Gurrumul Yunupingu has been named artist of the year at the National Indigenous Music Awards (Nimas) for the fifth time, accepting his trophy from a wheelchair at a politically charged and talent-filled event in Darwin on Saturday night.
It’s been 25 years since Yothu Yindi’s Treaty – which Gurrumul co-wrote and performed – broke ground as the first song by a predominantly Indigenous band to chart in Australia. The artist was in the news most recently when his doctor and manager accused a Darwin hospital of compromising his medical care, after he was admitted for treatment of chronic liver disease.
Still unwell, Gurrumul took leave from hospital for the night and was set to return after the conclusion of the Nimas.
While Gurrumul took out the night’s most prestigious prize, it was another Yolngu artist from north-east Arnhem Land who was the star of the night: Stanley Gawurra Gaykamangu. Gawurra travelled 1500km by bus to record his debut album in Alice Springs; when it was released in April, it was given a four-and-a-half star review in the Australian Rolling Stone magazine.
Gawurra, who grew up in the remote Top End community of Milingimbi, where he is to be an elder, has since moved to Melbourne to pursue his career. He switched between English and his Gupapuyngu language, which he sings in, as he accepted four awards in total: new talent of the year, album of the year, cover art of the year and, for his album’s title track, film clip of the year – the latter awarded by the actor Jack Thompson.
The singer-songwriter Kutcha Edwards, a member of the Black Arm Band, was inducted into the hall of fame. A Mutti Mutti man from Victoria, he thanked pioneers of Indigenous Australian music including Jimmy Little, Vic Simms, Bobby McLeod, Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, before sharply rounding off his speech.
“What is happening at Don Dale is not only happening in the NT; it’s happening right across the country,” he said, referring to footage from a juvenile detention centre showing the apparent abuse of Indigenous children in government care and triggering a royal commission.
The hip-hop artist Briggs also referenced the juvenile justice issue when accepting the song of the year award for The Children Came Back (featuring Gurrumul and Dewayne Everettsmith) – a response to Archie Roach’s 1990 song Took The Children Away. “My song was a response to Archie. “It’s a tip of the hat; an homage,” he said. “To pay respect and to acknowledge all of our successes as people of this country and what good can happen when they invest in kids and not prisons.”
Briggs had three songs nominated in the category, the other two as his side-project A.B. Original: a collaboration with the MC and producer Trials, who performed the night’s show-stealing set.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Wave Hill walk off in the Northern Territory and the 40th anniversary of the Land Rights Act. The NIMA ceremony was themed around “protest songs”, with an hour of the evening dedicated to political song and dance from Gawurra, Shellie Morris, punk act Lonely Boys and Indigenous dance sensations Djuki Mala, who performed Treaty.
In the night’s most moving performance, Yirrmal Marika – a young Indigenous artist who fuses traditional and contemporary music with a stunning, resonant voice – sang with his father, Witiyana, a founding member of Yothu Yindi. They shared the stage with Rirratjingu clan from north-east Arnhem Land, who performed a bunggul in honour of the land rights pioneer Roy Marika.
Traditional song of the year was awarded to Ishmael Marika from Yirrkala, NT, for Two Sisters Journey. Marika, a young Yolngu filmmaker and musician, also won at the National Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin on Friday, taking out the $5000 youth category for his video artwork Sunlight Energy II.
