Emily Wurramara headlines at the Workers Club

Feature image supplied (Credit: Jess Gleeson, ARIAs).

There are some events that one will go to in their life that feel monumental for one reason or another. 

For the Nara Encore Tour, it was the fact that the esteemed and ARIA award-winning Warnindhilyagwa woman, Emily Wuramarra hadn’t played a headline tour in around nine years.

There was budding anticipation for this tour reaching full bloom in the sold-out room as attendees filed through as doors opened in a steady stream.

Emily Wuramarra had one support for the Naarm/Melbourne show; proud Yorta Yorta woman Madi Colville-Walker.

Her performance was an intricate weaving of the tales her songs tell, symbolism, her cowboy boots, purple stage lighting, a dreamcatcher hanging from the head of her guitar and the emu feathers that adorned her dress and accessories.

From the second Colville-Walker walked on a stage, the crowd was entranced.

Throughout her set, Colville-Walker had a deliberate mix of originals and covers that was broken up with witty insights into her originals.

Each song was an opportunity for her to demonstrate how she could meld genres through an infusion of country, indie, pop and folk to create a blended sound that soared above the seated and standing crowd.

Madi Colville-Walker felt like the ideal support with her complimenting sound to Emily Wuramarra’s own and her touching ability to connect with the crowd.

Following a brief intermission, crew setting up the stage and a line-check, Emily Wuramarra’s band filed up onto the stage.

Wurramara’s stage presence is unlike many others with her eclectic and authentic dance moves as the music she’s created drives her passionately forward and her vocal technique.

Each song Wurramara sang, either in English or her native tongue, Anindilyakwa, landed with such poise it is hard to fault.

Her songs are known for the powerful imagery in the lyrics that she crafts into entrancing music videos and seeing her on stage was an experience to be cherished.

Wearing a silver, sparkly headcover Wurramara played ukulele, acoustic guitar and blended her unique charisma into each and every song.

Wurramara isn’t just an artist; she’s an activist and a powerful voice for women, Indigenous artists and creators and mums.

It’s a privilege to see artists coming into their own, especially when their most recent album was five years in the making and saw them be the first Indigenous artist to take out the ARIA for Best Adult Contemporary Album.

Her success comes after Uncle Archie Roach became the first Indigenous artist to win an ARIA award twice over and paves the way for emerging artists like those she's mentored to aspire to succeed.

Partway through her performance, Wurramara gave a touching and emotional account of what it meant for her album to receive an ARIA award in the category she did and how she believes that while the first, she will not be the last Indigenous artist to find similar ARIA success as she and Uncle Archie Roach have.

If everyone had even just a touch more compassion and drive for creativity, expression and honesty like Emily Wurramara, the world would be more inclusive and far more tolerant of the unique eccentricities that live within each of us.

To learn more about Emily Wurramara, check out her website here, Louis’ interview with her in the lead-up to Nara’s release in 2024 here or the 2025 Hoist interview out soon.

 

This piece was written on the lands of the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. The writer pays respects to elders past and present. Sovereignty was never ceded and this always was and always will be, Aboriginal Land.