NOMINATION: Excellence in a Regional Area
For activity undertaken in a regional area, utilising Australian repertoire to create a positive impact for the local community. A regional area is defined as Australian areas outside of capital cities.
If you believe you are nominated in the wrong category or the details of your nomination to be incorrect, please contact the AMC via email at awards@australianmusiccentre.com.au before proceeding with the nomination.
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Nominee
Big hART
Nominated Project/Activity
Tjaabi: Flood Country - 2024 Regional Tour
Nominator Statement
I have observed and studied Big hARTs community music work for several years including two month long visits to Roebourne in the Pilbara WA undertaking community music research with Griffith University. Big hARTs work has significant positive impacts for regional communities.
Tjaabi: Flood Country is an intercultural music performance featuring powerful tjaabi singing by Ngarluma song-man Patrick Churnside. Tjaabi is one of the worlds unique living Indigenous public song traditions, belonging to Aboriginal people from the musically rich and culturally diverse Pilbara region of WA.
Tjaabi is a unique culturally accessible song form, short compositions using crisp poetic language, set to melodies from across the Pilbara. Each song captures stories, dreams, thoughts, moments, which can be ecological, profound, funny, sexy, or wistful. The original tjaabi singers were men and women of great strength and power who handed down tjaabis to subsequent singers and family.
In 2024, Big hART toured Tjaabi: Flood Country performance and workshop series to 17 regional and remote communities nationally across TAS, NSW, ACT, VIC, WA. Community cultural development was the foundation of the tour. Patrick toured Tjaabi as a practice on country - rather than a performance only - as a gift to First Nations people. In each location, the tour comprised of cultural exchange, community music workshops, song-writing workshops for young people and performance. The tour inspired a resurgence in local songs, culture, story, language and cultural practices in regional communities.
Community leaders in Wynyard and Smithton in North West TAS, Bunbury WA, Wallaga Lake, Nowra and Eden NSW spoke about how the Tjaabi tour revived dormant songs, languages, artifacts and cultural practices in their communities, strengthening community cultural identity.
Tjaabi provided a platform for local content to be included in place-based presentations alongside the Tjaabi performance as two-way cultural exchange. The implicit primary prevention in making known the cultural songs and stories of those who are less visible increased opportunities for cultural justice and belonging.
Music workshops as part of the tour supported young people to connect with culture, build their resilience, feel pride and belonging and reengage with cultural traditions in their own area.
On stage for performances and workshops, Patrick was accompanied by musical director and musician Aaron Hopper, in an intercultural collaboration, reflecting a hopeful future of cultural exchange and dialogue.
Aarons emotive, textural, nuanced and intelligent score for Tjaabi grew out of traditional Pilbara melody and motif. In designing the score, Aaron reflected on his 3 years living in Roebourne, the textures of the landscape, the people and their stories. He represented place and country in sound both modern and ancient. Aarons sound world held the Tjaabi, without detracting from its essence. Patrick and Aarons collaboration created a sonic landscape that transported the audience into the Pilbara where the Tjaabi was made.
Tjaabi tour reached 1664 regional audiences including prison inmates, aged care residents, people living with a disability in care homes, and Aboriginal mens groups.
Nominee
Big hART
Nominated Project/Activity
Tjaabi: Flood Country - 2024 Regional Tour
Tjaabi: Flood Country is an intercultural music performance featuring powerful tjaabi singing by Ngarluma song-man Patrick Churnside. Tjaabi is one of the worlds unique living Indigenous public song traditions, belonging to Aboriginal people from the musically rich and culturally diverse Pilbara region of WA.
Tjaabi is a unique culturally accessible song form, short compositions using crisp poetic language, set to melodies from across the Pilbara. Each song captures stories, dreams, thoughts, moments, which can be ecological, profound, funny, sexy, or wistful. The original tjaabi singers were men and women of great strength and power who handed down tjaabis to subsequent singers and family.
In 2024, Big hART toured Tjaabi: Flood Country performance and workshop series to 17 regional and remote communities nationally across TAS, NSW, ACT, VIC, WA. Community cultural development was the foundation of the tour. Patrick toured Tjaabi as a practice on country - rather than a performance only - as a gift to First Nations people. In each location, the tour comprised of cultural exchange, community music workshops, song-writing workshops for young people and performance. The tour inspired a resurgence in local songs, culture, story, language and cultural practices in regional communities.
Community leaders in Wynyard and Smithton in North West TAS, Bunbury WA, Wallaga Lake, Nowra and Eden NSW spoke about how the Tjaabi tour revived dormant songs, languages, artifacts and cultural practices in their communities, strengthening community cultural identity.
Tjaabi provided a platform for local content to be included in place-based presentations alongside the Tjaabi performance as two-way cultural exchange. The implicit primary prevention in making known the cultural songs and stories of those who are less visible increased opportunities for cultural justice and belonging.
Music workshops as part of the tour supported young people to connect with culture, build their resilience, feel pride and belonging and reengage with cultural traditions in their own area.
On stage for performances and workshops, Patrick was accompanied by musical director and musician Aaron Hopper, in an intercultural collaboration, reflecting a hopeful future of cultural exchange and dialogue.
Aarons emotive, textural, nuanced and intelligent score for Tjaabi grew out of traditional Pilbara melody and motif. In designing the score, Aaron reflected on his 3 years living in Roebourne, the textures of the landscape, the people and their stories. He represented place and country in sound both modern and ancient. Aarons sound world held the Tjaabi, without detracting from its essence. Patrick and Aarons collaboration created a sonic landscape that transported the audience into the Pilbara where the Tjaabi was made.
Tjaabi tour reached 1664 regional audiences including prison inmates, aged care residents, people living with a disability in care homes, and Aboriginal mens groups.