CLICK! Pictures of our Music, Stories in our Songs - Indigenous Musicians from the Northern Territory

Photo of Roy Ashleigh, Wugularr 2007 (Beswick NT) by Rusty Stewart

Click! Pictures of our Music, Stories in our Songs is an exciting touring exhibition which will bring to light images and stories from many locations of the Northern Territory’s rich heritage in Indigenous music. The Click! project will tell some of the special stories and illuminate the creative and family relationships that connect NT Indigenous musicians across time and space, using photography, text, video, objects and audio as the basis for these narratives. Click! will provide a map of the NT Indigenous musical landscape as living history.

The Northern Territory is home to some of Australia’s most original and important performing and recording musicians. Most of these artists are Indigenous. From renowned acts like the Warumpi Band, Yothu Yindi, Warren H Williams, Sunrize Band, Letterstick Band, Frank Yamma, and most recently, Gurrumul and Jessica Mauboy, to long-standing desert rockers like The Lajamanu Teenage Band, large Top End ensembles like the Saltwater Band, younger bands like NocKturnl, community choirs, and traditional ceremonial musicians, NT Indigenous musical heritage is vast and vibrant. It is rich with stories of how music draws and keeps communities together and how performing, recording and distributing music has amplified Indigenous voices on their own terms.

Over the past thirty years, the Northern Territory’s Indigenous recorded music output has included some of the nation’s most unique and popular sounds. Musicians are respected and celebrated role models who traverse multiple cultural terrains to give voice to their unique worlds, visions and experiences. It is not uncommon for a lead musician to also be a ceremonial leader, a grand-parent or great-grand-parent or a community development worker, or a teacher, or an aspiring young spokesperson. All are cultural storytellers who value music as a positive community experience that connects performers and their audiences.

We envisage Click! as a superb exhibition of images, videos and other related items accompanied by stories presented in a variety of media. Together these elements will demonstrate the richness of the cultural heritage and the strength and complexities of the historic and current NT Indigenous musical scene. Click! will tour nationally. Story and image elements will also be repatriated to communities at the roots of this unparalleled industry.

The project in 2010 will focus on the Barkly and Central Desert regions and Arnhem Land, with Artback NT working closely in the following communities:
Ntaria (Hermannsburg) Region
Lisa Stefanoff has been working with members of the Williams family and the Hermannsburg Choir and is in the community again in June / July. Anyone wanting to talk with Lisa is welcome to contact her on the number and email address below.
Barkly (Tennant Creek) Region
Skye Raabe will be in Tennant Creek again during June and early July.

CLICK! - supported by Arts NT, Regional Arts Fund and Artback NT
Contact Us: If you have images or information you would like to contribute, or if you would like to be involved in some other way, please contact the Project Manager on eo@artbacknt.com.au