A Charles Darwin University music lecturer will join Yothu Yindi band members on stage in Sydney tomorrow night when the iconic Indigenous rock band is inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association’s Hall of Fame.
Cal Williams, who teaches Certificate III and IV in Contemporary Music at CDU’s Casuarina campus, was the original guitarist for Yothu Yindi.
Williams said he was looking forward to catching up and celebrating with front man Mandawuy Yunupingu and other members of the band with whom he travelled the world in the late 1980s and ’90s.
“It will be a positive night and it will give us chance to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of ‘Treaty’, but what I’m looking forward to most is playing with my old buddies, some of whom I haven’t seen for a while.”
In his 17 years with Yothu Yindi, Williams played at the Atlanta and Sydney Olympic Games, at the launch of the International Year for the World’s Indigenous Peoples in New York, and before audiences of up to 100,000 people at many of the world’s biggest festivals.
“It was an amazing experience that changed my world,” he said.
“It is the experience I had playing for Yothu Yindi and with my lesser known bands, Swamp Jockeys and Horse Trank that underscores the training I deliver.”
Williams, who has been delivering music courses through CDU since the ’90s, said the current certificate courses were designed to equip students with the knowledge to get a foot in the door of a competitive but exciting industry.
“It’s a broad-based, hands-on practical course that provides students with a good understanding of many aspects of the industry,” he said.
“Numbers are limited to about 15 in each course.”
The ARIA Awards will be televised tomorrow night on GO!