SHORTLIST The Age Book of the Year

CULTURE AND LIFE ASATURDAY, JULY2 31, 2010

Songs from the heart A cross-cultural journey across music and time

Heide Museum of Modern Art

NATAGE G001 10 A2 SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 Cover story Liza Power relives a remarkable meeting of music and culture. Crossing the divide HE fi rst time Paul tended sports fi eld, home of the beloved Grabowsky visited the Bulldogs football team. remote In his fi rst days, Teakle introduced township of , he Grabowsky to town elder Kevin Rogers thought he had travelled and Benjamin Wilfred, the latter to a different country. being the grandson of the celebrated People spoke a different indigenous painter Djambu “Sambo” language, Kriol, a lyrical melding of Burra Burra, a custodian of traditional pidginT English and multiple indigenous law for the Wagilak people. Wilfred, tongues. The landscape was painted from who has since given Grabowsky a skin a palette of greens, reds and blues that name and adopted him into his clan, was as foreign as the scents he breathed. remembers meeting “a crazy white man. The music he heard — particularly for a He just come one day and want to learn man who has savoured almost every about our music. So I start to teach him rhythm and melody from around the stories of our culture.” globe — was tantalisingly unfamiliar. Ngukurr is home to eight indigenous But Grabowsky hadn’t needed a groups; the tribes fl ed to the refuge of passport to make the journey. His trip the town’s Anglican mission after being coincided with the end of the wet season in 2004, so after leaving Darwin around CDs — “some New York recordings, to dawn, travelling south to Katherine and give them an idea of the shape, energy Mataranka and then east along the Roper and feel of the music I make” — and Highway to Roper Bar, he found the river asked if he could return with his too high to cross. The fi nal leg of the orchestra. The bemused songmen trip was taken by barge, and he reached said yes. Ngukurr as if it were an island. Which, for In July 2005, Grabowsky and Teakle several months a year, when the Roper returned to Ngukurr, bringing with them and Wilton rivers swell with rain and rush the late , and for the Gulf of Carpentaria, is precisely 10 members of Grabowsky’s Australian what it is. Art Orchestra. The journey wasn’t easy. Grabowsky’s guide to Ngukurr was Phil Rex remembers strapping his double one of his former VCA students, Stephen bass to the roof of a 4WD and praying Teakle. The erstwhile jazz afi cionado the rough, pothole-ridden roads had been based in Darwin for fi ve years; wouldn’t bruise the instrument. he’d become a teacher himself, working Saxophonist Tony Hicks, who had with Charles Darwin University’s music imagined Ngukurr as a “green, tropical outreach program. Teakle, who had paradise”, instead found himself always enthralled his teacher with his marooned in a hot brown dust bowl. It adventures — from breaking horses in was the middle of the dry season. the Kimberley to prawn fi shing in Bass Sleeping in tents, with no respite from Strait — wanted Grabowsky to travel the unrelenting heat, percussionist Nico north to supervise his studies. Schauble struggled. “It was really hard. Once again intrigued by Teakle’s Not only did they have a very different endeavours, Grabowsky proposed a deal: concept of time management, but you he would venture to Darwin if Teakle also had to deal with the fact that you would take him to a remote community just never got clean.” to meet traditional songmen. Ngukurr is a place of few luxuries. The Six months later, Grabowsky arrived driven from their lands in the early banned, as was the practice of traditional town has one local store: no cafes, hotel, in Ngukurr, a town that has since become 1900s. Their country had been sold to ceremony. And yet, as Grabowsky soon restaurants, cinema, or bar (alcohol is a kind of second home: a spill of houses the Eastern and African Cold Storage found, a dedicated group of songmen has prohibited). The closest cold beer sits 200 nailed from corrugated iron, an old, Company, whose plan was to set up cattle preserved them. kilometres of unsealed roads away, at stone mission church, swimming pool, stations and ship their produce from the Before long, Grabowsky was invited Mataranka. Fresh fruit and vegetables are medical centre, school, a local store, Gulf around the world. The missionaries to hear Benjamin and Roy Wilfred sing. hard to come by, and expensive: a small several community buildings, an arts provided food and shelter when, unable He didn’t understand the lyrics (they tray of mushrooms at the store will set centre. A place where time follows its to hunt, the indigenous population was told tales of spear hunting, dili bags, you back $6, four sticks of wilted celery own metre, the horizon is indescribably facing starvation, or worse — white the wind), but he was mesmerised all $5. Locals with cars, freezers and funds large, and the bark of stray dogs mingles land owners had open licence to shoot the same. He explained to the take monthly supply trips to Katherine. with children’s laughter from sun-up to “trespassers”. But the food had a hefty performers that he was a kind of The indigenous population supplement sundown. At its heart sits a meticulously pricetag: indigenous languages were songman himself; he played them his their diets by hunting; the Roper

