ComRadWomad

Following Indigenous news in Mbantua (Alice Springs) means googling usually brings up most of the low down on what’s happening in Indigenous Australia but after observing the performance of the Black Arm Band, I am reminded of how isolated I am in the middle of the country.

Maybe I’m biased, or you could excuse my insight as experience but the only time I feel a sense of togetherness, let’s call it Reconciliation, is not as much when a politician utters one word, but when a black & white man, sorry…, an Aboriginal & non-Indigenous artist share the stage together and have the audience, of which the majority is non-Indigenous, chanting the anthems as one.

To have the likes of Archie Roach, Kutcha Edwards, Ruby Hunter, Lou Bennett, Rachel Maza, Joe Gaia & Bart Willowby teamed up with Shane Howard, John Butler made for a retrospective of Indigenous anthems with integrity and edge.

Add in the non-Indigenous strings and percussions section, the next gen upcomers including Shellie Morris, Emma Donovan, Ursula Yovich & Dan Sultan, a bit of didge and a yolgnu dancer, then you got a performance that means more than the words of a song, more than a popular reaction from a well meaning audience and more than a black arm band view.

-Steve Gumerungi Hodder