Lonnie Holley (b. Birmingham, AL, 1950) is a multidisciplinary visual artist and improvisational musician, whose work explores themes of personal and collective history, racial inequality, environmental catastrophe, and American identity. Born into the harsh reality of Jim-Crow era Alabama, Holley’s early life was defined by transience, cruelty, and economic hardship. Separated from his family as a young boy, Holley spent three years at The Alabama Industrial School for Negro Children, a brutal state institution that has been called a modern-day slave plantation. Growing up impoverished, Holley made do with what he could find, often the broken and discarded objects of human consumption – materials he refers to as, “trash, garbage, and debris.” His ability to combine these objects into beautiful and socially resonant works of art made Holley a leading figure in the long-overlooked movement of Black Southern visual artists. Holley’s work has been exhibited internationally and can be found in major museum collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Smithsonian American Art Museum, National Gallery of Art, and many others.

Kankawa Nagarra is a Walmatjarri Elder, teacher and mentor, human rights advocate, and a passionate environmental activist. She was born in the traditional lands of the Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri peoples of north western Australia.

Kankawa spent her childhood listening to the tribal songs at cultural ceremonies, and when she was taken from her family to the mission she was taught hymns and Gospel songs with the choir. On the pastoral lease where she was sent to work Country Music was everywhere and she heard Rock and Roll for the first time on the station gramophone. But it wasn’t until many years later her musical journey truly began when she stopped to listen to a busker outside a shop in Derby, WA. It was the first time she’d heard the Blues and it awakened something in her. Through it she found a medium to express all her thoughts and feelings and it inspired her to turn these into songs. The empathy of her message extends from those she sees struggling around her to the entire planet being ravaged for profit.

In July 2023 her friend Darren Hanlon traveled to Wangkatjungka to record a collection of her songs on Country that has now become her first vinyl LP. Kankawa chose specific locations between there and Fitzroy Crossing that held meaning to her and the songs she chose to sing. The centrepiece title track song ‘Wirlmarni’, which means ‘disappearing’, is a plaintive duet and laments the passing of the great tribal men that she remembers fondly.

The twelve tracks that make up the album offer a cross section of Kankawa’s entire musical experience - shifting gracefully between musical styles, languages, and moods, backed by the buzz of night bugs and call of daytime birds. In turns humorous, warm, and real about the hardships of life and the pillage of the land she holds dear, the record is the closest thing you can get to spending time with the great Kankawa herself. You can even hear the rustle of tin foil wrapping kangaroo tail for the BBQ.

Once released on Hanlon’s own label ‘Flippin Yeah Records’ in partnership with ‘Mississippi Records’ the album was picked up by the judges of the prestigious AMP (Australian Music Prize) awards. It went on to win which thrust Kankawa into the national and international spotlight.