80-year-old Kankawa Nagarra beats Nick Cave to Australian Music Prize with debut album
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(Credits: Kankawa Nagarra)
80-year-old Kankawa Nagarra has won the $50,000 Australian Music Prize in a significant moment for the country’s music, beating prestigious names to the top music award in Australia.
This year marked the 20th anniversary of the competition, and it featured a host of renowned artists. One of these was Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, who were nominated for their most recent album, Wild God. It marked the former Birthday Party leader’s third time being nominated, following 2019’s Ghosteen and his 2021 collaboration with Warren Ellis, Carnage.
The AMP was inspired the UK’s esteemed Mercury Prize and seeks to celebrate music of artistic value, regardless of genre or commercial popularity. The nine shortlisted records were picked from a list of 46 nominations, which were, in turn, selected from a pool of 600 Australian albums released between October 28th, 2023, and October 25th, 2024.
The other nominations were; Amyl and the Sniffers‘ Cartoon Darkness, Audrey Powne’s From The Fire, Dobby’s Warrangu; River Story, Grace Cummings’ Ramona, Hiatus Kaiyote’s, Love Heart Cheat Code, Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni, Rowena Wise’s Senseless Acts Of Beauty and The Dirty Three’s Love Changes Everything.
The winner was announced on December 4th at the Soundmerch AMP event, held at the APRA AMCOS offices in Sydney.
Who is Kankawa Nagarra?
Kankawa Nagarra is a Walmatjarri elder, she has won $50,000 AMP for her debut album, Wirlmarni. Also known by Olive Knight and the Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu Delta, she is a member of The Stolen Generations.
In what is one of Australia’s biggest historical controversies, The Stolen Generations were the children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent who were forcibly removed from their families by the federal and state government and church missions. This process roughly occurred between 1905 and 1967.
Nagarra was taken from her parents and sent to a mission, where she was first exposed to gospel music. Later, she discovered country and rock while working on homesteads, but it was the blues that made the most significant impact on her when she first heard it played by a busker. She didn’t buy her first guitar until the age of 40.
Nagarra sings in Kriol and English, and she has toured across the world, including with Australian actor Hugh Jackman for his Back on Broadway show. Outside of music, in the 1960s, Nagarra assisted in developing the Walmatjarri dictionary and has since worked to raise awareness about youth suicide and substance abuse within Aboriginal communities.
Receiving the award on December 4th, Nagarra said she was “thrilled and proud” to win for Wirlmarni, which she explained “has been thousands of years in the making” due to it containing the sounds of the people and nature of Wangkatjungka, the Aboriginal community in Western Australia.
“Coming from the remote community of Wangkatjungka, which in the past has been shown in a negative light with the focus on the issues and problems, people don’t often get to see the beautiful and positive aspects of my home,” she said. “And I know this award brings much pride to the people of Wangkatjungka, especially to the school and all the children who I hope to be a role model for.”
Nagarra also thanked singer-songwriter Darren Hanlon, who recorded and produced Wirlmarni. “I feel that music is a responsibility,” she added. “Caring for nature is a responsibility, and protecting culture is a responsibility for its holistic wellbeing. All these things are connected, and I make it my life’s work.”
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