Today we want to use our platform to share the work of some incredible Indigenous musicians, especially during a time when it is important to amplify the voices of First Nations people.
This list is by no means definitive. We encourage you to keep listening to more Indigenous artists – there’s an abundance out there that should be at the top of your listening queue. Buy their music and share it wide.
DRMNGNOW
Neil Morris is a Yorta Yorta MC and poet who performs as DRMNGNOW. Driven by “100,000 plus years of ancestral force” his music inspires and educates, with songs such as ‘Australia Does Not Exist’ a powerful rumination on the genocide that began in 1788 when sacred Indigenous land was colonized. Speaking to Red Bull, Morris states “Songwriting and creating music has always been the most powerful way that I can process that information of injustices that I’ve been exposed to.”
Allara is a Yorta Yorta musician, composter and filmmaker who we first saw performing at the One of One International Women’s Day Breakfast. Her deconstructed performance featuring her spoken word and double bass was compelling, with the track ‘Murnong Farm’ a standout. In Allara’s own words the song reflects “on my own displacement: displacement from my grandfather’s generation, from my mother’s generation and eventually to me.” It also speaks of how Indigenous knowledge could be the answer to social justice issues as well as the climate crisis we face.
Flooring us when she performed at the Darebin Music Feast event at Northcote Social Club, Kee’ahn shared a special moment with the audience when she performed alongside her father who explained Kee’ahn’s name means “to dance, to sing, to play”. The Gugu Yalanji, Jirrbal and Badu Island musician has just released her debut single ‘Better Things’, a meditative and soulful track about self-love and rebuilding yourself after heartbreak. You’ll be swooning over her captivating vocal which is perfectly accompanied by the song’s piano and trumpet.
After their Eurovision bid with the epic ‘2000 & Whatever’ last year’s Corner Award winners Electric Fields have gone on to become one of the most lauded live acts in the country. Stealing the show at festivals including Golden Plains and BIGSOUND, the South Australian duo of Zaachariaha Fielding and Mike Ross deliver a euphoric performance that uplifts each and every time. Fielding is a formidable figure on stage, dancing and sashaying as they sing in the Indigenous language of Pitjantjatjara as well as English. When gigs are back make sure Electric Fields at the top of your bucket list of live acts.
Matalja hails from Broome in Western Australia, raised to speak the Kimberley languages of Djugan, Yawuru and Jabirr-Jabirr. Though she is a relative newcomer, Matalja possesses a talent that will quickly see her become a household name in music. Her first single is the atmospheric ‘Malu Mabu Liyan’ which boasts a chorus that will quickly worm its way into your head. The song features on the upcoming twelfth edition of Sounds of the Kimberly, a compilation release promoted by the regional recording project spearheaded by WAM (Western Australian Music).
