the li-Anthawirriyarra Sea Rangers who organised the boat travel to West Island today. They took the Yanyuwa singers out to sing country and to do some field recordings on location. After quite a journey we sat in the shade of the casuarina trees at the back of the beach. The singers sang some beautiful songs based on the island...
July 2011
1 post
June 2011
6 posts
April 2011
7 posts
RECORDING TRADITIONAL YANYUWA SONGS
This is a...
SOLID STUDIO SESSION
The second day of solid recording on the Barkly Regional Arts/Winanjjikari Music Centre Song Peoples Sessions… There is a lot of discussion among and with the singers and interpreters about the meaning of the songs. Each word in each line of the songs is so full of implied meaning and subtle references that a song of several words tells a whole story. Saving those...
SONGS CONNECTING PEOPLE TO COUNTRY
Today’s photos are from a trip outside Borroloola yesterday to Devil’s Spring, where we were lucky enough to be taken by one of the Gurdanji singers, Elizabeth Lansen, who lives there with her family…
and… ROLLING..!
Thanks to Peter Callinan and the crew at Waralungku Arts everything has come together really well and this morning we got the recordings underway. The process involved talking with the singers to collect all the information, or ‘archival metadata’ in technical terms, including the composer, the performers and who is the keeper of the song…
Meanwhile the local guys...
WINANJJIKARI - MUSIC INDUSTRY TRAINING
Members of the Sandridge Band and the Mabunji media unit attended a range of music industry training delivered by Mark Smerdon and Tim Cole to assist with the recording project, including setting up the studio, tuning instruments and tracking the recording schedule.
WINANJJIKARI MUSIC:
BRINGING PROFESSIONAL RECORDING SERVICES TO THE BUSH.
It’s been a long time coming but the MILR-funded Song Peoples Project is getting underway. The initial ground work had been laid over the last few months but there was still plenty to be done before the first song was going to be recorded. The first job after the long drive up from Tennant Creek was setting up...
CONSULTATION:
RESPECTING CUSTOMARY LAW and PROTECTING INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
Before anything could get underway, consultation with the community was essential to ensure there was a mutual understanding of all the responsibilities for recording, maintaining and archiving traditional song materials.
There had to be meetings to discuss contracts and to clearly let people know their rights in...