The frontier of Indigenous and non-Indigenous contact in Australia has been the focus of a number of operas and cantatas. Jandamarra: sing for the country; Ngalanyba Muwayi.u (2014), a collaboration by composer Paul Stanhope, Steve Hawke and the Yilimbirri Ensemble (led by Kristin Andrews) from Bunuba community, tells of the war against European settlers in the Kimberley region; and Pecan Summer by Yorta Yorta composer Deborah Cheetham (2010) tells of the 1939 walk-off from Cummeragunja Station in protest over poor conditions. Other works focus on the lives of ethnographers who lived alongside Aboriginal people: Daisy Bates (Sutherland and Casey’s The Young Kabbarli, 1964, for example) who documented traditions of Aboriginal people from across Western Australia and South Australia; and TGH Strehlow (Schultz & Williams’ Journey to Horseshoe Bend, 2002) who documented traditions of the Arrernte people of Central Australia, producing one of the largest collections of any First Nations traditions in Australia. These projects all involved significant engagement with Indigenous people.

Olive Pink Opera Acknowledgement of Country by Doris Stuart Kngwarreye before the world premiere of the Olive Pink Opera, together with Fran Kilgariff and Claire Kilgariff. Photo courtesy of an...