Dick Diver, Kankawa Nagarra live at The Thornbury Theatre (All Ages)
Dick Diver Return!
A decade has passed since they released their last album, Melbourne, Florida, after which half the band decided to watch the world shit itself from other places around the world.
Well! Now they’ve had enough of that. For the first time since 2018,the band will be in the same place at the same time this August, and will be playing a string of shows at the Thornbury Theatre in Naarm. See you there :)
On Sunday arvo, 3rd of August, Dick Diver will be joined by Kankawa Nagarra.
Story:
Dick Diver formed in 2008, releasing their debut EP, Arks Up in 2009, followed by full-length albums, New Start Again (2011), Calendar Days (2013) and Melbourne, Florida (2015) – all on the highly regarded Chapter Music label, and Trouble in Mind.
They’ve garnered international attention for their songwriting, funny-slash-sad lyrics, and swapping instruments & vocals during live shows; in 2013, mid-set, they witnessed fifty men jump the fence at the Perth Laneway Festival to watch Vance Joy playing on another stage.
Scattered across Stockholm, London and Melbourne since 2015 (the dog days of the Abbott era), they’ve played occasional shows whenever they’ve been able to.
KANKAWA NAGARRA, QUEEN OF THE BANDARAL NGADU DELTA
Kankawa Nagarra is a Walmatjarri Elder, teacher and mentor, human rights advocate, and a passionate environmental activist. Born in the traditional lands of the Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri peoples of north western Australia, she tells her dramatic birth story.
“The problem was because my father was a half-caste. My mother had already been given away to a much older man by her grandfather. This was the tribal law. She was only fifteen when she met my real father. He was seventeen at the time. But because she was already married they tried to keep it a secret, it was forbidden love. When my grandmother heard what might’ve been happening, who the baby really belonged to, she told the people. At that time everything that is not pure bloodline had to be destroyed. She said, we have to kill the baby. She picked up a rock to smash my head in. But it was one of my Great-Greats who saved me, basically fell across me to protect me. She was an elder but in the tribal system I was now actually her elder. So she respected me as her Great.”
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.