Songs for Freedom is a powerful concert of profoundly moving soul, blues and country music, created by artists in the Roebourne community, guided by Ngarluma and Yinjibarndi Elders, and a moving tribute to the family of John Pat in the 40th anniversary of his passing in custody.
Grammy Award-winning musician Lucky Oceans is Musical Director of the inspiring Songs for Freedom concert at Melbourne Recital Centre. “It’s a great privilege to be allowed to do it,” says Oceans, the legendary pedal steel guitarist who has performed with Willie Nelson, Eric Clapton, Emmylou Harris, Paul Kelly, Gurrumul and Neil Finn, “because it’s such an important and hurtful issue that continues to be so.”
Songs for Freedom is a project by leading arts and social change organisation, Big hART, which advocates for change by raising awareness of the disproportionate incarceration rates of First Nations children in Australian prisons. Big hART were first invited into the community of Roebourne in 2012, running music and songwriting workshops at Roebourne Regional Prison, and working in dialogue with the Elders of Roebourne in serving the community and supporting its artists, painters, writers and musicians.
Songs for Freedom at Melbourne Recital Centre
- Friday 15 September 2023 7.30pm
- Elisabeth Murdoch Hall
- Tickets available here
Lineup
The event is being held with thanks to the Pat family and Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi Elders, Allery Sandy and Jeanie Churnside. Special guests include Kutcha Edwards, Stephen Pigram, Shellie Morris and Kankawa Nagarra.
The Freedom Collective features Lucky Oceans, David Hyams, Jay Jarome, John Bennett, Tyson Mowarin, Talya Valenti, Hannah James, Roebourne Community, Patrick Churnside, Yindjibarndi Elder Allery Sandy, and Michelle Adams.
The creative team features Creative Director Scott Rankin, Musical Director Lucky Oceans, Associate Musical Director David Hyams, Video Designer Jordan East and Lighting Designer Stephen Hawker.
Keep up with the latest music news, features, festivals, interviews and reviews here.
“That’s been the exciting thing of the Roebourne project, I came up there writing songs in Roebourne prison and then writing songs in the community,” says Oceans, “and we took the concert to Perth and now we’re taking it interstate. The concert has been linked to a whole political movement, which emphasises not only John Pat and the deaths in custody, but the untenable rates of incarceration of First Nations children. All the time, we’re making great art and we’re writing great songs. I’ve got a great crew of people together, musicians and people from Roebourne, and we’ve made an album of songs, Songs for Freedom.”
That talented crew of musicians and singers became The Freedom Collective. When they began recording Songs for Freedom last year, they had over a hundred songs to choose from. “I’ve been going up there for 10 years and writing songs from the very beginning and not only me, but other key members have been writing songs,” says Oceans. “People in the community have written them, other people from the Pilbara and the Kimberley have been embraced by the community for these concerts, and their songs have become a part of the show.”
Working with Ngarluma man Patrick Churnside and Yamatji man Fred Ryan resulted in a deeply meaningful musical collaboration. “Patrick Churnside is an amazing guy,” Oceans enthuses, “and he works in two worlds because he sings the songlines that his grandfather sang and yet he works with white society in government and he’s also a political activist. He’s protecting the amazing artwork that’s on the peninsula, that’s now in danger from the Woodside petroleum plant. Patrick is a gem of a guy – Patrick and I have gone around the country. Before Sydney we went to see some Yuin people in Wallaga Lake and Patrick brings his artefacts, which the kids delight in, and then we sit around the table and usually a song comes out of it. It happened in Darwin, where we wrote with Shellie Morris and three of her friends about freedom and someone having the time to listen to you.
“Fred Ryan is an amazing songwriter,” states Oceans. “I was very happy that I was able to pull him into the project. He’s not from Roebourne, but he lives in Karratha 20 minutes down the track. We had a songwriting workshop in Roebourne and he sent me a message with a song recorded and it was Songs of Freedom, which is just an absolute anthem and I was like ‘this is amazing, Fred!’
“Fred’s a really deep thinker. I had a revelation working in Roebourne that there’s a culture that survived for 65,000 years and we’re telling them to be like us. I don’t pretend to know 1% of Aboriginal culture, but I’m curious and I want to know. It’s interesting to observe the different protocols where we might have a map of Australian state lines – there’s another map of Australia that’s drawn with language groups occupying different lands, so when we go to a place, Patrick and the team have to meet with those people to get permission. That’s a beautiful thing – I’ve seen him exchange gifts when he meets with Elders – this is something that’s been going on for tens of thousands of years.”
Oceans has won two Grammy Awards as a member of Asleep at the Wheel (who are touring Australia in October) for Best Country Instrumental in 1978 and 1993. His solo albums masterfully moved the pedal steel into new directions, reinterpreting Hank Williams’ songs on the album Purple Sky, and worked as a radio presenter on Radio National. “In music I’m restless,” says Oceans with a laugh. “I like to change. I’m much more interested in songwriting now, mainly through the Roebourne experience. I want to put out an album of songs, but I also have an accelerated interest in spiritual jazz … Alice Coltrane, Pharoah Sanders. My pipe dream is to put together a group that plays those things that’s less about genre and more about deep celebration.”
The remarkable Roebourne experience has left an indelible impact on Oceans and he hopes that the Songs for Freedom concert will transport that same sense of enlightenment. “I hope they come away with enough knowledge about the issues, so they can be part of a movement that does something about the shame of our times, which is the unconscionable level of Aboriginal incarceration,” says Oceans. “People look back and they talk about the massacres, and after the massacres there was the Stolen Generation, and now it’s incarceration. If we can inspire people to write to their representative and do something about that, if only one life is saved, then we’ve done our business. It’s also in conjunction with the Voice and people wondering how to vote on the Voice. The Uluru Statement from the Heart talks a lot about incarceration and we’re trying to bring awareness to that issue.
“That’s what I want them to take away – have a great time and feel like they know and value Aboriginal culture a little more and I want them to say, ‘I don’t want to live in a country where 50% of its children’s prison population is Aboriginal out of 2% of the population’.”
Witness the transformative performance of Songs for Freedom at the Recital Centre’s Elisabeth Murdoch Hall on September 15 at 7:30pm. For tickets, visit Songs for Freedom – Melbourne Recital Centre.
This article was made in partnership with Melbourne Recital Centre.
