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| Welcome to Chit Chat, where we ask celebs, artists and creatives a bunch of silly questions for fun, and a handful of prying ones. (Supplied/Claudia Sangiorgi Dalimore) |
By Jared Richards
Double J Indigenous Music
Emily Wurramara's already toured Australia off the back of her second album Nara, but she's heading out again — consider it a victory lap.
There's a bit to celebrate. In November, the Warnindhilyagwa woman made history when Nara won the ARIA Award for Best Adult Contemporary Album — becoming the first Indigenous woman to take out the category since the awards began in 1987. But more than any award, Nara is a monumental achievement as a deeply raw, personal record of rebirth (which is why Double J counts it among the top 50 albums of 2024.
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| Much of Nara's visuals, such as the album cover, depict Wurramara with chain mail, armour and swords. (Supplied) |
Taking its title from the Anindilyakwa word for "nothing", Nara came to be as Wurramara rebuilt her life in lutrwita/Tasmania. This followed her Brisbane home burning down and a set of other life-changing moments, including the birth of her daughter.
Whereas Wurramara's debut album, Milyakburra, sat comfortably in folk and blues, Nara runs across a maelstrom of emotions and genres. There's sunny indie-pop (STFAFM) and sweet neo-soul (It's You) alongside a plaintive duet with Lisa Mitchell, but the clearest statement is dance-pop single Lordy Lordy.
Inspired in part by the failed Voice to Parliament referendum ('Lordy Lordy what do we do now?'), it dances through pain and confusion to reach resilience, featuring a Melodyne-heavy verse by Tasman Keith.
Ahead of Wurramara's encore tour, Double J chatted to her about what audiences can expect on stage, how her life-long love of fantasy shaped the album's visuals, and what she does to make hotel rooms feel like home.
Lordy Lordy is a sonic shift into electronica and dance music, but it carries heavy feelings. Was it a conscious choice to marry the two?
With the music you're hearing off of the album, it's something that I've always done in the background. But now, I have the confidence to be like, 'Well, this is what I love'.
I don't have to fit into the boxes that the industry or society wants me to squeeze in. I feel like, as an Indigenous woman, I'm always trying to get squeezed into things that I can't fit into, or I'm too grown for.
With Lordy Lordy, I really wanted to have a club banger.
When I demoed the song a couple of years ago, I was living with Dr Shellie Morris [AO] who's an incredible artist herself and does so much work in the community.
Ahead of Wurramara's encore tour, Double J chatted to her about what audiences can expect on stage, how her life-long love of fantasy shaped the album's visuals, and what she does to make hotel rooms feel like home.
Lordy Lordy is a sonic shift into electronica and dance music, but it carries heavy feelings. Was it a conscious choice to marry the two?
With the music you're hearing off of the album, it's something that I've always done in the background. But now, I have the confidence to be like, 'Well, this is what I love'.
I don't have to fit into the boxes that the industry or society wants me to squeeze in. I feel like, as an Indigenous woman, I'm always trying to get squeezed into things that I can't fit into, or I'm too grown for.
With Lordy Lordy, I really wanted to have a club banger.
When I demoed the song a couple of years ago, I was living with Dr Shellie Morris [AO] who's an incredible artist herself and does so much work in the community.
First published at ABC News, January 7, 2025
Read full story here.
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