News

WOMADelaide, to be held in Adelaide’s Botanic Park 10-13 March, today completed its 2017 festival lineup with the addition of Australian hip-hop artists, A.B. Original.

Respectively coming from the Yorta Yorta and Ngarrindjeri tribes, the powerful, high-profile collaboration between the National Indigenous Music Awards’s 2015 Album of the Year recipient Briggs, and ARIA Award-winning producer Trials, evokes the spirit of N.W.A while lyrically bringing attention to issues much closer to home.

Their debut album, Reclaim Australia, was released in November 2016 and reached #10 on the ARIA Charts and #1 on the iTunes charts within the first week of release. It has delivered three extraordinary singles to date; including two triple j Hottest 100 inclusions - the provocative January 26 featuring Dan Sultan, and a hip-hop homage to Paul Kelly's Dumb Things featuring Paul Kelly himself.

Reclaim Australia features guest collaborations with WOMADelaide artists past and present including Dan Sultan, Thelma Plum, Gurrumul and 2017 artists Archie Roach and Caiti Baker. 

A.B Original are a particularly thrilling addition to an already strong lineup of indigenous performers and visual artists – Archie Roach, Gawurra, Uncle Jack Charles, Tyrone Sheather’s Giidanyba installation and a spin-off of the SA Museum’s Yidaki Adelaide Festival exhibition appearing in the KidZone, with yidaki master, Djalu Gurruwiwi.

Also announced today are indigenous artists Dr Lou Bennett and Shellie Morris, who will be guest vocalists with 9Bach from Wales, with whom they collaborated in the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad piece Mamiath - Mother Tongue. Both singers performed at WOMADelaide 2008 with the Black Arm Band.  Bennett was also part of the hugely successful all-female trio Tiddas who performed at WOMADelaide 1993 and 1995.

Also announced today is the complete list of WOMADelaide workshops, including yoga with Cosmic Yoga and Power Living Australia.  Power Living will be joined by Grammy -nominated Toni Childs (USA/Australia ) – now a yoga teacher – for a unique, extended workshop on Sunday 12 March. Other workshops include a percussion workshop with Aziza Brahim (Spain/Western Sahara), a West African dance workshop with Lamine Sonko & the African Intelligence (Senegal/Australia), a beat-boxing session with The Soil (South Africa) and many more.