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NATAGE G010 SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 A2 11

Translation left: Crying, crying, crying Flying above Singing — landing by the water Missed the quiz? Don’t Singing, dancing, singing Fathers father worry, John Clarke I these bone songs I djuwalparra provides the answers. Fellow travellers: Benjamin Wilfred, WE HAD a fantastic response to last month’s quiz and we and Liza Power at Ngukurr with the words they thank everyone who entered. The winner was Violet Town, wrote to answer photographer Tobias Titz’s question of Violet Town. For the record, the answers were as follows: “What does this mean to you?” PHOTOGRAPHS: TOBIAS TITZ 1. True. Penny Wong agrees with the ALP’s policy position against Penny Wongs. Rex remembers being intrigued by the mechanics of how the manikay 2. True. John Howard was surprised that the African and Asian (song cycles) worked. “At fi rst I tried countries didn’t want him as Vice President of the International to understand it from a Western Cricket Council. mathematical point of view, but that 3. False. The ABC is a non-commercial network. The man who is pretty quickly fell on its backside. We still in awe of the sea, the conductor of coloured bubbles and the soon realised that to get anywhere woman who pretends to be a novelist are not commercials. near understanding [the music], we A commercial has a purpose. had to understand the way they see the world. The two were completely 4. False. It is not The Dill Solution. It is called The Dili Solution. interconnected.” It is essentially the Pacifi c Solution but with auto focus, image Saxophonist Tony Kicks says small stabilisation and a better zoom. windows on Wagilak life slowly opened. “I remember this one moment when we were 5. False. The World Giant Slalom Title has never been held at sitting outside the women’s centre. It was Etihad Stadium. The event on July 23 was a football match. me and fi ve of the local men, and no one was speaking, but everyone was completely 6. The Tour de France. It is a cycling race over 3600 kilometres comfortable. It was strange, because through towns and cities which have in common that Justin when you sit with friends and family at Madden was not their Planning Minister. home there has to be conversation all the time. It changed my perception of how 7. Ben Cousins. He described lying comatose for a day and a half you can be with people; just sitting there, in intensive care as a wake-up call. all tuned into what’s happening but not 8. False. The 26 homeowners and 84 businesses to whom needing to talk about it.” Premier John Brumby apologised for failing to mention that their Rex began thinking about time, properties will be bulldozed for a regional rail link were not in namely because he suddenly seemed to Toorak. have a lot of it on his hands. “When [the Wagilak] play, they don’t adhere to strict 9. Kevin Andrews. A petard is a small bomb. tempos like other types of music do. That led me to thinking that their concept of 10. For Sale. Rugby League. Re-stump, rewire and restore or time was fundamentally different. We tend demolish and redevelop as units. STCA. Entire sporting code. to chop time up and subdivide it into Must go. Suit handyman. minutes, hours, weeks and months; we do the same with music.” The Wagilak don’t. 11. False. Paying off part of a mortgage before full term is called “So I just started to let things happen.” principal reduction. Bill Shorten is a politician. Slowly, both parties found a meeting place. Rather than being frustrated by 12. Docklands. Now that it has been there for 10 years, some River is famed for its fi shing, namely the double bass, saxophone, violin and the elastic nature of the manikay, which thought is to be given to its appearance, design and utility. It has barramundi. drums were peculiar-looking tools, vary in structure and pitch depending even been suggested the whole area be converted into a human The orchestra’s fi rst trip lasted fi ve took time to grow accustomed to the on a performer’s mood, or didgeridoo community. days and was comprised largely of sounds they made. The orchestra, whose (each instrument has a unique pitch), 13. Mother Teresa of Calcutta. All the others are from the NSW conversations and playing sessions, initial plan was to mimic the melodies the orchestra began delighting in it, Right. culminating in a town concert on the of the didgeridoo, found imitating the experimenting with new colours and fi nal night. The initial musical exchanges songmen’s unpredictable meanderings textures of sound. 14. The photo shows Tony Abbott, trouser icon and leader of the weren’t easy. The Wagilak, for whom fruitless. ▼ CONTINUED PAGE 12 federal opposition. Isn’t he gorgeous?

15. True. The Australian media made it abundantly clear that Kevin Rudd’s downfall was inevitable. For reasons of space, their very lucid explanations were held over until after the event.

16. True. Victorians speak a form of English. Doggies Fly, Danii Ethan Drama, Fev Brownlow Shocker and Logie Tweets are all key phrases and should be committed to memory. European Economy, Environmental Crisis, Rational Discourse and History of Ideas mean nothing. Concentrate on the important stuff.

17. Clean coal, friendly fi re, arts funding and customer services. The unicorn might turn up.

18. False. rail commuters emerging from a tunnel on foot does not mean the transport system doesn’t work. It means we lead the world in tunnel walking.

