Tura’s latest Sound FX residency in Fitzroy Crossing just wrapped up after three weeks of music-making, language and creative projects with young people, Elders and educators across the community.
Now in its tenth year, Sound FX is Tura’s flagship long-term initiative exploring how music-making can support language continuation and revitalisation, strengthen cultural knowledge, and contribute to wellbeing and healing across the Kimberley.
In Fitzroy Crossing, almost a decade of working alongside local artists, Elders, language teachers, educators and young people has produced songs and recordings in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Walmajarri and Kriol, performances, creative projects and resources for future generations.
This latest residency has centred on two programs: the Young Language Leaders project at Fitzroy Valley District High School and Tura’s ongoing involvement with young people at Marra Worra Worra’s Night Space.
Young Language Leaders
At Fitzroy Valley District High School, Young Language Leaders brings creativity and language together, with students developing their own projects in Bunuba, Gooniyandi, Walmajarri and Kriol.
Across nine sessions, students have worked individually and in small groups on ideas drawn from their own lives and interests. Walmajarri Elder and language teacher Marmingee Hand has been instrumental in leading the project, with support from mentors including language teacher Jocelyn McCarthy, Bunuba Elder Diane Chungal and Tura’s Sound FX team.
A group of Walmajarri, Gooniyandi and Bunuba girls have been creating and illustrating a book following a bike ride to the river. Other students have been writing songs taking inspiration from their daily life, including fishing, basketball and football. The project draws not only on new ideas, but on songs and knowledge already held within the community. Diane has shared songs she wrote and recorded for the Bunuba Language Nest Project in the 1990s, and one student is now learning one of those songs for her own project.
“It’s pretty exciting to see that creative spark with all of them through the process of drawing the pictures through to doing the music and how the language is going to work in either their book or their story,” Sound FX Trainee Faith Atwell said.
That exchange across generations is central to the work. Students are encouraged to begin with what they know, what they are interested in and what already exists around them, finding their own ways to bring language into songs, stories and visual art.
Music-making at Night Space
At Marra Worra Worra’s Night Space, the work grows from another relationship developed over successive Sound FX residencies. Music-making is informal and led by the interests of the young people who come through the space. This residency, Faith has been working with young people on a new soundscape, while Tura’s Sound FX Producer Meg Lowe and Sound FX Creative Facilitator Billie Burrows have been supporting impromptu guitar lessons and songwriting.
The Night Space Song was written and recorded as a demo during the residency, while two more songs, Football Song and Shooting Around, have been started and are ready to be developed further next year. The residency also led to a special invitation to perform at Night Space’s second anniversary celebration. Two of the main songwriters behind the Night Space Song, Isiah and Keseliah, joined Faith, Meg and Sound FX Derby Facilitator Elena Nees on stage to perform the song together.
Local songwriter Brenda has also joined the sessions, singing and supporting the young songwriters. Brenda was one of the songwriters involved in Buga Yanu Junba, developed through earlier years of Sound FX in Fitzroy Crossing. Her involvement brings knowledge and relationships from that work into what young people are making now.
“Night Space is always lovely because everything is about supporting young people to feel safe, to be happy, to be doing things that they enjoy, to get a good feed,” Tura’s Sound FX Program Lead Gillian Howell said. “It’s a lovely thing to be a part of and we are really proud to be involved with that project.”
Each Sound FX residency also aims to create a new Night Space soundscape: a playful recording that captures the voices, activity and sounds you might hear as you move through the space. This residency has also opened up a new relationship with the girls program at KALACC, led by Bianca Nargoodah. The Sound FX team ran its first workshop with the group, with plans to continue building the relationship during future visits.
Building on what came before
This month, the team has also returned to Baya Gawiy, working with educators on ways to incorporate instruments and music-making into their work with young children. Children have been singing songs from the Buga Yanu Junba songbook in Bunuba, Gooniyandi and Walmajarri. Developed through Sound FX with Baya Gawiy educators and local songwriters, these songs are now being sung by another generation of Fitzroy Valley children.
Wangki Radio continues to be an important part of Sound FX’s time in Fitzroy Crossing, supporting the team and helping connect the program with the wider community each time Tura returns. This month, Gillian and Faith also joined Wangki Radio for an interview about the residency and the work underway across the Valley. That continuity extends to the Sound FX team itself.
This year marks Gillian Howell’s tenth year leading the program. Across that decade, her leadership has helped shape Sound FX’s long-term approach in the Kimberley, building relationships with communities, artists, educators and young people while mentoring a new generation of Sound FX facilitators and producers.
That long-term work means songs created through one residency can become resources for the next. Young people can develop their skills over years rather than weeks. Elders and local artists bring existing songs and knowledge into new projects, while new work becomes part of what can be passed on. After almost a decade in Fitzroy Crossing, Sound FX continues to grow from these relationships, with each residency building on the music, language, knowledge and creative work that has come before.
