Artist bios
Gii Music
Gii means heart in the language of the Gamillaroi people. We have chosen “GiiMusic” as the name for our folk band. GiiMusic was founded by Troy Russell and Bree Baxter in 2016. Both have a deep love of folk and art music always looking for fresh and new ways to tell a story. The vocalist is Leila Hamilton hails from Hill End and Troy and Bree met Leila at a series of concerts held in Redfern NSW.
Timothy Gray
Timothy Gray is a Gumbayngirr/Wiradjuri/Bidjigal man born in Macksville on the Mid North Coast of NSW. Timothy is currently living in Redfern who’s music career began by studying music at Eora Tafe in Darlington. Timothy is an accomplished singer/songwriter and has released 2 CDs with his 7 piece Reggae fusion band called Green Hand Band who are currently working on a new album. Tim is also an accomplished classical composer and was part of the Ngarra Burria Indigenous composition initiative created by Chris Sainsbury in partnership with Mooghalin, the ABC, AMC and ANU in Canberra. The compositions Timothy created can be found on the ABC classic fm radio station and coincides with his passion to become a film composer. All of Tims songs are registered with APRA.
Amelia Thompson
THOM (Artist, Amerlia Thompson) is a twenty something in her era. Often chaotic, aspirational against expectation and always fighting for at least one space to exist on her own terms; Thom has always known that music would be the place to find sanctuary binging on music videos with her father from a very young age thinking, “that’s what I’m going to do too”.
“I just want people to feel something, taking anything and everything from my music”, says Thom as her music battles between Indie and pop with some added spice from the dance world. Across genres Thom navigates her relationship with the people in her world with audacity and courage discovering new parts of herself mid-song and admitting things she knows others, even herself sometimes can’t.
Marrumbang
Marrumbang is a deadly Indigenous Sydney band founded on Gadigal lands, performing fresh originals, traditional songs in language and a new soulful take on popular music. Murrambang, meaning ‘love and kindness’ in Wiradjuri language, is a collaborative project, drawing its inter-changing and evolving line-ups from current students and graduates from the Eora College. They currently perform as duos, trios and quartets around Sydney and NSW. For their improvised sessions in acoustic mode, Marrumband features self-proclaimed diva and proud Wiradjuri woman Darlene Proberts with singer/songwriter musicians Lizzie Keys on bass and Phil Bragg on guitar.
Corey Kirk
Corey Kirk is an Indigenous Singer/songwriter and former member of the Sydney Children’s Choir. She likes to blend her choral training with the folk/reggae rhythms of her youth. Her bloodlines are Gamilaraay/Irish but grew up by the sea on Garigal land, north of Sydney.
As a Chorister she worked with Lyn Williams to develop her composition skills and her work ‘Searching’ was apart of the choirs first Heritage in Song project in 2007. Corey wrote Searching to respond to the generational trauma of her father’s death who was also a member of the Stolen Generation. Corey also performed the first verse of the National Anthem in Dharug, translated by Richard Green. Now Corey wishes to help preserve and educate about dialects of Sydney through contemporary song writing and storytelling, while also writing about present experiences of living and being.