The first ever tour of The Ltyentye Apurte Drummers!

June5

 

The first public gig for The Ltyentye Apurte Drummers in 2012 was for the NTCOSS annual conference. This also happened to be their first paid/corporate gig and the audience, who were representative of all state-wide service providers, were blown away with a very slick performance. It was wonderful for all of us to be acknowledged for the hard work that goes into such celebrated success!

Second gig for The Drummers was at the Wide Open Spaces Festival performing the honorary ‘welcome to country’ . The festival site is loc

The Ltyentye Apurte Drummers at Wide Open Spaces 2012

ated at Ross River in an intimate valley in East Arrente country which is family for some of the kids are custodian for. The Arrente men from Santa Teresa also gave a ceremonial dance. Revellers from far and wide assembled to cheer and dance to The Drummers’ smooth and confident performance. Many folks commented on their finesse and remarked on the sophistication of their rhythm pieces.
David Batty, Rebel film-maker, joined us for the preparations and unfolding of the days’ events. From filming us rehearsing at school in the morning to capturing the kids’ building excitement, creating a buzz around the festival’s launch, to focusing in on the joy on their faces while they performed, David and his camera were in the epicentre of a beautiful phenomenon!
Two weeks later, The Ltyentye Apurte Drummers were rehearsing their chops for a different kind of gig altogether; The Centralian School Eistedfodd. This event requires the kids to perform their work independently, which differs from the festival gigs where we enhance the band with djembe soloing and extra percussion. The band were totally up for the challenge.

Receiving their awards!

Announcement of their win.

Performing Markaru.

Mr. Henderson was suitably impressed and community members remarked on hearing new beats in the arrangements.

Dallas & Stormy holding their Eistedfodd trophy!

Rehearsing in the horse shed.

WoW!

June19

They made the news this week!

The Beat Goes On: Ltyentye Apurte Drummers!

June10

Welcome to Country

It was with great anticipation that we commenced our rhythm program at Ltyentye Apurte Catholic School again this year. This time our program was integrated into the curriculum of term 2 as we taught all of the kids for two full days per week for 11 weeks. After four weeks we had a select group ready to perform at the Wide Open Spaces Festival 2011. Given that many of these kids’ families originate from this eastern Arrente region, it was an honour to offer their opening performance as a ‘welcome to country’ and how warmly received this welcome was to a memorable festival weekend for many.

Performing

Returning the following week to the high spirits of the success of that gig (and excursion, almost a 400km return journey), we focused our next goal, for four weeks later, on performing in the 2011 Centralian Eistedfodd at the Araluen Theatre. This was to be a new experience for us all, never before having attended, let alone entered an inter-school performance ‘competition’. We seriously took on the challenge, determined to knock peoples’ socks off with the power of the Ltyentye Apurte Drummers’ sound!

Rehearsal

Djun Djun power

Rikiah, band leader

Backstage Araluen Theatre

Eistedfodd band

Making their drums sing

Many great possibilities exist as to where to go next. We still dream of taking the Ltyentye Apurte Drummers to The Dreaming Festival however, they were severely affected by the QLD floods earlier this year and have had to forgo their planned festival for 2011. Other sights are set on securing festival appearances in Darwin, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney.. anywhere! To get there however, will take funding and support, and that’s what we will be looking at generating in the meantime.

Eisteddfod show-time