The Wilcannia Mob or Barkandji Boys were a

hip-hop Hip-hop or hip hop (originally disco rap) is a popular music genre that emerged in the early 1970s from the African-American community of New York City. The style is characterized by its synthesis of a wide range of musical techniques. Hi ...

musical group of five

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

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 c ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. 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 is an Australian government-funded national radio station founded in 1975 as a division of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). It aims to appeal to young listeners of alternative music, and plays far more Australian conten ...

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

Deadly award The Deadly Awards, formally titled National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music, Sport, Arts and Community Awards and commonly known simply as The Deadlys, was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander ac ...

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 educa ...

, 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 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 (music), drone while using a special breathing technique called circular breathing. The didgerido ...

, 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 Australian bush, the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastli ...

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. Mia, Mía, MIA, or M.I.A. may refer to: Music Artists * M.I.A. (rapper) (born 1975), English rapper and singer * M.I.A. (American band), 1980s punk rock band from Orange County, California * MIA. (German band), a German rock/pop band formed in ...

featured the boys singing "Down River" on the track, "Mango Pickle Down River", on her 2007 album, '' Kala''. In July 2008 King, then 15 years old, told Peter Munro of ''

The Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published in Sydney, Australia, and owned by Nine Entertainment. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuous ...

'' 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 Musical groups established in 2001 Musical groups disestablished in 2004 New South Wales musical groups Indigenous Australian musical groups