Sand Tracks 2016 – Lajamanu Teenage Band and Desert Hip Hop
In it’s eighth year on the road, Sand Tracks teamed the legendary Lajamanu Teenage Band, with the talented young crew from Desert Hip Hop.
Lajamanu Teenage Band first hit the national music scene in 1995 with their debut album “Echo Voices”, telling stories of the changes to their homeland brought by western civilization. A pioneer of the distinctive desert reggae, the band have gone on to produce another 5 albums, and in 2012 were inducted into the Hall of Fame at the prestigious National Indigenous Music Awards.
Desert Hip Hop perform alongside Eleanor Dixon at the first stop on the Sand Tracks tour, Bush Bands Bash 2016. Picture by Carla Steele.
Desert Hip Hop is made up of crews from three different remote Aboriginal communities spanning a radius of 700kms across the Barkly region; Desert Sevenz are a group of young men from Ampilatwatja community; The Hill Boyz come from Epenarra community and The E Town Boyz are from Elliott community in the Northern Territory.
Desert Hip Hop were the first hip hop act to travel along with the Sand Tracks tour, and this new style of music was very well received across the communities.
The tour travelled 10,346km over 26 days, playing shows in 6 communities across 4 regions to an audience of 4,870. 11 artists and 3 arts workers were employed on the tour, which also brought 8 workshops to 137 participants.
The Sand Tracks Tour is presented by Country Arts WA and Healthway promoting the Mentally Healthy WA campaign message, Act-Belong-Commit.
You can read the full details of the Sand Tracks 2016 announcement here.
