by One of Australia’s greatest rock bands was born in the indigenous community of Papunya, a few hundred kilometers northwest of Alice Springs. Named for the dreamy setting of Honey Ant and the Country they loved, Warumpi Band toured the country and the world, achieving many successes: three studio albums (in 1983, they released the first rock song performed in an Australian Aboriginal language), an Aria award nomination, and an entry in the National Film and Sound Archive’s Sounds of Australia collection.
Related: Warumpi Band’s legacy: ‘We just wanted to bring our music to everyone’
Their songs were contemporary rock infused with a country twist, telling stories that spoke to the soul of a broken nation. Performed in English, Luritja and Gumatj, their music is electric, connective, and kinetic. It’s also a great heartbeat for live theater work.
An early highlight of this year’s Sydney festival is Big Name, No Blankets, co-directed by Dr Rachael Maza AM and Anyupa Butcher for Ilbijerri Theater Company. Written by Andrea James and developed in collaboration with founding band member Sammy Butcher (whose daughter is Anypa Butcher) and the families of Warumpi Band members, Maza described the work in an opening night speech as the Blak musical we need after of failure. The Native Voice Referendum. The joyous response from the audience left no doubt that she was right.
Based on music and guided by culture, Country and history, this musical jukebox is a bit more rock music than theatre; named after the band’s debut album which featured their Blackfella/Whitefella reconciliation song, it celebrates the fans of music, and has audiences jumping out of their chairs to clap, clap, sing and feel.
On a stage set by Emily Barrie that blends a rock stage with the Papunya desert, we meet the brothers Sammy (Baykali Ganambarr, whose character is also the narrator of the show), Gordon (Teangi Knox), Brian (Aaron McGrath) and his beloved mother (Cassandra Williams, who plays all the women in the story and is Sammy Butcher’s niece). From the beginning, Sammy tells us, music was the best way he communicated, and the brothers loved it too, to the delight of Little Richard and Chuck Berry’s 45s, being able to resist the drums on billy cans . When they meet Neil (Jackson Peele) – a Victorian teacher and laborer working in the Top End – the bond grows; all he needs is, as Sammy later calls him, “the spearhead”.
Enter George Burarrwanga (Googoorewon Knox, in a standout performance). A Yolngu man raised on Elcho Island and trained in cultural and ritual pitch and tone, Burarrwanga is shown in complex, fiery glory: a natural fit for lead vocals, a born performer, and one of Australia’s best ever frontmen.
The musical uses Warumpi Band songs as markers, milestones and punctuation, telling the story of the band from their early days playing in remote communities, to sharing headline status on tour with Midnight Oil (with Peter’s bang-on sense Garrett from Knox which the audience booed on opening night).
Barrie’s suite has a curtain as a backdrop onto which animations, images and videos are projected to evoke new places and stories (Sean Bacon is the video content designer), and the house band is always on stage, under a rig of rock lights. . On stage right, however, a campfire is burning, the camp of the Butcher family, always waiting for the home-sick brothers – so close, but so far. When the band members leave the group, we see them sink into the red earth and watch the burden lift from their shoulders. The town, and the culture and the memories and the people there, is everything.
When the show finally plays 1987’s My Island Home, one of Warumpi Band’s most famous songs (you may be more familiar with Christine Anu’s 1995 cover), it’s transformative. Expressed in language, as Burarrwanga did in later years as an act of reclamation, it could make you weep with the suffering of love, care and belonging.
The book, by James, does not shy away from the tension of bonds: how complicated the reputation is on relationships; how cultural and racial misunderstandings caused bumps in the road. But it always comes back to the brotherhood, both family and honorary, between the band members: how they lift each other up, connect through music, and how they honor the places they call home .
It also sounds crisp, rollicking, and undeniable. Musical director Gary Watling is thrilled with Warumpi Band’s rock edge, keeping it front and centre; sound arranger and composer Crystal Butcher (Sammy Butcher’s daughter; two sons also play in the house band) book and music lively and connected. The band is warm and relentless, the cast a joyful expression of the music and the story.
At one point, Sammy Ganambarr considers whether the band’s music changed the world. Maybe not, he says, but they were able to share their stories and for a while Australia listened. And, he says, you danced with us.
Big Name, No Blankets keep us listening – and a post-show encore performance of Blackfella/Whitefella gets us dancing together again.
