A GENTLE CORRECTION

First Nations Composer Program

What is our First Nations Composer Program?

Ensemble Offspring’s First Nations Composer Program is unique in the Australian art music scene. A multi faceted program, it takes an active role in addressing the disparity in opportunities afforded to Australia’s First Nations musicians and artists with, in the words of Christopher Sainsbury a ‘gentle correction’ to past approaches. We recognise the damaging legacy of colonisation and see the immense value that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists can offer the broader arts sector and cultural landscape. In line with our RAP plan, key to our First Nations program is local industry engagement and partnership within the First Nations sphere, prioritising ‘First People First’.

First Nations Composer in Residence

This annual position was launched in 2020, with Brenda Gifford the first recipient. It offers a flexible mentoring and workshopping environment for the chosen composer including one-on-one sessions, involvement in local and regional touring programs and workshops and premiere of a new Ensemble Offspring commission (valued at $2500). In 2021 the FNCIR is Nardi Simpson (Yuwaalaraay).

Application Process

Applications for First Nations Composer in Residence are by invitation. However, if this is something that you are interested in, please email claire@ensembleoffspring.com

Our First Nations Composers

Nardi Simpson (2021)

Nardi Simpson is a Yuwaalaraay composer, songwriter, storyteller and performer. Nardi was part of the 2019-2020 Ngara-Burria: First Peoples Composers cohort. One half of Stiff Gins, Nardi has performed at TEDxSydney and was the 2018 winner of Queensland’s Black&Write! Indigenous Writer’s Fellowship. The Stiff Gins was formed by Emma Donovan, Nardi Simpson and Kaleena Briggs in 1999, after meeting at the Eora Centre while studying music. The band’s name uses the word gin (a derogatory word for Aboriginal woman which was also a Dharug word for woman/wife) with the word stiff to become strong black woman, a name which caused debate about use of the word gin.

Brenda Gifford (2020)

Brenda Gifford is a Yuin woman, originally from Wreck Bay on the south coast of NSW. A composer and classically trained saxophonist, pianist and teacher, she has twenty years of extensive experience as a musician. She was a member of the band ‘Mixed Relations’ with Bart Willoughby from No Fixed Address. She has toured extensively around Australia and internationally to Native American communities and the Pacific Islands. Brenda has been commissioned by the Canberra International Music festival, Ensemble Offspring, ABC and the Sydney Symphony. She has conducted over 100 interviews and oral histories with Aboriginal musicians and has curated notes and blogs. Brenda is currently studying composition at ANU and is part of the Composing Women program at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers

‘Ngarra-Burria’ are Dharug words meaning ‘to hear, to sing’, and this program builds bridges for First Peoples musicians to step forward, further develop their composition skills, and connect with the art music sector. Initiated in 2017 by Aboriginal composer Christopher Sainsbury, the program takes a two-year cohort of composers on a voyage spanning the many realms of art music, including contemporary classical/new music, jazz, experimental, sound art and installations. This deep engagement sees its participants joining Ensemble Offspring in residence in annual workshops, recordings and performances. Past participants include Elizabeth Sheppard (Noongar Yamatji), Rhyan Clapham (Murrawarri), Troy Russell (Biripai/Gamillaroi), Nardi Simpson (Yuwaalaraay) and Eric Avery (Koori). Partners include Moogahlin Performing Arts, Australian Music Centre and Australian National University.

First Nations Stories

Australia Council Protocols for Indigenous Music

Australia’s unique Indigenous artistic and cultural expression is rooted in thousands of years of heritage and continuing practice. ‘Indigenous music is a voice that crosses boundaries. It is the true voice of this country.’ David Milroy

Chris Sainsbury’s Ngarra-Burria Platform Paper

In a considered account of composers’ pursuit of an Australian sound in contemporary music Christopher Sainsbury uncovers the powerful bond between heritage and musical expression in Ngarra-burria: First Peoples Composers.

ABC Classic on Ngarra-Burria

‘Culturally and historically, the people that do all the talking – they need to listen. And the people who have done all the listening that need to have that platform to talk.’ Rhyan Clapham, Muruwari man – composer, percussionist, and rapper

Listen to the music of the first cohort

Listen to 2017 Ngarra-Burria: First Peoples Composers studio recordings on Soundcloud. This was the first year of the program with recordigs by Ensemble Offspring’s Lamorna, Jason, Claire and Freya.

Resonate Magazine on the Indigenous Composer Initiative

This article by Chris Sainsbury is edited from his presentation at the 2017 IAML Australia conference in Canberra in 2018. The music he refers to is available for listening as part of ABC Classic FM’s New Waves podcast on ABC Classic.

Tyson Yunkaporta’s Sand Talk

This remarkable book (watch trailer) is about everything from echidnas to evolution, cosmology to cooking, sex, science and spirits. Tyson Yunkaporta looks at global systems from an Indigenous perspective asking how contemporary life diverges from the pattern of creation.

Bruce Pascoe’s Dark Emu (Magabala Books)

Dark Emu argues for a reconsideration of the ‘hunter-gatherer’ tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians and attempts to rebut the colonial myths that have worked to justify dispossession. Author Bruce Pascoe provides compelling evidence from the diaries of early explorers. Watch his TedTalk.

Tara June Winch’s The Yield (PenguinBooks)

The yield in English is the reaping, the things that man can take from the land. In the language of the Wiradjuri yield is the things you give to, the movement, the space between things: baayanha. Tara June Winch’s The Yield is the story of a people and a culture dispossessed.

In My Blood it Runs

Dujuan is a child-healer, a good hunter and speaks three languages. As he shares his wisdom of history and the complex world around him we see his spark and intelligence…his family fight to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education lest he becomes another statistic. Watch trailer.

Nardi Simpson’s new novel Song of the Crocodile (Hatchette Press)

IMAGE: song of the crocodile

Full of music, Yuwaalaraay language and exquisite description, Song of the Crocodile is a lament to choice and change, and the unyielding land that sustains us all, if only we could listen to it. Listen to Nardi’s interview ABC Conversations here.