Art After Dark: Music – Waakya

Arising from a desire to bring new life to manikay, the ancestral songs of Arnhem Land, Waakya is a bold cross-cultural collaboration between Yolngu songman Daniel Wilfred and electro-acoustic musicians Martin Ng and Ben Carey.

Over the last decade Daniel Wilfred has developed an international reputation as an innovator of Yolngu music traditions, seeking to develop new artistic directions for the ancestral music of Arnhem Land. In 2022, Daniel worked with turntablist and electronic musician Martin Ng on ‘Fresh Water-Salt Water’, a critically acclaimed collaboration between the Australian Art Orchestra and the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival. This collaboration led to Waakya, “the crow moving its feathers”, an extraordinary re-imagining of manikay that surprises and delights with a new, spell-binding beauty.

David Wilfred (Yidaki) and Matt McGuigan (guitar) join for this special performance at White Bay Power Station on Wednesday 5 June.

Art After Dark: Music is presented by the Biennale of Sydney and Phoenix Central Park.