Bart Willoughby

Bart Willoughby is an Aboriginal Australian musician, noted for his pioneering fusion of reggae with Indigenous Australian musical influences, and for his contribution to growth of Indigenous music in Australia.

In 2024, Willoughby received the Ted Albert Award For Outstanding Services to Australian Music at the APRA Music Awards of 2024.

A Pitjantjatjara man of the Mirning dreaming, his totem is the whale. He is Kokatha through his father and Mirning through his mother. He grew up at Koonibba Aboriginal Mission near Ceduna on the South Australian edge of the Nullarbor Plain on the Great Australian Bight.[citation needed ]

At 14 years of age, after spending some time in a boys' facility, Willoughby found his way to the Centre for Aboriginal Studies in Music at the University of Adelaide, where he was introduced to music, including drumming, singing, and guitar playing.[citation needed ]

Willoughby's musical career commenced in 1978, and in this period he developed as a distinctive Indigenous Australian musician notable for his pioneering fusion of reggae music with Indigenous Australian influences. He formed his first band, also Australia's first Indigenous rock band, No Fixed Address, in 1978, though he also played with Jimmy Chi's newly formed band Kuckles throughout 1978 and 1979.

In 1979, No Fixed Address played its first large concert at the National Aboriginal Day event held in Taperoo, South Australia, and over the years has played at numerous concerts for Aboriginal causes, including Rock Against Racism, The Artists Newsletter Association, the Campaign Against Racial Exploitation and the National Aboriginal Country Music Festival.

At the end of 1981, No Fixed Address were the support band for Ian Dury and the Blockheads on their one and only Australia tour.

In 1982, Willoughby and his band toured Australia in support of Peter Tosh, and a documentary of this tour was screened by SBS TV entitled Peter Tosh in Concert, featuring Willoughby and No Fixed Address. During 1982, Willoughby also played drums with Shane Howard and Goanna. After the success of the Peter Tosh tour, Willoughby and his band became the first Aboriginal band to travel overseas, becoming cultural ambassadors for their people while touring Great Britain in 1984, playing at nine cities including London, Bristol, Leeds, Plymouth and Manchester. They played at "The Elephant Fayre" rock festival and appeared at a concert for striking miners. A documentary of this tour No Fixed Address in London was produced and screened on SBS TV.

Returning to Australia, Willoughby joined his cousin Bunna Lawrie, and his band Coloured Stone, founded in 1977. He played drums for them between 1985 and 1986, including on their Scottish tour where they appeared with k.d. lang at the 1986 Edinburgh Festival. Coloured Stone then returned to Australia, where Coloured Stone were awarded Best Indigenous Album at the 1986 Australian Music Awards for their debut album Human Love.

Willoughby reformed No Fixed Address in 1987, and in 1988, the band performed at the East Berlin Festival of Political Song and toured Eastern Europe, where Willoughby made his wry comment about "being hungry in Hungary".

Late in 1988, Willoughby was asked to join Yothu Yindi as drummer, supporting Midnight Oil on their US and Canada Diesel & Dust tour. In 1989, Willoughby left Yothu Yindi to form a new band Mixed Relations. From its inception, Mixed Relations toured extensively throughout the Aboriginal communities, Australian cities, Pacific Islands, New Zealand and Hawaii, and was chosen as the closing act for the 1989 inaugural Invasion (aka Survival) Day Concerts at La Perouse, Sydney and then every Invasion Day concert until its final date at La Perouse in 1994.

Following work in Alice Springs, Northern Territory and Surfers Paradise, Queensland on the film Until the end of the World, Willoughby was invited to tour Australia with Shane Howard and The Big Heart Band before returning to his work with Mixed Relations, opening the inaugural 1991 Stompen' Ground Concert in Broome, Western Australia and representing Australia at the 1990 and 1992 South Pacific Music Festival and the 1990 and 1992 Asian Music Festival. All of these festivals have been documented by ABC Television and SBS TV and screened by these stations in the year that the festivals were held and have had repeat screenings over the years.

In 1993, International Year of Indigenous People, Willoughby and Mixed Relations were invited to attend the Los Angeles Indigenous Arts Festival, the London Indigenous Festival, England and the Wanchai Music Festival, Hong Kong.

In 1980, Willoughby starred with another indigenous band Us Mob in non-indigenous director Ned Lander's movie about Aboriginal musicians Wrong Side of the Road. This film was a semi-biographical drama concerning the racism levelled against Aboriginal musicians trying to get gigs in country pubs and won the Australian Film Commission-funded Australian Film Institute's (AFI) 1981 Jury Award for its director Lander.

Interestingly it has been reported that during the 13 years that ABC Countdown ran from 1974 Bart Willoughby did not appear on the popular national TV show in spite of written requests to Molly Meldrum which remained unanswered.

After his 1988 European tour, Willoughby directed, composed and recorded the music track using his band for Always Was - Always Will Be, produced, directed and written by Indigenous filmmaker Madelaine McGrady and screened on SBS TV in the same year.

In 1990, Willoughby was cast as "Ned the Computer Expert" in German director Wim Wenders' Until the end of the World starring William Hurt, Sam Neill and Indigenous actor Ernie Dingo as well as Aboriginal icons actor David Gulpilil and Aboriginal Australia's first gold record singer and Yorta Yorta elder, Jimmy Little.

In 1992, Willoughby was invited by Australia's first Indigenous feature film director Brian Syron to become the first Aboriginal to compose, play and direct the music track of a feature film Jindalee Lady. The film was invited to the International First Nations Art and Film Festival, "Dreamspeakers", in Edmonton, Canada in 1992 where it was acknowledge as the first feature film to be directed by a First Nation's director, Syron, and to have a music track composed and directed by a First Nations composer, Willoughby.

Following this festival, both Syron and Willoughby were invited to attend the 1992 Hawaii International Film Festival where Jindalee Lady was nominated for the Best Feature Film and in 1993 Jindalee Lady was then invited to screen at the Tinker Theatre, Woodstock, New York as part of the Woodstock Tribute to the International Year of Indigenous People.

In 1994, Willoughby with his eldest son Woonun Willoughby appeared in the docudrama La Perouse for the Museum of Sydney & Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales directed by Michael Riley and narrated by Justine Saunders AM.

Willoughby has made many appearances on ABC Television, Channel 9, SBS TV, Channel 10 and Channel 7.

During 1995 Willoughby took time out to work with his Pitjantjantjara community as Music Instructor to secondary school students at Yalata Anangu School, Yalata, South Australia where he taught drums, guitar and songwriting.

The APRA Awards are presented annually from 1982 by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA), "honouring composers and songwriters".

Willoughby received the inaugural Indigenous Music Award at the 1993 Australian Music Awards for his Outstanding Contribution to Indigenous Music in Australia. The award was presented by Will Smith and screened on Channel 10. Sol Bellear, Commissioner of the Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC – Acting) in presenting the award to Willoughby said :

In 2004, 2005, 2006 he was nominated for the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Indigenous Deadly's for his contribution to Indigenous music in Australia.[citation needed ]

In 2023, Bart Willoughby was awarded a medal (OAM) of the Order of Australia in the General Division, for service to the performing arts, particularly through music.[citation needed ]