Switched On: Yothu Yindi

From Treaty to Tribal Voice, the rhythms and message of Yolgnu rock pioneers Yothu Yindi have made Australians sit up and listen since 1986.

SET TIMES 

7:00pm - Doors open 
8:00pm - Maanyung
9:00pm - Yothu Yindi

One of Australia’s most successful musical acts, Yothu Yindi’s career has spanned multiple decades, with hit albums and singles including Treaty, Djapana (Sunset Dreaming), Tribal Voice, Timeless Land, World Turning and more.  

Stalwarts of the Indigenous music scene in Australia, they’ve toured the globe for fans across the US, Europe and the Pacific, and count Midnight Oil, Paul Kelly, Neil Young, and Santana among them. In the last couple of years alone, the band has played packed out shows at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre, Melbourne’s Hamer Hall, Byron Bay Bluesfest’s Crossroads stage and the closing ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast. With 8 wins out of 12 ARIA nominations, they were inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame in 2012. 

Despite losing Dr. Yunupingu, founding singer of the group, in 2013, the band carries his legacy proudly with talented new frontman Yirringa Yunupingu walking tall in his uncle’s footsteps. Proving the lasting power of Yothu Yindi, the band has recently released a new single, Mabo, which both critics and audiences have been praising for its infectious groove and political message. 

Thirty years on from when they burst onto the scene and featuring original band members and fresh talent from the next generation, this revamped supergroup of blackfellas and whitefellas from far North-East Arnhem Land continue to honour the music and movement its founders sparked in 1986 and live up to the spirit of intergenerational kinship of the band’s name (Yolŋu Matha for ‘child and mother’).

 

            

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Supporting Yothu Yindi is Maanyung.

I am an artist with with strong connections to Gumbaynggir and Yaegl nations. I have always have had strong family and mentors around me to teach culture to me along my life. I enjoy sharing culture to people as I believe traditional Aboriginal ways of being has so much to give; in the means of values of respect, love, care, sharing, looking after each other and our mother earth. I enjoy singing in my old peoples language, it links me back to them when I can connect with country and spirit to deliver my music.

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Switched On flicks the switch on an iconic venue and activates the Hall in a new light. A sonic shift to contemporary music and a whole new dimension in listening.