19. False. The purpose of the AFL is not to give young people access to drugs in a supervised environment. It is to govern and manage the popular sport of Australian football.

20. Midsomer Murders. It is a British TV series. Inspector Tom Barnaby arrives in a village to investigate the apparent suicide of a man who is found hanging from a windmill during a Michaelmas celebration. While Tom is investigating what he suspects is actually a murder, nine other murders are committed and a barn catches fi re. Eventually even Tom works out that the only person left in the village is the murderer. His assistant, who is even stupider, is amazed. mrjohnclarke.com

PRAISE AND BLAME is a hand picked covers collection of songs by artists such as Bob Dylan & John Lee Hooker. Produced by Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ray Lamontagne, Laura Marling) & featuring Booker T Jones.

“…triumph” Clash magazine “…incredible” MOJO 4/5 NEW ALBUM OUT NOW “…mighty” Evening Standard “…a blistering album” The Guardian 4**** getmusic.com.au

NATAGE G011 12 Cover story A2 SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 Crossing the divide

▼ FROM PAGE 11 to make the trip, with a performance at Darwin Entertainment Centre before Hicks likens this process to learning a the drive to Ngukurr. The Young Wagilak new language. “None of my prior Group — Benjamin, David, Wesley and experience fi tted with it, and to begin Desmond Wilfred — will travel to Darwin with everything sounded so incredibly to perform, their visit coinciding with dissonant. If you’re a rhythm section the opening of Colour Country: Art from player, you work at holding down a Roper River, at the Museum and Art groove, but being a melodic player, Gallery of the . They’ll everything I do is like a lead statement. then return home with the orchestra and “To form those statements I had to crew in tow. I sign up as crew. develop new techniques and May marks the beginning of the approaches for exploring micro- Northern Territory’s dry season, but after tonality, and as my own practice leaving Darwin in the early morning and developed and my ears became more making our way to Roper Bar about dusk, attuned to the music, it stopped we fi nd the Wilton River too high to cross. sounding out of tune. It was as if a So, as Grabowsky has done previously, we whole new world opened up.” take the barge upriver, reaching Ngukurr The project, called Crossing Roper by nightfall. Bar, has since toured the Northern Our accommodation is at the mission Territory, played at Melbourne’s Birrarung church’s rectory, where Anna Johnson, Marr, the National Gallery of , the who runs the school’s tuckshop, has Recital Centre, Music Festival cooked us dinner — a generous gesture and the Sydney Opera House. When given she’s already fed 260 students two keen to craft his own, so we circle town Children from the on a stage. “Them white men playing our the group travelled to Gulkula to play meals that day, often the only food her looking for an axe, stopping off at various town of Ngukurr and music,” one woman tells me with a smile. at the 2006 Garma Festival, their songs charges eat. The local store, the town’s houses as we go, then head out of town. Benjamin Wilfred “It sound good,” says another. were met with looks of astonishment; only source of food, has been closed for Wesley sets off into the bush, leading performing with The following morning, the fi rst of the Yolgnu songmen from neighbouring several days due to persistent break-ins; us up and down a ridge in the search of Crossing Roper Bar. three workshops begin. They’re held regions had long believed such songs had without Anna, we’d go hungry. hollow tree trunks. Then, returning to Tobias Titz currently outside, in the slim belt of shade — been lost. This month, the fi rst Crossing Dawn reveals Ngukurr’s handful town, we stop off by the local swimming has an exhibition in the slimmer as the sun rises — offered by the Roper Bar album will be released. An of streets, which wouldn’t take a long pool, where we’re greeted by a fl ock of old Parliament House eaves of the rectory building. Schauble, overseas tour is planned for 2011. time to wander if there weren’t so many schoolchildren. We dive-bomb, splash in Canberra on drums, sits underneath a profusely Having followed the project for a curious children and locals to say and horse about for hours. Then we set http://moadoph. fl owering frangipani tree, which sheds couple of years, it’s in April that I hear of hello to. The days, we’re told, are still about translating the pool rules, which gov.au/exhibitions/ occasional blooms when the wind blows. the orchestra’s plans to return to Ngukurr unseasonably hot and wet; the locals, are written in Kriol: nomo pushumbat marnti-warajanga-were- Guitarist props on the following month. Their nine-day who have been held captive by the high enibodi (no pushing anybody about), travelling/ an amplifi er in shorts and thongs, while trip has several goals: to develop new river levels, complain of cabin fever and nobodi lau dringgim enijing wen u PHOTOGRAPHS: Hicks perches on the edge of a deck material, to take members of the project’s freak storms. By noon, it’s too hot to do bogibogi (nobody’s allowed to drink TOBIAS TITZ chair cradling his saxophone. Rex, whose principal sponsors, Total E&P, to see anything but sit in the shade. anything when you go swimming). double bass has once again survived the orchestra at work, and to have ANU Late afternoon, the charismatic At dusk, Crossing Roper Bar perform the rough road trip, plucks away from ethnomusicologist Dr Aaron Corn record Wesley, amused by our heat-induced for the locals, who sit on the grass by the the landing by the rectory’s fl ywire door. and translate the manikay. Grabowsky stupor, announces he’s heading out bush school under a canopy of stars and watch Below him, Grabowsky plinks at his has enlisted four orchestra members to fi nd yidaki (didgeridoo) trees. Hicks is curiously as the Wagilak join Grabowsky keyboard. Of the Wagilak, David is on

