Wan Solwara
Wantok Musik Foundation works with many young people in the Autonomous Region of Bouganville to build capacity and music industry knowledge among young Melanesian musicians, encourage language and culture retention and support cultural industries. One of the programs coordinated by Wantok for youth music development was the creative collaboration of Wan Solwara in early 2023.
Bringing together acclaimed PNG musician Richard Mogul, two highly regarded First Nations performers from Australia Adrian Tjupurru and his son Jake Fabila, and six young musicians from Bougainville selected to participate through winning the local Voice XPLosion competition, this program emphasised the power of collaboration and connection. The six young musicians involved were Michael Dave, Ruth Maison, Walter Kerevio, Jolista Masu, Robertha Yansi and Milton Garea.
Tjupurru, Jake Fabila and Richard Mogu ran workshops pertaining to cultural ownership and copyright, social media, career paths for cultural music and recording advice. The three musicians also mentored the young people to write and record a song and develop an accompanying video. This collaboration has led to the release of the track, Wan Solwara (One Ocean), which encourages people to stand up for their communities and speaks to themes of unity and coming together to face obstacles.
Wan Solwara was released, distributed and promoted in March of 2023. This song then lead to performance opportunities for the Voice XPlosion performers locally for debut and NAIDOC weeks performances, while also generating free community events. This release also resulted int eh collaboration with local artist Simon Gende for the accompanying artwork for the single.
The track incorporates a range of traditional and contemporary instruments including bamboo pipes, with Tjupurru on didjeribone (a cross between a didjeridu and a trombone) and rapping from Jake. Richard Mogu wrote the lyrics, and other contributors included Tsarlayse Iamu and Kawas Band.
Tjupurru and Jake are Djabera Djabera people of the West Australian Kimberly, and alongside this heritage Tjupurru was born in Port Moresby and has family connections to Central Province and Bougainville. He was determined that Jake should be part of the exchange and “carry the spear forward”.
