Track Of The Day :: Kardajala Kirridarra - Ngabaju

Words: Linn Branson

No matter how many times I hear 'Ngabaju', and so know it's coming, for roughly ten seconds from 3:14 in, a lump still wells in the throat. I am not sure why or if this happens as a common occurrence to others, but this brief interlude maybe in part shows why Kardajala Kirridarra are being slowly but surely spoken about in reverential tones in their native Australia. And not just for their stunning and incredible music.

The purity of the voices which can be heard on this self-titled album by Kardajala Kirridarra, released yesterday (July 7), conjure up the heat of the Australian Outback and generations of indigenous Aboriginal women gathered together to hand down stories and songs of their culture, juxtaposed with a very modern electronic musical ambience that dips into rap and dubstep.

'Kardajala Kirridarra' translates to ‘Sandhill Women’ and refers to a mysterious bush woman from the sandhills behind the community of Marlinja, in Australia's Northern Territory. Kardajala Kirridarra is an inter-generational collaboration between the descendants of this bush woman, from the communities of Marlinja and Kulumindini (Elliott) - roughly halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs - who sing both in their native Mudburra language as well as English.

What Kardajala Kirridarra -
composer Eleanor 'Nalyirri' Dixon, her aunt Janey 'Namija' Dixon who translates and delivers much of the Mudburra; Kayla Jackson; and Melbourne producer Beatrice 'Nalyirri' Lewis who introduced the electronic, triphop, dub, rap and sampled percussive elements along with some of the harmonies - offer is something profound and refreshing to ears not used to their culture, and how they are shaping that same culture for future generations.

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Also check out these two further tracks from the album. Better still, head to their Bandcamp and buy the whole package!