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NATAGE G012 SATURDAY, JULY 31, 2010 A2 Cover story 13

and asks me if I enjoyed my “walkabout”. Ngukurr’s community moving ahead, he “My brother, he saw you down that road, remains irked by what he sees as simple and my aunty, she saw you walking by problems with simple solutions. “You do the school. Uncle see you down that way. see the general level of healthcare here It’s good,” he says with a smile. “You see and think, how can that be a problem? the whole town, eh?” If we were in Melbourne, that would be If it’s tempting to credit Ngukurr’s fi xed in a week, no cost, all covered. Why isolation with the preservation of is Australia not able to fi x that?” Wagilak culture, it’s just as easy to credit Rex hopes Crossing Roper Bar’s model an “out of sight, out of mind” mentality of collaboration will draw people into a for the conditions in which many of its deeper understanding of indigenous inhabitants live. It’s not uncommon for culture. “Somehow I’d like the project to four families to live in a three-bedroom reach out to people in the city, bring them house. Government housing inspectors into a different way of seeing the world.” come and go, one local tells me; the faces On the last night of our stay, the change but the problems remain. By and group perform another concert for the large, Ngukurr is a healthy, functioning townsfolk. The crowd is enormous, and I community, but providing local youth spend the better part of the night playing with role models and career paths is the games with a gaggle of beautiful children. next step. It’s one Grabowsky is eager to The stage is circled by dancing Wagilak be part of. women, whose fl uid movements and The next phase of the Crossing rhythmic steps come from another time. Roper Bar project, beyond expanding On the morning of our departure the group’s repertoire and encouraging I visit the home of Wagilak leader women to participate in performances, Benjamin Wilfred. Sitting under a gum lies in establishing a town cultural tree, he explains at fi rst in Kriol and then centre. While preliminary discussions in English why Crossing Roper Bar is so with Grimshaw Architects are under important to him. He wants his children, way, Grabowsky’s plan is for the centre who are busy crawling onto his lap as to be designed in consultation with he speaks, to know the stories of their spell, then vanish in the direction of the and constructed by Ngukurr residents. ancestors. “I loved my grandfather, he local store. Equipped with recording facilities, told me all of these stories, these songs. I The next day, I wander down to the multiple performance spaces and a learned everything from him. But he died Ngukurr Art Centre and buy a necklace library, it should act as both a gathering in 2005, so I have to do the recordings, threaded from desert seeds. Later that place and a repository for knowledge. the CD, so in case I ever get crook like afternoon, a young woman makes For Schauble, who has travelled him, my kids will keep the stories going. her way to the rectory; she’s the artist, to Ngukurr on a handful of occasions And everyone around here, they’re proud she wants to say hello and see how over the last fi ve years, the reasons for of my CD, they keep asking me about yidaki while Benjamin, Desmond and the necklace looks. The following day, returning are both selfi sh and selfl ess. “I when the people come back here for Wesley sing and play clapsticks. needing to make a phone call (there’s still look for the same thing in any project another concert. So I have to thank Paul Their music, which unfurls like a no mobile reception), I buy a phone I’m part of — a sense of connection, and the orchestra, because they helped meandering dreamscape, is, however, card and take a tour of the town’s public fulfi lment, when the music takes you to me to do this.” only half of the show. Whispers and phone boxes. The fi rst registers the card, places of inner thought and you discover Before leaving Ngukurr, we do a laughter spill from a constant procession but won’t dial out; the second has a coin new things. This gets harder to do after circuit of town to say our farewells. I vow of children wandering to and from jammed in the card slot; the third will dial you’ve been playing for 30 years. But I try to return soon; Wesley has promised to school. A rubbish truck trundles past, out, but only accepts gold coins. It costs not to explain [this process] too much, take me fi shing for barramundi. dogs snuffl e and collapse under nearby $15 to ring Melbourne for roughly four because if you want to know you’ll listen gum trees. Cousins, aunties, uncles and minutes over six disconnected calls. [to the music].” Crossing Roper Bar is available in record sisters and brothers arrive, listen for a Benjamin approaches me that night While he’s reassured by a sense of stores and online at aao.com.au

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