Blackstorm

Last updated
Blackstorm
Origin Yuendumu, Australia
Genres Rock, Blues
Labels CAAMA Music
MembersGordon Robertson (Vocals/Bass)
Micah Hudson (Guitar)
Donovan Rice (Keyboards)
Sebastian Poulson (Drums)

Blackstorm are an Australian rock/blues band from Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The members are Warlpiri and their songs are sung in Warlpiri and English. The band was nominated for a Deadly Award for Best Band in 2001. [1]

Contents

Music from Blackstorm and its members were used in the Bush Mechanics shows.

Both Rice and Robertson also work as artists. [2] [3]

Discography

Related Research Articles

Michael den Elzen is a musician and music producer based in Melbourne, Australia. He has performed for over 30 years with many well-known Australian and New Zealand artists, principally as a guitarist, and has contributed music for several Australian movie soundtracks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Warlpiri people</span> Australian Aboriginal people of Tanami Desert region

The Warlpiri, sometimes referred to as Yapa, are a group of Aboriginal Australians defined by their Warlpiri language, although not all still speak it. There are 5,000–6,000 Warlpiri, living mostly in a few towns and settlements scattered through their traditional land in the Northern Territory, north and west of Alice Springs. About 3,000 still speak the Warlpiri language. The word "Warlpiri" has also been romanised as Walpiri, Walbiri, Elpira, Ilpara, and Wailbri.

Bush Mechanics is a humorous 2001 television docudrama series directed by David Batty and Francis Jupurrurla Kelly and produced by the Warlpiri Media Association, featuring an Aboriginal Australian take on motor mechanics, since described as "iconic". The film starred Warlpiri people and was filmed in and around Yuendumu, a large mainly Indigenous town in the Northern Territory of Australia.

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.

Sammy Butcher is an Pitjantjatjara–Warlpiri musician who formed the Warumpi Band.

Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, 293 km (182 mi) northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. It is home to Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media, which produced the TV series Bush Mechanics.

The Warlpiri Youth Development Aboriginal Corporation (WYDAC), formerly known as the Mt Theo Program and then the Mt Theo-Yuendumu Substance Misuse Aboriginal Corporation, is a provider of youth services and programs for young Warlpiri people, founded and run by Warlpiri people in Central Australia, with its home base in Yuendumu community. It was previously a successful youth diversion and development program.

Winners of The Deadlys Awards 1998, the 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">Lajamanu, Northern Territory</span> Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

Lajamanu, formerly known as Hooker Creek Native Settlement or just Hooker Creek, is a small town of the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located around 560 km (350 mi) from Katherine and approximately 890 km (550 mi) from Darwin. At the 2016 Australian census, Lajamanu had a population of 606, of whom 89.3 percent are of Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander origin, chiefly Warlpiri people.

Judy Napangardi Watson, also known as Judy Watson Napangardi and Kumanjayi Napangardi Watson, was an Aboriginal Australian and a senior female painter from the Yuendumu community in the Northern Territory, Australia.

Lajamanu Teenage Band are a rock band from Lajamanu, a town located about 600 km to the north of Yuendumu. The members are Warlpiri and their songs are sung in Warlpiri and English. They are popular in the Aboriginal communities. Their album Vision was nominated for an ARIA Award for Best World Music Album.

Letterstick Band are a band from north-east Arnhem Land in Australia. The members are from the An-Barra Clan on the coast near Maningrida. They are named after the wooden tools on which messages are carved to communicate between places. They play a mixture of reggae and rock that has been called saltwater rock and they sing in English and in Arnhem Land languages.

North Tanami Band are a reggae/ska band from Lajamanu, a town located about 600 km to the north of Yuendumu. The members are Warlpiri and their songs are sung in Warlpiri and English. They were the subjects of the documentary The Traveling Warlpiris (1992).

Kumantje Jagamara, also known as Kumantje Nelson Jagamara, Michael Minjina Nelson Tjakamarra, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra and variations, was an Aboriginal Australian painter. He was one of the most significant proponents of the Western Desert art movement, an early style of contemporary Indigenous Australian art.

Thylacine was a three piece Australian rock band from the Northern Territory active during the 1990s. Thylacine was formed by indigenous guitarist, Josh Thomas, in Darwin, Northern Territory. The band toured from Darwin to Adelaide and performed at the Adelaide Grand Prix, universities and numerous folk festivals.

Amunda are a rock band from Alice Springs formed in 1985. The band's name is based on Mbantua, the Arrernte word for meeting place, which is associated with the spring at Heavitree Gap in the MacDonnell Ranges at Alice Springs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liam Jurrah</span> Australian rules footballer

Liam Jungarrayi Jurrah is a former professional Australian rules footballer who played with the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL).

Napaljarri or Napaltjarri is one of sixteen skin names used amongst Indigenous Australian people of Australia's Western Desert, including the Pintupi and Warlpiri. It is one of the eight female skin names. Skin names are often treated by Western cultures as equivalent to a surname; as a result the name is familiar to many as that of prominent Indigenous figures, such as artists Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, her sister Wintjiya Napaltjarri, and Linda Syddick Napaltjarri.

Dolly Nampijinpa Daniels (1936–2004) was an Australian Aboriginal ritual leader, Warlipiri speaker, renowned artist, and land -rights advocate for the Warlipiri people of the Northern Territory.

Charles Arnold Walker, for cultural reasons known as Kumanjayi Walker since his death, was a Warlpiri man who was shot and killed by police while resisting arrest in the remote Aboriginal Australian community of Yuendumu, Northern Territory in November 2019. Walker stabbed Constable Zachary Rolfe with a pair of scissors. Rolfe subsequently fatally shot him and was charged with murder three days later, but was acquitted in March 2022. Thousands of people rallied in Alice Springs in the days following the attempted arrest, and further protests followed in capital cities around Australia. After the acquittal of Rolfe a campaign entitled "Justice for Walker" has continued.

References

  1. ABC Archived 2016-03-04 at the Wayback Machine Deadly Awards 2001 - Back to Country - Back to our Roots
  2. Artlink Magazine Vol 20 no 1 Remote Area Computer Art: Multi-Media Talent Emerges in Yuendumu
  3. Gallerie Australis Archived October 23, 2008, at the Wayback Machine Gordon Robertson Jangala
  4. Creative Spirits Archived 2008-11-20 at the Wayback Machine Blackstorm discography