Sweet Amber are hosting their first EP launch: 18th September, 5:30pm, Browns Mart

NT Music Month

“Celebrating original music in the Northern Territory” 27 August – 27 September 2010 For the calendar of events visit www.ntmusicmonth.com

“Its certainly going to be our most challenging and exciting tour we’ve ever undertaken to date,” bassist Andy Dowling says. “The new places we’ll be hitting will be Darwin, Cairns and Rockhampton. They have all been areas ignored by a lot of touring bands (even more so metal acts), so we really want to do everything we can to pave the way for more artists to get to these places, and of course win over new fans! If we do well, then it means we can come back
and also try more areas.”

Fans of bands such as Iron Maiden, Queensryche and even stadium-rock bands will find something to appreciate about LORD, whose new EP follows a pirate theme, following up on one of (LORD precursor) Dungeon’s songs ‘Tarranno Del Mar’.

LORD will headline TerrorFest III supported by Hate for Fate, Vicious Apathy, FEMA, Calabria’s Fall and more.

Presale tickets are available $23 adults | $18 students (or $28/$23 on the night).

Tickets available from www.topendterror.com or www.brownsmart.com.au

Ben Tapp in Action

Indigenous sisters Mandy Muir and songbird Shelly Morris share their moving story of separation, and of finding each other again in Kakadu. Katherine rough diamond and cattleman extraordinaire Ben Tapp makes an appearance, as does scientist Ursula Zaar. Waldo the bush poet also wanders in for a cameo. With some dry humour this one hour film captures some interesting local history, and most importantly the essence of ‘living free’ in ‘The Territory’.

Phil assures us that no animals were injured in the making of ‘Places Pubs and People’, except for two magpie geese, and a Brahman steer, which were barbequed to perfection!

Places, Pubs and People is available at newsagents, bookshops and some roadhouses or online at www.redhen.com.au

Minister for Arts & Museums Gerry McCarthy and Nina Battley, Photography: Glen Campbell

She is one of 34 artists shortlisted for the TogArt Art Award this year. ‘During my childhood living in Indonesia I witnessed the buffalo working the rice fields. When we came to the Northern Territory in 2004 a tsunami hit Aceh and took with it many lives and livestock. Our Territory buffalo came to the rescue. These beautiful horny creatures were trained by buffalo whisperers at Tortilla Flats and sent to Aceh to help rebuild a broken world. At the time I was also starting a new life in the Territory after living for many years in Western Australia. For me buffaloes are a symbol of new beginnings and taking life by the horns. This painting, Tortilla Buff represents a Buffalo family heading to Aceh.

As an artist’, continues Battley, ‘I feel very lucky to be able to visually express snippets of nature, fragments of life or lives, fractions of yesterday’s sorrow, today’s experience and tomorrow’s hope. I embrace combining all these precious elements with my love of color and paint’.

Now in its 4th year, the Togart Contemporary Art Award is one of Australia’s richest contemporary art awards. With a total prize pool of $20,000, the Award celebrates the diversity that makes up Northern Territory art – from Indigenous to non-Indigenous artwork; it showcases the best contemporary art from across a range of art practices and from artists with a connection to the Northern Territory.

The winner of the Togart Contemporary Art Award 2010 will receive a cash prize of $15,000. The Togart People’s Choice Award winner will receive a cash prize of $5,000. ‘Territory contemporary art is influenced by place and culture – with extremes in its physical landscape and weather, to it’s proximity to Asia and its culturally diverse population; Territory contemporary art has a very distinct language equally within the

Indigenous and non-Indigenous artistic communities. The Award embraces this diversity and we have been richly rewarded with the number and the calibre of the works submitted’, says Felicity Green, Togart Award Manager.

The shortlisted works include: paintings, works on paper, photography, fiber work and a range of sculptural works. The Togart Contemporary Art Award is an initiative of the Toga Group. Visionary in concept and development, the Award engages with the artistic community in recognizing and supporting the work of Territory contemporary artists.

