West Arnhem rocks Barunga Festival

The Black Rock Band, featuring Ritchie Guymala, John Anderson, Romeo Redford and Kimberley Namarnyilk, Photo credit: Mark Roy.

West Arnhem was well-represented at the recent Barunga Festival with local sporting teams and local musicians taking part in the three-day event.
Two female teams from Warruwi and Minjilang travelled to Katherine to take part in the women’s basketball competition and a team from Warruwi also joined in the men’s football competition.
Barunga attracts competitors from far and wide including other states and offers the local teams a chance to experience fierce competition at a higher level in their chosen sport.
In the music line up, Minjilang Konnection and B2M were part of the program and rocked the stage to a large audience.
Meanwhile, Kakadu’s Black Rock Band returned from the Barunga Festival having won the Inaugural George Rrurrambu Burarrawanga Award for the Best Community Band.
The Best Community Band award pays tribute to Mr Burarrawanga, the lead singer of Warumpi Band from Papunya.
Black Rock Band are an emerging band out of Kakadu/West Arnhem that draw on deep musical family history from the Territory’s Top End. Incorporating traditional and contemporary styles, Black Rock Band mesh incredible cultural depth with a driving rock style, singing in both Kunwinjku and English. The band sing about their families’ cultural richness as well as contemporary social and political issues that reflect their experience as First Nations people: songs about culture, connection to country, the fight for social justice and the future they want to create for the next generation of children.
Black Rock lead singer Richie Guymala said on receiving the George Rrurrambu Burarrawanga Award, “When I was young, that old man, now, he was a big inspiration for me. Thank you to his family, to Skinnyfish and Barunga.”
Black Rock Band are Richie Guymala, Romeo Redford, Graham Rostron, Dillon Brennan, Darius Cameron, Alfie Naborlhborlh and Kimberley Namarnyilk: bininj (men) and daluk (woman) working together.
The band have recently recorded with Andy Baldwin (Rola Pola Studios, USA) and released their single to a sold out crowd in Melbourne alongside emerging artist Yirrmal Marika (Yirrkala) and contemporary folk outfit The Mae Trio.

The Minjilang team on their way to Katherine for the Barunga Festival.

Following the event, West Arnhem Regional Council Sport and Recreation Leader Kerry Boshammer said both the female and men’s sports teams from Warruwi and Minjilang did extremely well in their competitions and all participants enjoyed their weekend away, playing basketball and football and watching the bands playing awesome music at night.
The teams involvement was made possible by NTG funding, sponsorship from Lawrence Costa and ALPA and fundraising.
None of it could have been achieved without the tremendous work of Sport and Recreation Leader Kerry Boshammer and Youth Sport and Rec team Matthew, Amy and Emma.
In Warruwi, Traditional Owner Jenny also did a lot of running around to successfully mobilise the Warruwi crew and sponsorship for charters.
The logistics of organising three island teams to participate is quite involved – with cars, charter flights, camping, uniforms, food and all the unpredictable parts.
Kerry and the team showed great skills and leadership in pulling it together up until the eleventh hour even labelling the uniforms with numbers and logos!
Also thanks goes to the fantastic team and the CSMs, Kupa and Candice who provide such strong support to staff in each community.
The participants are so grateful to have had this opportunity and are still on a high from it.
Barunga Festival is an annual event which features an incredible program of music, sport, culture, art, dance, circus, kids activities, workshops, healthy food and more.