Matthew RimmerLou Bennett describes being a 'conduit for song' in lead up to Adelaide Festival show nyilamum song cycles
'My [PhD] research was called Sovereign Language Rematriation. I wanted a title to emulate everything that I've been up to in the last 36 years. The artistry informs the education and vice versa — it's all entwined. It's very hard to silo things out and separate things.
They say there's about 7,000 languages in in the world. I believe there's so many more languages. Alone here in Australia, there's over 500 tribes, so there's at least 500 languages in Australia alone.
But instead of repatriation, I see it as a matrilineal thing, a woman thing to do or a feminine thing to do. It doesn't mean that men can't rematriate — rematriation has a sense, a deeper sense, and an understanding [of] the intangible, the spirit that evolves around language … Language has a spirit and has a life in itself and we treat it as family.
It's important that our languages here in Australia have the opportunity to sing again, to tell their story.'
Lou Bennett describes being a 'conduit for song' in lead up to Adelaide Festival show nyilamum song cycles
In the latest What Sparks Art interview, musical powerhouse Lou Bennett speaks to ABC Arts about her incredible career so far, her upcoming Adelaide Festival show, and the sources of inspiration she finds in 'histories colliding and clashing'.
Peter Riley