ABOUT
Wantok Musik Foundation
For more than two decades the Wantok Musik Foundation has been building relationships, friendships and trust across Australia and the Pacific. In a world full of division, Wantok Musik creates opportunities for connection and understanding.
We work alongside First Nations musicians from Australia and the wider Oceania region to share unique music and celebrate culture. We support and showcase an Oceania that is ancient, diverse, creative, culturally-rich and resilient. In doing so, our work transforms lives and communities.
Through the power of music and art, Wantok supports artists to share stories that the world needs to hear. Our work promotes traditional languages and cultures, builds sustainable careers, fosters employment pathways, contributes to cultural diplomacy and promotes unity and pride in culture.
Wantok Musik:
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Works with communities to record, retain and promote cultural practices and languages that are at risk of dying out
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Mentors and provides employment pathways for young First Nations artists and cultural workers
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Supports First Nations artists from Australia and Oceania to build sustainable music careers while retaining and celebrating their culture and language
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Helps artists tell stories that need to be told, like Kutcha Edward’s experience as part of the Stolen Generations, George Telek’s anthem for West Papuan freedom and the songs of indentured labourers from Vanuatu who worked in the Queensland sugarcane fields.
Working alongside communities to retain culture, foster cultural diplomacy & promote unity
Wantok supports communities from around Oceania to record and retain important songs, stories and culture, and to share these cultural expressions with the world. This builds pride and a stronger sense of identity in younger generations, which promotes language and culture retention, encourages youth engagement, and fosters social unity. We regularly partner with governments to develop programs that meet cultural diplomacy aims.
Building skills for sustainable career pathways in the arts
We support and mentor young people to develop creative industry skills, build sustainable careers and provide avenues for incorporating their own cultural practices into their music. For example, we run programs with young people in Bougainville, Solomon Islands and Timor Leste where young emerging artists are mentored by First Nations Australian artists in music production, songwriting, performance and publishing. This works towards building the next generation of Oceanic artists, producers and creative industry professionals, and develops countries’ future capacity to build viable, authentic cultural tourism sectors. It also creates strong networks between diverse artists from our region.
Sharing the music of Oceania with the world
Since its establishment, Wantok has financed, developed, produced & marketed over 60 releases from First Nations artists from Australia and Oceania. Our releases have received some of the industry’s highest accolades, including ARIA Award nominations and APRA awards. We are proud to have mentored and released the first albums by artists such as Emily Wurramara and Ngaiire, providing them with a pathway to successful mainstream careers. Equally, there are artists who choose to maintain a long term relationship with Wantok over long and fruitful careers, including Uncle Frank Yamma and George Telek.
Creating connections through live performance
As well as supporting our artists to tour and perform at festivals and venues around the world, we curate cross-cultural events and showcases, such as the Sing Sing Concerts, which have been staged at events such as the Sydney Opera House, the London Olympics, the Commonwealth Games and Womadelaide.
Using music to create change
We support artists to speak out on issues that they care about, such as songs opposing gender-based violence by Emily Wurramara and George Telek, an album of resistance music by Timor Leste freedom fighters and a record documenting stories and music centred around the 1998 Byak Massacre in West Papua.