NOMINATION: Excellence in Experimental Practice
For works, people or events that interrogate, extend, or challenge standard artistic practice within the Australian repertoire
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
Bilawara Lee & Netanela Mizrahi
Nominated Project/Activity
Gurrulwa Guligi (Big Wind)
Nominator Statement
Gurrulwa Guligi (Big Wind) is a new orchestral work of storytelling and truth-telling by Senior Larrakia Elder, Dr Aunty Bilawara Lee and composer Netanela Mizrahi commissioned and premiered by Darwin Symphony Orchestra (DSO) in 2024. Through 25 minutes of spoken word and new orchestral work, Aunty Bilawara entrusts the audience to her testimony as a survivor of Cyclone Tracy.
In Gurrulwa Guligi, Aunty Bilawara shares intimate aspects of her biography what it was like surviving Cyclone Tracy, and what she experienced in the aftermath of the cyclone. The notated score is accompanied by fourteen audio tracks, recorded as an interview between Netanela and Aunty Bilawara in the Intensive Care Unit of Palmerston Regional Hospital in Darwins monsoon season of 2024. Just days earlier, Aunty Bilawara had suffered a major heart attack and stroke. Labouring through stroke-affected speech to tell her story, the sense of immense importance of capturing this testimony in the face of adversity added a layer of urgency to capturing her words. Through this interview, Aunty Bilawaras story revealed itself to be not only a work of fascinating biography, but a profound Larrakia perspective on the way the ancestors, the spirit of this place and our complex natural ecology responds when faced with imbalance, injustice and the desecration of sacred sites. Aunty Bilawaras words are given power and audience through the orchestra, warning us all of the harm that can be caused when Traditional Owners are not consulted about matters affecting them and their country.
In their approach to developing this notated score, Netanela and Bilawara call on the orchestra to respond to cues in the audio. Aunty Bilawaras wish that the work starts and ends with the sound of the Bilawara (the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo) is honoured. To create this aspect of the work, the composers integrated field samples of Red-tailed black cockatoos at Darwins Binbara (Lee Point) a coastal reserve at which visitors can view Dariba Nungalinya (ancestral being, Old Man Rock) from a distance. The tones and rhythms of the bird call were used as the pitch and rhythmic palette for these parts of the work. Similarly, the work embeds sound samples recorded on the night of Cyclone Tracy: radio warnings, the sound of the wind and the eye of the storm. The music itself is evocative of the powerful image Aunty Bilawara describes, and there is something particularly potent about knowing that many musicians of DSO contribute their own lived experience as Cyclone Tracy survivors.
The score is entirely notated without improvisation, organically transitioning between the sequence of narrated audio tracks. In a culturally integrative approach, Trent Lee (didgeridoo player) is positioned within the wind section. One of the strengths of this approach is that the work becomes mobile, able to be recreated by any orchestra with permission by Aunty Bilawara. As such, audiences throughout regional Northern Territory will experience the work in 2025 as DSO responds to its great success, taking the work on tour.
Receiving 5-star reviews from Limelight and national recognition, Gurrulwa Guligi is a deeply human approach to commemorating a communitys trauma.
Nominee
Bilawara Lee & Netanela Mizrahi
Nominated Project/Activity
Gurrulwa Guligi (Big Wind)
In Gurrulwa Guligi, Aunty Bilawara shares intimate aspects of her biography what it was like surviving Cyclone Tracy, and what she experienced in the aftermath of the cyclone. The notated score is accompanied by fourteen audio tracks, recorded as an interview between Netanela and Aunty Bilawara in the Intensive Care Unit of Palmerston Regional Hospital in Darwins monsoon season of 2024. Just days earlier, Aunty Bilawara had suffered a major heart attack and stroke. Labouring through stroke-affected speech to tell her story, the sense of immense importance of capturing this testimony in the face of adversity added a layer of urgency to capturing her words. Through this interview, Aunty Bilawaras story revealed itself to be not only a work of fascinating biography, but a profound Larrakia perspective on the way the ancestors, the spirit of this place and our complex natural ecology responds when faced with imbalance, injustice and the desecration of sacred sites. Aunty Bilawaras words are given power and audience through the orchestra, warning us all of the harm that can be caused when Traditional Owners are not consulted about matters affecting them and their country.
In their approach to developing this notated score, Netanela and Bilawara call on the orchestra to respond to cues in the audio. Aunty Bilawaras wish that the work starts and ends with the sound of the Bilawara (the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo) is honoured. To create this aspect of the work, the composers integrated field samples of Red-tailed black cockatoos at Darwins Binbara (Lee Point) a coastal reserve at which visitors can view Dariba Nungalinya (ancestral being, Old Man Rock) from a distance. The tones and rhythms of the bird call were used as the pitch and rhythmic palette for these parts of the work. Similarly, the work embeds sound samples recorded on the night of Cyclone Tracy: radio warnings, the sound of the wind and the eye of the storm. The music itself is evocative of the powerful image Aunty Bilawara describes, and there is something particularly potent about knowing that many musicians of DSO contribute their own lived experience as Cyclone Tracy survivors.
The score is entirely notated without improvisation, organically transitioning between the sequence of narrated audio tracks. In a culturally integrative approach, Trent Lee (didgeridoo player) is positioned within the wind section. One of the strengths of this approach is that the work becomes mobile, able to be recreated by any orchestra with permission by Aunty Bilawara. As such, audiences throughout regional Northern Territory will experience the work in 2025 as DSO responds to its great success, taking the work on tour.
Receiving 5-star reviews from Limelight and national recognition, Gurrulwa Guligi is a deeply human approach to commemorating a communitys trauma.