Artist Name: Yothu Yindi
Genre:
Aboriginal Traditional,
World Fusion
Country:
Australia
Artist Bio:
The most popular Aboriginal rock band in Australia, or anywhere else, Yothu Yindi was unique from the outset. Contemporary Aboriginal music gained inspiration from Bob Marley's 1979 tour of Australia, and Yothu Yindi was no different. The group took the Western pop/rock band format and applied it to the song cycles of its native Arnhem Land while augmenting its sound with traditional instrumentation of the bilma (ironwood clapsticks) and yidaki (didgeridoo).
Originating in the Yolngu Aboriginal homelands on the northeast coast of the Australian territory, Yothu Yindi formed in 1986 just two years before the controversial Australian bicentennial celebration. It's founding members were sons of tribal elders. The multiracial band draws its Aboriginal membership from a place where the homelands movement has flourished. The movement encourages Aboriginal people to return to traditional lands and lifestyles. While racial harmony is a consistent message of the band, Yothu Yindi's Aboriginal members put traditional identity first.
Yothu Yindi recorded its debut album, Homeland Movement, in 1988 in just one day. The band also played bicentennial protest concerts in Sydney and jetted off on a North American tour with political rockers Midnight Oil. At first, touring was limited by singer Mandawuy Yunupingu's role as a school principal, but the momentum behind the band's next album would change the group's fortunes. The 1991 album Tribal Voice featured a chart-topping single, "Treaty," the first song in an Aboriginal language (Gumatj) to gain international airplay. From 1992, Yunupingu was on leave from his schoolwork, and the band took on an international touring schedule, even securing a deal in the U.S. with Hollywood Records. The group's live show featured painted dancers performing traditional storytelling, and the band earned a reputation for vibrancy.
Besides issuing six albums of its own music, the Yothu Yindi Foundation Masters Series has become an outlet for essential indigenous music of the continent. —John Dugan
