The Wilcannia Mob or Barkandji Boys were a hip-hop musical group of five

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians or Australian First Nations are people with familial heritage from, and membership in, the ethnic groups that lived in Australia before British colonisation. They consist of two distinct groups: the Aboriginal peoples ...

from

Wilcannia Wilcannia is a small town located within the Central Darling Shire in north western New South Wales, Australia. Located on the Darling River, the town was the third largest inland port in the country during the river boat era of the mid-19th ce ...

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

. The group formed in 2001, aged from nine to fourteen, with Buddy Blair, Keith Dutton, Wally Ebsworth, Colin "Colroy" Johnson and Lendal King. Their debut single, "Down River", was issued in 2002 and received high rotation on national youth radio,

Triple J Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

– it was listed at No. 51 on their Hottest 100 for that year. It won a

Deadly award The Deadly Awards, commonly known simply as The Deadlys, was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. The event was held from 1995 to 2013. Description T ...

for Single Release of the Year, in 2003.

History

Barkandji Boys were formed in 2001 by five

from

: Buddy Blair, Keith Dutton, Wally Ebsworth, Colin "Colroy" Johnson and Lendal King. The members were aged from nine to fourteen. They were renamed as the Wilcannia Mob after they were discovered by Sydney-based rap and hip-hop artist,

Morganics Morgan Lewis, known as Morganics, is a Cairns based hip hop performer. Morganics started performing in Sydney in 1984 and was a member of Metabass'n'Breath who toured in Australia and America. Morganics works around Australia on community educat ...

, during children's musical and theatre workshops in their home town in October 2001. Note: The Wilcannia Mob's own name for themselves is the Barkandji Boys...

Barkandji The Paakantyi, or Barkindji or Barkandji, are an Australian Aboriginal tribal group of the Darling River (known to them as the Baaka) basin in Far West New South Wales, Australia. Name The ethnonym Paakantyi means "River people", formed from ...

is the Aboriginal language group of the area of Australia that includes Wilcannia. They issued a single in 2002, "Down River", which won a

for Single Release of the Year in 2003. A

didgeridoo The didgeridoo (; also spelt didjeridu, among other variants) is a wind instrument, played with vibrating lips to produce a continuous drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgeridoo was developed by ...

, made from a gum branch by Johnson, features in the song. It was reissued on a various artists CD, ''All You Mob'', (ABC Records) which included more of their songs and others recorded by other acts in

outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

communities elsewhere. The Wilcannia Mob made their live performance debut at Sydney's Homebake Festival in December 2002. "Down River" appeared at No. 51 on Triple J's Hottest 100 Countdown for 2002. Note: Wilcannia Mob's track is listed as "The River" not "Down River". King's mother, Kerry, described how "the song gives a positive image back to Wilcannia... The simple things they sing about indicate our lifestyle; how we can live in a remote area in a harmonistic way. There are not a lot of material things out there, but it's about using what's there in the river and being part of our life." The Sri Lankan-British artist M.I.A. featured the boys singing "Down River" on the track, "Mango Pickle Down River", on her 2007 album, ''

Kala Kala or Kalah may refer to: Religion Hinduism *Kāla, a Sanskrit word meaning ''time'' *Kāla, a Hindu deity of time, destiny, death and destruction closely related to Yama and Shiva. *Kalā, a Sanskrit word meaning ''performing arts'' * Kala Bo, ...

''. In July 2008 King, then 15 years old, told Peter Munro of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper ...

'' that he was the only one "still living in Wilcannia" although he "wants to move to Sydney and become a musician." Munro reported that "Dutton, his voice now deep and gravelly, works as a builder and gardener on community projects. Ebsworth studies art at Dubbo TAFE. Blair is in Adelaide dreaming of a solo music career. The diminutive Johnson is now tall and is finishing school in Bourke."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wilcannia Mob, The Australian child singers Australian hip hop groups New South Wales musical groups Indigenous Australian musical groups