The Togart Contemporary Art Award 2010 exhibition will be open to the public on Thu 02 Sep until Thu 07 Oct in the Chan Contemporary Art Space, State Square, Bennett St, Darwin.

Entry is free, open Tue – Fri: 10am – 5pm, Sat & Sun: 10am – 3pm

WHEN WHERE: THU 02 SEP – THU 07 OCT | Chan Contemporary Art Space

bushtraders

There are three main arms to the business; art, bush harvest and tourism. The retail outlet at Lyons Cottage displays and sells the Indigenous bush and arts products that have been developed through the Bush Traders programs. The bush harvest products include items such as a unique range of soap and lip balms which incorporate ingredients from wild honey and the colour tree plant.

As well as having a wide range of paintings, prints, woven goods and fabric for sale, mostly the work of developing and emerging artists from Larrakia Nation Arts, and Bagot and Belyuen communities, Lyons Cottage also hosts an artist in residence program. During September visitors will be able to see Jacob Ahwan at work in the cottage.

This is a great place to see the work of local artists and where the purchase of art and gifts will support the development of sustainable Aboriginal enterprise.

Website: www.urbanbushtraders.com

Mahbilil Festival 2010

• Balinese, African, Maori and Indigenous Dance “Goose lagoon” choreographed by Gary Lang.

• Bands: Sunrize, JK Experience, Reggae Dave

• Psychus Pete, Laser tag, Free Kid Rides

• Bush Food sampling, Magpie Goose cooking competition

• Twilight installation on the lake

• Exhibitions and Demonstrations of Indigenous Arts

Mahbilil Festival – Jabiru: 11th
Milingimbi Festival: 23th – 26th
Powderfinger Concert: 26th
Terror Fest 3 – TBC
Aboriginal Bush Traders Launch
Vortex: 3rd & 4th
Katie Noonan: 5th

Music NT and APRA have moved to 29 Cavenagh St Darwin City.

The NEW Ausdance NT website i s online now! Visit www.ausdancent.org.au

HOT SHOTS Is a Music Photography Com petition designed to showcase Territory music “through h the eyes of the punter”. A new initiative of Music NT. Winning entries will be on display at Happy Yess in Darwin 27/28 August.

2011 Asialink Arts Residency Program
Application Closing Date: 10 September 2010
www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/our_work/arts/residency_information

Image - Goose Lagoon | Photography - Glenn Campbell

“We couldn’t take our program anywhere else. It’s about the Northern Territory. Darwin Festival has to take account of the incredible diversity of Top End audiences, everybody comes.” That makes the job of putting together a program that includes international, national and local events challenging but exciting for Director Jo Duffy.

The shows that are ‘brought in’ by the Festival have to have proven their worth by doing well in numerous other places, each with quite diverse audiences. Jo cites as an example the theatre piece “The Bougainville Photoplay Project” which has found favour with audiences as different as those in Canberra, Melbourne and Port Moresby. “It’s a captivating and enjoyable piece of theatre and it will have added appeal for Darwin people for a number of extra and different reasons – they may have a connection with PNG, or with the defence forces, they may be academics or they may be fathers and sons attending together…. Darwin audiences are often made up of intergenerational family members,” Jo says.

Another element of growing importance for the Darwin Festival program are Darwin Festival Produced shows which mean audiences will see local talents developed to a quality of performance they won’t have experienced before. In the 2010 program these include Goose Lagoon, Head Full of Love and Ngarukuruwala: We Sing Songs.

“In Europe new works get time to develop….eighteen months in production, then work in progress showings to small audiences for a year. Here many have four weeks of rehearsal, then an opening night performance. That just isn’t fair to artists or audiences.”

Now Darwin Festival is giving local work up to two years in development and the results are astounding. Two years ago Jo recognised the potential in Gary Lang’s performance Munuk Gapu and set about working with Gary on his next dance performance. As producers of Goose Lagoon Darwin Festival have enabled Gary to work with a professional sound designer who brought in the sounds of the Arnhem flood plains at sunset to an original musical score, stirring his imagination and opening up creative choices for his choreography. Then a fortuitous conversation between Jo and Scott Wright from Erth Visual and Physical Theatre brought two like minds together in a collaboration that brings the geese to life with inspired puppetry interwoven with the dance.

