Saltwater Band

Last updated
Saltwater Band
OriginGaliwin'ku, Elcho Island, Australia
GenresIndigenous Roots
LabelsSkinnyfish
Members Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu
Manuel Nulupani Dhurrkay
Joshua Dhurrkay
Andrew Yunupingu
Barra'kuwuy Yunupingu
Jonathon Yunupingu
Adrian Garrawitja
Lloyd Garrawitja

Saltwater Band are an Indigenous roots band from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, around 560 kilometres from Darwin. The members are Yolngu and they sing mostly in Yolngu languages. Their songs are a mixture of traditional songs and reggae/ska influenced pop. [1] One member of the band, the late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, is a close relative of Mandawuy Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi and was a past member of Yothu Yindi. [2]

Contents

Saltwater Band's first album, Gapu Damurrun, sold more than 10,000 copies, a then record for an independent Northern Territory act. [3] Their album Djarridjarri was nominated for the ARIA Award for Best World Music Album at the ARIA Music Awards of 2004. [4] The album also received a Deadly Award for Album Release of the Year. [5]

Discography

TitleDetails
Gapu Damurrun
  • Released: 1999
  • Label: Skinny Fish (SB 001)
  • Format: CD
Djarridjarri
  • Released: 2004
  • Label: Skinny Fish (SFSW040102)
  • Format: CD
Malk
  • Released: 2009
  • Label: Skinny Fish (SFSW100904)
  • Format: CD digital download

Awards and nominations

APRA Awards

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters". [6]

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2012 "Compass" (Charlie Yunupingu, David Yunupingu)Blues & Roots Work of the Year [7] Nominated

ARIA Music Awards

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2004 Djarridjarri: Blue Flag Best World Music Album Nominated
2011 MalkBest World Music AlbumNominated

The Deadly Awards

The Deadly Awards, commonly known simply as The Deadlys, was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. They ran from 1996 to 2013.

YearNominee / workAwardResult
Deadly Awards 2004 DjarridjarriAlbum of the YearWon
Deadly Awards 2009 themselvesBand of the YearWon

National Indigenous Music Awards

The National Indigenous Music Awards recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians from throughout Australia. They commenced in 2004. [8] [9]

YearNominee / workAwardResult
2004 themselvesPeople's Choice AwardWon
2005 themselvesPeople's Choice AwardWon
2008 Saltwater Band LiveDVD/Film Clip of the YearWon
2011 MalkAlbum of the YearNominated

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yothu Yindi</span> Australian musical group

Yothu Yindi are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a white rock group called the Swamp Jockeys, and an unnamed Aboriginal folk group consisting of Mandawuy Yunupingu, Witiyana Marika, and Milkayngu Mununggur. The Aboriginal members came from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land. Founding members included Stuart Kellaway on bass guitar, Cal Williams on lead guitar, Andrew Belletty on drums, Witiyana Marika on manikay, bilma and dance, Milkayngu Mununggurr on yidaki, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu on keyboards, guitar, and percussion, past lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu and present Yirrnga Yunupingu on vocals and guitar.

<i>Tribal Voice</i> 1991 studio album by Yothu Yindi

Tribal Voice is the second studio album by Yothu Yindi, released in September 1991 on the Mushroom Records label. The album peaked at number 4 on the ARIA Charts and was certified 2× Platinum.

<i>Freedom</i> (Yothu Yindi album) 1993 studio album by Yothu Yindi

Freedom is the third studio album by Australian band, Yothu Yindi released in 1993. The album peaked at number 31 on the ARIA charts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mandawuy Yunupingu</span> Australian musician (1956–2013)

Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu, was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indigenous music of Australia</span> Music of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders

Indigenous music of Australia comprises the music of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial observances, through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day. The traditional forms include many aspects of performance and musical instrumentation that are unique to particular regions or Aboriginal Australian groups; and some elements of musical tradition are common or widespread through much of the Australian continent, and even beyond. The music of the Torres Strait Islanders is related to that of adjacent parts of New Guinea. Music is a vital part of Indigenous Australians' cultural maintenance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Galarrwuy Yunupingu</span> Aboriginal Australian activist (1948–2023)

Galarrwuy Yunupingu, also known as James Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Dr Yunupingu, was an Indigenous Australian activist who was a leader in the Aboriginal Australian community. He was involved in Indigenous land rights throughout his career. He was a Yolngu man of the Gumatj clan, from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. He was the 1978 Australian of the Year.

Blekbala Mujik are an Australian rock, reggae group formed in Barunga, Northern Territory in 1986. They fused rock and reggae with a pop, dance sound and have support base for their live shows and recordings. They are cited in the World Music: The Rough Guide as next best known to Yothu Yindi. The band sings in English and in Kriol. At the ARIA Music Awards of 1996 their album, Blekbala Mujik, was nominated for Best Indigenous Release.

