A2culture and Life

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 Arnhem Land In his fi rst days, Teakle introduced township of Ngukurr, 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 Tpidgin 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 Ruby Hunter, Archie Roach 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 On sale now Principal Partner www.melbournefestival.com.au Principal Public Partner 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, Paul Grabowsky 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.

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