Duo online for WA Day gig

An East Kimberley crooner and her performance partner will join San Cisco and five other West Australian acts for a “socially distant” festival celebrating our State. Kija Noongar woman and singer Gina Williams, with Noongar man and guitarist Guy Ghouse, will grace the Freo.Social stage on Monday for the annual SOTA, or State of the Art, WA Day concert, which will this year be streamed live and free online. Though she grew up down south, Williams has a strong connection to the East Kimberley through the prominent Trust family, who are her close relatives on her mother’s side. Ghouse has also spent “a lot of time” living in Fitzroy Crossing and Broome and has previously toured the region with former bands including Desert Child. Together, the pair write and perform songs in Noongar language, of which there are fewer than 400 fluent speakers left. With venues forced to close and artists unable to perform due to COVID-19 restrictions, SOTAstream will give some of WA’s most recognisable musos the chance to get back performing in front of crowds. Ms Williams said she was excited to share her music with the entire State, including regional towns. “We’re really looking forward to it; I love the idea in many ways that people who would otherwise be unable to come to the concert, people who live regionally, will be able to experience some of WA’s finest music,” she said. “We’ve resisted doing any other online performances but this particular festival is such a great event; we’ve been involved for over a number of years and really wanted to support it.” Their new and third album together, titled Koorlangka, meaning children or legacy, was released on February 13 this year marking the 12th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generations. Koorlangka is a legacy work that invites listeners back to the campfire, focusing entirely on community learning to sing language songs together to pass on to children as a legacy of love and healing and features a translation of the famous Moon River. The duo were in the midst of a touring circuit, with plans to perform throughout the Kimberley, when the COVID-19 outbreak reached our shores, hitting the independent artists with loss of work and opportunities overseas. “We want to come back up to the Kimberley, but it may just take us a little longer than expected,” she said. “We were going to go to Canberra to play the National Folk Festival but suddenly COVID-19 hit when we were on the east cost and we had no choice but to go home.” The pair have spent their downtime during the pandemic working on new music, and urged music lovers to support artists during this hard time by buying albums.