I’VE been on the road quite a bit over the last week – and for me, at any rate, music always features pretty heavily while travelling, whether it’s doing the trip to Darwin, or over the long stretches across the Barkly or Carpentaria highways.
Surely music and crossing country has a history that stretches back many thousands of years, from the rhythm of the ancient kudjika song cycles of the Barkly – some of which go for hundreds of verses – to the kind of driving 12-bar blues that I am partial to.
It is music that can tell our history, through tall tales and true, and there’s few things better than listening to music on the open road or round the camp fire.
We’ve had a great history of terrific bands in the Barkly, from the old Malandarri Band from Borroloola in the early 1980s, to groups such as Kulumindini, the Tableland Drifters and Nomadic in the 1990s and beyond.
It is a musical legacy which is still going strong with the Winanjjikari Music Centre here in Tennant Creek, an innovative and creative arts initiative in the Barkly Region.
In the great tradition of “road music” it is again taking its outreach music program to remote communities in 2009.
For that matter, we have a very strong general arts tradition here in Tennant Creek, as can be seen through the work of Louise Flaherty and her team at Barkly Regional Arts.
It is an organisation that hosts a wealth of activities, with a strong emphasis on serving the whole region.
In the next month or so, Barkly Regional Arts is moving into top gear.
In the last week, we have seen the Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds free music, film and dance workshops for our youth.
Starting this week, Timothy Bishop, the Indigenous Dance Officer with AusdanceNT will be in town to conduct consultations with the Indigenous dance sector and related stakeholders in the region.
These consultations are directed towards gaining a deeper understanding of the Indigenous dance art sector in the Northern Territory, to better inform the relationships between dancers, arts organisations and training providers, with the aim to establish employment pathways and outcomes.
You can contact Tim through Barkly Regional Arts.
And this weekend, Barkly Regional Arts will be hosting creative writing workshops with Yvette Holt.
Yvette Holt is an experienced writer with a number of prestigious writing awards under her belt, currently living and working in Alice Springs, where her work as a Literacy Educator for Aboriginal Health Workers, takes her to regional and remote communities in Central Australia.
Finally, planning is underway for the 20th Desert Harmony Festival. Louise at Barkly Regional Arts is keen to get ideas for this highlight of our annual arts calendar. Desert Harmony is calling for community groups to submit events and performance events for the 2009 festival program with the deadline of 29th May.
And for the grand finale you cannot go past Tennant Creek’s own UBK who will perform at the prestigious ‘Bass in the Grass’ concert in front of 5000 NT youth at the Gardens Amphitheatre in Darwin next month!