The Adelaide Festival’s Spinifex Gum performance marks the highlight of this year’s festival, featuring guest performers Peter Garrett, Briggs, Emma Donovan and Christine Anu. The all-Australian project founded in 2014 by singer and songwriter Felix Riebl (associated with The Cat Empire) features lyrics in English and Yindjibarndi, with contemporary stories stemming from the Pilbara.
Courtesy Spinifex Gum
The Marliya ensemble comprised of Aboriginal and Torres Strait teenagers from North Queensland and led by Lyn Williams is the essence of the project and is anything but a traditional choir. Felix says, “We tried to invert what a choir traditionally does, and most of all make music that would be exciting for those amazing teenagers to sing.” Guest performer Christine Anu likewise says, “I’m thrilled to be a part of the Spinifex Gum journey. To be performing alongside the Marliya choir is a deeply personal and special experience for me. The girls sing with such joy and hope, they shine so brightly on and off stage.”
Already distinct in many respects, particularly the political content, the guest performers are sure to inject the performance with yet more flavor, touching on themes such as suicidal FIFO workers and Indigenous young people behind bars. Peter Garrett says, “I’m excited to be a part of this groundbreaking collaboration. The songs are terrific; heartfelt and full of meaning. The Spinifex Gum project evokes and portrays experiences and issues confronting people living in a distant part of Australia in a poignant and hard hitting way. We need music and words like this.”
With the mix of Australian icons featured in this performance alongside the powerful collective voice of young Indigenous females, this event is not to be missed. Spinifex Gum is scheduled to perform on Tuesday March 13, 8pm at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Adelaide.
Adelaide Festival
13 March, 2018
South Australia
