 | This article contains promotional content .(October 2024) |
| Skinnyfish Music | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 |
| Genre | Indigenous Roots |
| Country of origin | Australia |
| Location | Darwin |
| Official website | www |
Skinnyfish Music is a Darwin, Australia based independent record label. The label blends traditional Australian First Nations sounds, language, and instrumentation with modern western music genres.
Skinnyfish Music was co-founded in 1999 by Mark Grose and Michael Hohnen. [1] [2] The label connects remote Indigenous communities to mainstream global music markets [3] [4] through business development mentoring, education and promotion. [5]
Skinnyfish undertake extensive community engagement around the production and cultural preservation of First Nations music, through consultation with the musicians, family members and community elders. They also support a model of fostering economic independence in their artists [1] and encourage local music at community events. [6]
In 2009 they struck a deal with Dramatico Entertainment for the Pan-European release of all the label's albums, after the success of "Gurrumul" across Europe [7]
The label engages with Indigenous communities through touring music groups and artists to festivals, where the main message is of cultural pride, healthy lifestyle education [12] and social change promotion. [1]
The label has also been notable for its championing of fair compensation for artists. [13]
Skinnyfish Music has played a significant role in addressing pressing social issues within remote Indigenous communities. [14] [15]
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.
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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. 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.
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"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.
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