STORIES OF WATER AND EARTH: ARTISTS
Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaray writer, musician, composer and educator from NSW's North West freshwater plains. A founding member of Indigenous folk duo Stiff Gins, Nardi has been performing nationally and internationally for the past twenty years. A participant of Ngarra-Burria since 2019, she writes about her experience: "Ngarra-Burria, put simply, has reinvigorated my ears, my mind and my spirit. It is not only a music program. It is a program about cultural responsibility, about singing land and story and country, and about what we Yuwaalaraay call the strengthening of dhuwi - our deepest breath, our essence - our soul."
Melanie Mununggurr is a Djapu mother, poet, storyteller and performer. Her writing is all-encompassing of her identity as Yolngu, the triumphs and struggles of motherhood, neurodiversity, being queer and connections to land and culture. Melanie uses her connection to her land, culture and language to decolonise the literary and performance space through the use of Dhuwal language weaved throughout her poems.
Netenala Mizrahi is a composer and educator, living and working on Larrakia country. For her work in Indigenous communities, Immigration Detention and Palliative Care, Netanela was awarded a 2017 Churchill Fellowship (New York and Northern Ireland) to examine the impact of music interventions in communities that experience Trauma. As the Creative Director of the Djari Project in collaboration with Galpu songman Mr. Gurruwiwi, Netanela is a 2020 Australian Art Music award recipient and the winner of the 2021 National Indigenous Music Awards (Indigenous Language category). Her compositions and collaborations have been recognised nationally for excellence in areas of social justice and human rights. Netanela is the current Composer in Residence for the Darwin Symphony Orchestra (2024-25) and recently celebrated the premiere of Gurrulwa Guligi, a major orchestral commemorative piece for the 50th anniversary of Cyclone Tracy in collaboration with Aunty Bilawara Lee in 2024.
Ensemble Offspring is Australia’s leading new music group, standing at the forefront of musical innovation. Led by internationally acclaimed percussionist Claire Edwardes OAM, the ensemble unites the country’s most fearless and virtuosic instrumentalists. Together, they create “visceral, joyous music” (Sydney Morning Herald) through kaleidoscopically varied performances that blaze a trail for Australian music. At the heart of Ensemble Offspring’s mission is an unwavering commitment to the creation and dissemination of living new music. Since forming in 1995, they have commissioned and premiered over 350 new works, solidifying their position as the foremost champions of contemporary music in Australia. In particular, they actively promote underrepresented voices including female-identifying, First Nations, and emerging artists. This dedication has earned the ensemble the 2022 Classical:NEXT Innovation Award, the 2019 Sidney Myer Performing Arts Group Award, multiple APRA Art Music Awards and two ARIA Award nominations.
Arafura Music Collective is a collective of musicians and performing artists based in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia. Founded over 25 years ago by a group of friends who were animated by the sheer joy of playing chamber music together, Arafura Music Collective has become a byword for dynamic and innovative Art Music performances. They perform in spaces that celebrate the stories of Darwin and the Northern Territory, and collaborate with Larrakia artists to promote deeper understanding of Larrakia aspirations and custodianship of the lands and seas of the Garramilla/Darwin region.They love to collaborate to create and recreate works spanning and crossing cultural traditions, art forms, genres, and generations in dynamic, intriguing and thought-provoking performances. In 2023 and 24 they collaborated with saxophonist Nick Russoniello, Darlington String Quartet, Ben Opie from Inventi Ensemble, Ensemble Offspring, Melanie Mununggurr, Alice Cotton, queer Indie singer songwriter and commissioned new works by Darwin based composers Netanela Mizrahi and Annette Anderson.