Focus on Indigenous Australia
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6 7 murundak – songs of freedom As Rowena Robertson discovers, this visually stunning film not only showcases the extraordinary talents of some of Australia’s foremost Indigenous performers, it also expertly captures the healing powers of song.
Natasha Gadd and Rhys Graham’s There is a clear through line here from the backdrop of Australia’s chang- murundak – songs of freedom follows Gadd and Graham’s previous docu- ing political landscape, from the end a tour by the Black Arm Band, a group mentary, Words from the City (2007). of the Howard years to the advent of made up of some of Australia’s most Words is also music focused, following Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd. It renowned Indigenous musicians. artists from Australia’s hip hop com- also encompasses Sorry Day and the Comprising celebrated artists includ- munity, many of whom are Indigenous. Northern Territory Intervention. ing Archie Roach, Kutcha Edwards, Both films take a similar approach: Ruby Hunter (who passed away before largely observational, with the directors In its content, structure, political the film’s release), Lou Bennett and letting their subjects speak, and obvi- overtones and focus on an oppressed Dan Sultan, the band travels across ously sing, for themselves. In murundak people, murundak in some respects Australia, playing each other’s songs (which means ‘alive’ in Woirurrung recalls Mel Stuart’s Wattstax (1973). in venues large and small, indoor and language), live performance, backstage That extraordinary film depicts African outdoor, urban and far-flung, even fly- and rehearsal footage is intercut with American musicians performing at the ing to London to perform at the pres- artist interviews and archival vision. All Los Angeles Coliseum in Watts to com- tigious Queen Elizabeth Hall. The Black of these elements are by turns uplifting memorate the seventh anniversary of Arm Band’s songs tell of struggle, and poignant. the 1965 Watts race riots. The concert protest and resistance, and ultimately footage is interspersed with interviews of hope and the survival and freedom There is also a necessary political with Watts residents (including a young of Australia’s Indigenous people. context to murundak: it is set against Richard Pryor) musing on life since
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1: Dan Sultan on location in Alice Springs 2: Co-Director Rhys Graham (front) on location in Alice Springs, with sound-recordist Chris O’Young 3: Archie Roach 4: Lou Bennett on location in Echuca, Victoria 5: Mark Atkins on location 6: Stephen Pigram on location in Broome 7: Archie Roach, Bevan Gapanbulu Yunupingu and Bart Willoughby 8: murundak curtain call 9: Ruby Hunter on stage in murundak 10: Emma Donovan and co-director Natasha Gadd on location
the riots and on the black experience can and feminist communities, and therefore read less as an assertion of a more generally. (Fittingly, on stage in in this case coopting the hostile term fait accompli and more as aspirational; murundak, Rachael Maza-Long likens ‘black armband’ appears to speak to a there is a sense that these musicians the Black Arm Band’s songs to those newfound sense of buoyancy among are willing the survival and freedom of of the US civil rights and South African Australia’s Indigenous people. their people into being – entirely under- anti-apartheid movements.) standable given the still fraught real-life Language and the nuances of mean- circumstances of Indigenous Austral- The Black Arm Band takes its name ing seem to infuse the film as a whole, ians. As Roach says, ‘these songs are from John Howard’s notorious ‘black particularly with regard to one word: relevant – if not more so – today than armband view of the past’ sound survival. It is used liberally throughout when they were written and recorded’. bite (originally attributed to Geoffrey murundak, but its meaning is not en- Blainey), which referred to the trend tirely straightforward. Roach speaks of The film features some startling towards presenting an overly self- his people as being ‘still here’ but not archival footage of Aboriginal protests flagellating history of Australia that having ‘survived’, and Bart Willoughby in Australia, which many people will focuses on past wrongs committed refers to a kind of ‘Vietnam syndrome’ not have seen before. While to some against Indigenous people. The act of among the older generation, whereas extent comments made in passing and reclaiming derogatory language or lan- other artists speak more positively of the footage itself hint at the reasons for guage with negative connotations has their people’s ‘survival’. The survival- the protests and the period in which historical precedents in African Ameri- focused songs and commentary they occurred, a more detailed context
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The act of reclaiming derogatory language or language with negative connotations has historical precedents in African American and feminist communities, and in this case coopting the hostile term ‘black armband’ appears to speak to a newfound sense of buoyancy among Australia’s Indigenous people.
would have built upon the interest remembers being removed from his More explicit reference to positive these remarkable images naturally family, recounting how his father bolted development and looking forward pique. What were the political circum- across a paddock upon hearing that is provided at the end of the film by stances leading to these protests? his children were being taken away, Sultan, who asserts that the achieve- Where exactly did they take place? and how he tried to physically prevent ments of his forebears in getting their What were the outcomes? Not using the welfare officers from doing so. stories heard have given younger a detached narrator was obviously a At the London concert, in an almost Indigenous artists like him the option conscious choice on the part of the unbearably poignant display, Edwards to sing more conventional, personal filmmakers, and excessively detailed holds up photos of his now deceased songs about love and relationships. information about the footage may parents, from whom he was wrenched In Sultan’s case, these songs have an have affected the flow and rhythm of away as a child, and dedicates ‘Is This urban setting – we hear him singing the film, but the provision of some suc- What We Deserve’ to them. of a love he used to meet at Flinders cinct on-screen explanatory text such Street Station in Melbourne. ‘That’s the as that seen at the beginning of the film In visual and audio terms, murundak is place that we’ve come to, now, where would not have gone astray. flawless. The scenes of rural Australia – we don’t have to write a political song Broome, Kakadu, the remote Northern or write a protest song,’ says Roach. Other extraordinary archival footage Territory areas of Manyallaluk and ‘It tells me that what we did, all those is woven through the present-day Nitmiluk – expertly capture the rough, years ago, worked.’ scenes. We see No Fixed Address idiosyncratic beauty of the land. Gadd playing the reggae-influenced ‘We and Graham shot these scenes using Nevertheless, the struggles of Have Survived’ at a small city club in handheld cameras, and the sense of Indigenous Australia are complex the 1970s to a benign audience, whose intimacy and empathy that results is and ongoing, and there are a variety enjoyment of the show is interrupted palpable. The live performances were of opinions as to the best way for- by a police raid. This footage has an recorded using a number of cameras; ward from within its own ranks; some immediacy and edginess that trans- 48-track recordings of the songs show- Indigenous people, for example, wel- ports one right back to that turbulent case them at their best.2 come the Intervention. However, it was time. Scenes of frightened Aboriginal never murundak’s intention to examine children lining up at a foster home The Black Arm Band plays in a these differences in viewpoints. It was are heartbreaking, while footage of number of remote Indigenous com- to document an extraordinary project charismatic Aboriginal activist Burnum munities, but it seems significant that by some of the greats of Australian Burnum claiming England on behalf of the last of the full-band performance Indigenous music, and to illuminate the Australia’s Indigenous people in 1988 footage seen in murundak is from a healing power of song. It has done that provides some levity. We see a proud show at Fitzroy Crossing in the Kim- sensitively and skilfully. Vincent Lingiari declaring that he will berley region of Western Australia. In fight for Gurindji land; Gough Whitlam – 2007, this Indigenous community was Endnotes the ‘tall stranger’ of ‘From Little Things taken over by its women, led by June 1 National Museum of Australia Canberra, Big Things Grow’ – pours earth through Oscar. Oscar, profoundly disturbed Collaborating for Indigenous Rights website, Lingiari’s hand, a symbolic gesture to by an untrammelled alcohol culture
Left: Joe Geia on location in Melbourne
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