Emma Donovan pays tribute to pioneer Ruby Hunter
BLACK Arm Band vocalist Emma Donovan paid a powerful and emotional tribute to the late Aboriginal singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter in a packed-out Spiegeltent concert.
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EMMA Donovan, the first indigenous Australian woman to record a rock album, was a girl of 13 when she first heard the voice of “Aunty” Ruby Hunter.
That was Thoughts Within, a 1994 collection of powerful self-penned folk-based songs on the Mushroom Records label which inspired a generation of young Koori women to take up activism and pick up a guitar.
So it was a special afternoon 24 years later in the packed the Magic Spiegeltent as part of the Sydney Festival when Donovan paid tribute to Hunter, who died in 2010.
Coming on stage to the slow swing of bass and percussion introduction to her own song and tribute to her mother, Gumbayngirr Lady, the feeling of anticipation rippling through the audience received a satisfying electric jolt with the first sound of Donovan’s husky, bluesy contralto voice.
NATURAL
The words may have been about her mother’s land around Nambucca on the north NSW coast, but as Donavan was quick to point out when she finished it “Sydney is my home”.
“This is an emotional gig for me and close to my heart. To sing songs from ‘Aunty’ Ruby Hunter’s first album Thoughts Within — the first album by an Australian black woman.”
Donovan has been gigging since as a seven year old she appeared regularly with her uncles’ country music band, the Donovans. All those years of experience have brought her the ability to put a song over in a direct and powerful way, but with a refreshing feeling of naturalness — there’s nothing forced, no slick stage craft.
This is an emotional gig for me and close to my heart. To sing songs from ‘Aunty’ Ruby Hunter’s first album
Her anecdotes were humble, funny at times and moving at others as she explained what Hunter’s songs meant to her, and how later when after founding the Stiff Gins she and other younger Aboriginal groups like Tiddas toured with Hunter. “She was aunty, grandmother, sister and mother to all of us”.
Backed by the superb funk soul retro sound of Melbourne five-piece the Putbacks, Donovan launched into Kurongk Boy Kurongk Girl, featuring a fine guitar solo.
Kutjeri Lady, one of Hunter’s showstoppers with partner Archie Roach, was given the slow 1960s pop treatment, while perhaps the highlight of the 75 minutes was a searing version of A Change Is Gonna Come.
GUTS
This is a powerful indictment of the plight of Aboriginal women trapped in a vicious cycle of domestic violence and how they were often ignored by police and authorities.
“That tells it like it is. For a little woman she had a lot of guts and she was always going to say it,” Donovan said.
The heartfelt song, Down City Streets — made into a hit by Roach — also struck a strong chord with the audience.
“Down city streets I would roam/I had no bed, I had no home/There was nothing that I owned, Used my fingers as a comb.”
Another highlight was the guest appearance for one number by Deline Briscoe, of the Black Arm Band. Donovan joined the theatre-music group as its youngest member and is now artistic director. Briscoe described Donovan as “a legend in the making” and on this showing it was hard to disagree.
Donovan’s a cappella song So Much Pain, with its proud and powerful ending with the lines “Aboriginal woman she’s here to stay, she’ll never fade away”, led into the last song of the set, Promised Land.
This was written by Donovan’s grandfather Micko, who with his wife Aileen founded the Donovans before Emma was born, and it relates to the area around Macksville near Nambucca where the family grew up.
This Patsy Cline moment brought the set full circle — a fitting tribute to her family and heritage and to the feisty black Australian singer who inspired her all those years ago.
SYDNEY FESTIVAL
● CONCERT: Emma Donovan
● WHERE: Magic Spiegeltent
● WHEN: Sunday, January 14.