This week on Let’s Talk – Black Arts, Rachael catches up with award-winning Anindilyakwa artist Emily Wurramara to celebrate the release of Emily’s brand new single: Midnight Blues. In this rich and powerful conversation, Rachael & Emily talk a little about Emily’s career as a musician and songwriter, and what drew her to music as a vehicle for storytelling. They reflect on the highs and lows of life in the public gaze – what it means to make work that audiences connect with, and the role that artists can play in helping us process, heal, and grow. Rachael learns about the heavy themes and experiences that Emily has poured into Midnight Blues, a track that is steeped in vulnerability, grief, strength and pain. Emily explains that she wants to “help people to release, cry, and let it out”, that Midnight Blues should be a “safe space to feel.” The track is part of Emily’s long-standing commitment to using her creative gift to be honest about how hard it is to live in a world that’s full of grief, oppression, exploitation and violence: “a meditation on the strangeness of sadness, and dedication to the power of her mother’s love and community that saw her through it all.”
All in all, this is set to be an unforgettable episode of Let’s Talk – Black Arts. Get yourself a cuppa and give yourself space to feel.
As always, if anything we talk about in this episode triggers heavy emotions for you, please seek out support. Reach out to your family and friends. Talk to the people who love you about the hard stuff you’re feeling. And remember that you can always call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or 13 YARN for free, confidential counselling support. As Emily reminds us: “it’s precious to show people why this life is beautiful and worth sticking around for; being vulnerable in itself has so much strength and staunchness.”
