On Friends with Wendy and Pete at 3KND Kool 'N' Deadly, we are so excited to have the amazing Richard Frankland on the show.
He is a performer, filmmaker, activist, novelist, counsellor, musician, community leader, educator, academic, songwriter, poet, playwright - and one of Australia’s most prominent Indigenous figures.
Born on the coast in South-West Victoria, Richard is a Gunditjmara man of high degree and previously worked as a soldier, a fisherman and a field officer to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.
His fifth album , “Discovering Leerpeen Mara” is a reimagining of Richard Frankland’s life map of songs. It will be released later this year .
It features new songs and new recordings/ arrangements of some of Richard’s older work set to the beats of NZ DJ Quix, the extraordinary guitar work of fellow Gunditjmara man Lee Sonnyboy Morgan and the brilliant didgeridoo, sound effects and beats of Larrakia man Ash Dargan and the exquisite vocals of Nilusha.
Frankland is Koytpa Koy Koy Mara. A story man. An art-warrior. Songs are his weapons. His words, the beats.
The first track "Who Will Sing My Songs" was released on Feb 4, 2023, and keeps its groove on with Frankland answering the question with an affirmative uplifting resolution.
The video is on Vevo at https://youtu.be/mQlAz7O4bxc
The songs, stories and language depict humanistic issues relevant to the First Nation experience from past and present.
From 2015 -18 Richard was Head of the Wilin Centre at The Victorian College Of The Arts. He completed his DVPA at Melbourne University in 2018, and is a Professor at Deakin University, Melbourne and was Elder-in-Residence at NIDA.
The first performance of "Discovering Leerpeen Mara" was at WOMADelaide 2023 and illustrated the finest qualities of ‘cultural strengthening, cultural agency and hope.' Richard also provided a workshop on cultural strengthening and cultural collaboration using the arts at WOMADelaide. He also gave an oration and performance at the Parrtjima Festival of Lights in Alice Springs.
His latest release is Tomorrow Australia and was arranged by Biddy Connor. It’s his vision for victory.
Listen to Tomorrow Australia here: https://youtu.be/qEfP5O4Pa1A
Listen to Richard on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/6FDrbNKIGdbSf2S6aa1dBD
Poem by Uncle Richard Frankland
Tomorrow Australia - Richard J Frankland March 2020
Once we get through this dark period
We will be able to say
We are bound together
We will have reawakened old skills
Reimagined old values
Dusted off old memories and created new ones, golden ones
We will remember
The pain, the loss, the suffering, the fear
And be grateful how these things have bound us together
Tighter, stronger, with more appreciation of our individual and collective humanity
We will remember gentle smiles, hands that have reached out to others with friendship and love
A gift of food, of milk, of a smile or a gentle word
We will look forward to a new day dawning with great hope
These acts will inspire us and from this we will have opportunity to build something new and far more balanced than the system we have come from
Once we get through this dark period
We will be wiser, stronger, walk more gently on mother earth
We will see the truth in each other
For some of us, some truths will terrify us
There will be other truths
We will unravel the cultural tapestry of a nation
And weave together a new tapestry
A new way
We will take the best of the old
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