Bartholomew Edwin Willoughby is an Aboriginal Australian musician, noted for his pioneering fusion of reggae with Indigenous Australian musical influences, and for his contribution to growth of Indigenous music in Australia. A multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and singer, he is known as a founder member and leader of the No Fixed Address, which was the first Aboriginal rock band in Australia, and the first Aboriginal band to travel overseas.

The Deadlys Awards were an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu</span> Indigenous Australian musician

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, commonly known as Gurrumul and also referred to since his death as Dr G. Yunupingu, was a Yolŋu Aboriginal Australian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards, guitar and didgeridoo, but it was the clarity of his singing voice that attracted rave reviews. He sang stories of his land both in Yolŋu languages such as Gaalpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, a dialect related to Gumatj, and in English. He began his career as a member of Yothu Yindi and later Saltwater Band, and his solo career brought him wider acclaim He was the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death. As of 2020, it is estimated that Yunupingu has sold half a million records globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Yamma</span> Australian musician

Frank Yamma is a singer and songwriter from Central Australia. He is a Pitjantjatjara man who speaks five languages and sings in both Pitjantjatjara and English. Yamma is the son of Isaac Yamma, an early artist who pioneered singing Western style songs in traditional language. He is Regarded as one of Australia's most important indigenous songwriters.

Shellie Morris is an Indigenous Australian singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary folk music and contemporary acoustic ballads.

Busby Marou are an Australian musical duo consisting of Thomas Busby and Jeremy Marou, from Rockhampton, Queensland. At the APRA Music Awards of 2012, the duo won "Blues & Roots Work of the Year" category for their single "Biding My Time", and they have gone on to win several other awards.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Treaty (song)</span> 1991 single by Yothu Yindi

"Treaty" is a protest song by Australian musical group Yothu Yindi, which is made up of Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members. Released in June 1991, "Treaty" was the first song by a predominantly Aboriginal band to chart in Australia and was the first song partly in any Aboriginal Australian language to gain extensive international recognition, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play singles charts. The song contains lyrics in Gumatj, one of the Yolngu Matha dialects and a language of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia.

East Journey are a rock/reggae band from North East Arnhem Land, Northern Territory. They combined modern and traditional music and sing in both English and Yolŋu.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Preatures</span> Australian indie rock band

The Preatures were an Australian indie rock band from Sydney, New South Wales, who formed in 2010. The band consisted of lead vocalist and keyboardist Isabella "Izzi" Manfredi, guitarist and vocalist Jack Moffitt, bassist Thomas Champion, and drummer Luke Davison. Vocalist and guitarist Gideon Bensen was a member of the band until 2016. In 2013, the Preatures won the Vanda & Young Global Songwriting Competition with their song "Is This How You Feel?" They disbanded in 2021, following the launch of Manfredi's solo career.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Baker Boy</span> Indigenous Australian rapper, dancer, artist, and actor

Danzal James Baker, known professionally as Baker Boy, is a Yolngu rapper, dancer, artist, and actor. Baker Boy is known for performing original hip-hop songs incorporating both English and Yolŋu Matha and is one of the most prominent Aboriginal Australian rappers.

<i>The Makarrata Project</i> 2020 studio album by Midnight Oil

The Makarrata Project is the twelfth studio album by Australian band Midnight Oil, released on 30 October 2020 by Sony Music Australia. The album is the first new material from the band since 2002's Capricornia, their first studio album to hit #1 on the ARIA Charts since 1990's Blue Sky Mining, and one of the final releases to feature bassist and backing vocalist Bones Hillman before his death in November 2020.

Yirrmal Marika, known mononymously as Yirrmal, is an Indigenous Australian vocalist. A Yolngu man, his music features traditional sounds and elements of Yolŋu music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Stingray</span> Australian rock band

King Stingray is an Australian rock band from Northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. With a sound self-described as "Yolŋu surf rock", the band perform songs with lyrics in both English and Yolŋu Matha. King Stingray released their debut single, "Hey Wanhaka", in October 2020, and their self-titled debut album on 5 August 2022.

References

  1. Skinnyfish Music Saltwater Band - Gapu Damurrun'
  2. Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Listen Up - Music of Black Australia
  3. National Indigenous Times - Issue 68 Archived 2011-07-06 at the Wayback Machine Deadly times for Saltwater
  4. Aria Awards Archived 2011-05-19 at the Wayback Machine Saltwater Band awards history
  5. Deadly Vibe Issue 93 November 2004 Archived 5 August 2008 at the Wayback Machine Saltwater snaps up Deadly
  6. "APRA Music Awards 2012". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  7. "Nominations > Blues & Roots Work of the Year – 2012". Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) | Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS). 2012. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  8. "2014 Winners - National Indigenous Music Awards". Musicnt.com.au. Retrieved 28 February 2017.
  9. "'I'm doing my music for my people': National Indigenous Music Awards 2015". ABC.net.au. 26 July 2015. Retrieved 28 February 2017.