On a practical but equally important level Darwin Festival has provided a designated rehearsal director and a stage manager for the show as well as a fulltime rehearsal period for the company, something that hasn’t ever happened before. The artists have gained immeasurable experience.

Darwin audiences will notice the difference between works that show potential in their early stages of development and fully realised creative productions. And as Darwin Festival is also promoting and showcasing Goose Lagoon and the other works it has produced to festival directors and programmers nationally, audiences interstate will also have the opportunity to experience spectacular Territory performances. But we can be among the first to see what may soon be national favourites – don’t miss out.

Photo: Three Bulpu by Walawun (Kathy) Guyula

It’s particularly special for senior fibre artist Dolly Dhimbura Bidingal who will travel to Darwin for the exhibition and for the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award where she has work in competition, “it’s the first time ever I made anything for an exhibition … I am so excited to go to Darwin and see my work”.

The bathi, bulpu and maats (baskets, dilly bags and mats) in the exhibition are functional artworks into which are woven the campfire stories, the cultural identity and knowledge of their makers. “The artists are committed to using natural materials and colours that come from their own country”. These talented women are also the subject of a new book by Dr Louise Hamby to be released in September. Entitled, Containers of Power: Women With Clever Hands.

“It investigates the complex set of relationships between the works, their makers and users, their functions, their morphology, their manufacture and history. Fibrework is placed within a cultural context of Yolngu cosmology with emphasis on the belief system and relationships of the fi bre forms to other items of material culture.” (Hamby, 2009)

The artists of Gapuwiyak Culture and Arts Aboriginal Corporation (GCAAC) have created their own permanent collection of fibre art to inspire new generations of artists to become involved in fi bre practice as a means of artistic, economic and cultural growth. It is held in their new Culture Centre building which was proudly opened in June 2009 with an exhibition of this collection. Ngurrungu Yolnguwung Mala Djaamapuy

Giant puppets in the Desert Harmony Festival 2009 street parade.

Inspired by the multitude of local talent they saw in the remote territory township and surrounding communities in the Barkly region, residents from Plam perry and Graham Buxton Orchestrated  the first ever Desert harmony Festival.

The yesr was 1989 and  like all great ideas the name came to Pam in the shower. “We wanted the name the celebrated the town’s culture diversity through dance, performance , street parades and Markets, music and art as well as the harmonious environment that Tennant creek residents enjoy” said Pam.

It was without a doubt a major success with Indigenous   brands such as kulumindini and the ironic Tableland drifters joining the local acts over the coming years.

“We thought it would be just a one-off, but the festival proved so popular the following year we thought we better hire a coordinator abd it sort of snowballed from there” said Pam.

Now two decades on the Desert Harmony Arts and Culture festival is the major culture event of the year and come the end of August the community and Barkly Regional Arts, which took over the Festival in 2008, will be moving into top gear to celebrate its 21^st Anniversary.

Festival coordinator 2010 Jacqui Dawborn said this year’s program is jam packed with rich tapestry of events breaking new life in to the community.

“It’s about bringing people together to enjoy and experience the wide range of cultural and artistic activities in a harmonious environment ,” said Jacqui. “Over the nine days visitors are invited to stay and share in the music, film festivals, visual arts, performance, poetry, traditional dance , circus and other festivities.

28th August sayurday night
MANDINKA SOUND two melbourne based west African acts, one africa and Muhanamwe

3rd September friday night
YOUTH PERFORMANCE

4th September Saturday morning
ARTISTS OF THE BARKLY MARKET PLACE
LAUNCH OF BARKLY ARTISTS COLLBARATIVE INSTALLATION

4th September Saturday night
DANCESITE 2010 presented by ArtbackNT

5th September Sunday
FESTIVAL SHOWCASE
featuring local bands from Bakly