National Indigenous Music Awards
It's been a big year for Indigenous music. This month the National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA) will set the stage on fire with hip-shaking rock n' roll, sublime singing, powerful hip-hop and a big dose of culture.
By Rosa Ellen.
This year’s line-up covers so many genres and up-and-coming artists, you better be sure to get your spot on the Darwin Amphitheatre lawn – the 2017 NIMAs is an event you’ll want to say you were at.
Big acts like Dan Sultan, hip-hop duo A.B. Original, Busby Marou, Thelma Plum and Gawurra have all released new albums while rising stars including the NT’s Baker Boy, Emily Wurramara and lush electronic duo Electric Fields, have released EPs.
“This is going to make it a really competitive awards, which is exciting,” says Mark Smith, Executive Director of MusicNT.
As the first Yolngu-rapping singer and dancer to grace Australian air waves, Danzal Baker – aka Baker Boy – has made a splash with his uplifting, bravado-filled Cloud 9 and will perform at the NIMAs for the first time as the winner of Triple J’s Unearthed NIMA competition.
“It was kind of a shock when they first told me,” Baker told Off The Leash in between flights from his hometown of Milingimbi to Melbourne.
Baker Boy has won national attention with his deft dual-language lyrics and stage presence, but back home, Cloud 9 passions are running even higher.
“When I call my dad and I ask what’s happening at home, he says ‘oh it’s going good. Some of them heard you on the radio.’ I’ve also got phone calls from Elcho Island where all the kids there are just blasting Cloud 9 and walking through the streets in the middle of the night and singing along.”
Like Emily Wurramara and Alice Springs folk-rockers Apakatjah, Baker Boy is one of a number of artists to sing in language in a growing range of musical styles – and the lyrics hit home.
“It seems that’s the style now, singing language in commercial music,” says Dion Forrester from Apakatjah, who sing in Luritja “and a bit of Pitjantjatjara and Arrernte.”
Meanwhile, 20-year-old Emily Wurramara has been touring her debut EP Black Smoke, a pared-back, honeyed folk-roots collection sung in English and Anindilyakwa, the language of Groote Eylandt.
"'Black Smoke’ is about sitting around a campfire and connecting with the souls around you. Smoke traditionally is very healing, it gets rid of the negative energy, it calls out to ancestors,” says Wurramara.
Though she lives and gigs in Brisbane, Wurramara returned to Groote earlier this year to teach music classes to girls.
“If I had my way I’d just get on a boat from Numbulwarr (all the time),” she laughs.
“I’m the only female from Groote who sings and plays instruments and I’m hoping that when I go back I see some little sisters and little aunties doing it too.”
This year Wurramara performed with Lean Flanagan and Dan Sultan for the show 1967: Music In the Key of Yes and she agrees it’s been a politically significant year, with the anniversaries of the 1967 referendums that allowed Aboriginal people to vote and the Uluru referendum on Aboriginal recognition in the Constitution.
“It’s been very political, in regards to all the marches. The Invasion Day march was insane, and what’s happening with the NT Royal Commission.”
In 2016 NIMA headliners A.B. Original – rappers Briggs and Trials – released their politically charged album Reclaim Australia including the powerful single ‘January 26’.
This year the duo is joined by Paul Kelly, Sultan, Flanagan and 2016 NIMA winner Gawurra, plus a bevy of first-time NIMA artists.
“Just getting up there and meeting people and being a part of the NIMAs will be an amazing honour for us,” says Apakatjah’s Forrester, who will perform with band member Jonathan Lindsay-Tjapaltjarri Hermawan.
“You’ve got a lot of up-and-coming bands on the scene at the moment from all over Australia, all different styles of music and we’re all kicking goals.”
Sat 12 Aug | 7pm | Darwin Botanic Gardens Amphitheatre
