Since the trip to Kiwirrkurra we have been a bit stretched on the ground with people away, sorry business and sickness, not to mention the fatigue of the funding hunt. It’s been nice the past two weeks having a full house again as we prepare for the Pukatja Sound Lab project and the National Indigenous Languages Conference.

The Alice Desert Festival opened last weekend with the Bush Bands Bash which has become an annual concert featuring the best of the community bands from the Central Desert. With a strong emphasis on providing opportunities for training and participation of young Indigenous people, Ngapartji Ngapartji gave in-kind support to the event, with Batesy acting as mentor on camera with Belinda. Along with three young fellas from Yirara College, Belinda filmed the event for CAAMA who are going to edit together a DVD from five cameras.

Belinda filming Thunder Boys at the Bush Bands Bash, Alice Springs

There was a great vibe in town that night, the concert being staged for the first time right in the centre of town, on the Council Lawns, exposing an audience who may not usually get to hear bands from Papunya, Nyapari, Indulkana and Hermannsburg, do their thing.

Alex and Lorna are travelling to Adelaide next week to the National Indigenous Languages Conference to present about Ngapartji Ngapartji. We are co-presenting with people behind the Miromaa language software which sounds fantastic. http://www.arwarbukarl.com.au/default.aspx?id=153. From there Alex travels on to Newcastle for the This is Not Art cluster of festivals to meet up with Trevor and other BighARTers Michelle, Chris and Bronwyn and present about Ngapartji Ngapartji and Big hART.

And in less than two weeks Batesy and Dani will join Beth and Steve in Pukatja for the Pukatja Sound Lab project. For three weeks a temporary recording studio will be available to any interested community members, but will focus on the skills development of recording processes to younger musicians. Steve Fraser, recording technician and co-ordinator of Melbourne Recording Studio, who worked with anangu choir members and young musicians from Pukatja in Melbourne last year will be setting up the studio with Beth Sometimes, Ngapartji Ngapartji choir coordinator and musician. Batesy will be offering video-making to complement the program. We look forward to catching up with our malpa in Pukatja and also hope to gain input from the women who inspired the addition of an English literacy component to our work, which we are currently developing.

Before I sign off I would like to say farewell from all of us to our Language Producer Tom Holder who has been with us since last year, putting the language lessons together and developing ninti.org. Tom has also worked on the translation of the script and toured with us supporting the project in various roles. We wish Tom all the best and thank him for the considerable contribution he has made to the Ngapartji Ngapartji project.

Dani P