Rak Badjalarr: Wangga Songs from North Peron Island

Performed by: Bobby Lane, Northern Territory, Australia

Accompanying Bobby Lane are Colin Warrambu Ferguson, Roger Rossy Yarrowin, Nicholas Djarug and Ian Bilbil. The didgeridu players include Djarug, Bilbil and Eric Martin.

CD recorded by Allan Marett,Linda Barwick and Lysbeth Ford, booklet compiled by Linda Barwick from original research by all three.

Wangga songs are normally received in dream by songmen, and unlike many other Aboriginal song genres are usually owned by individual songmen rather than by a larger social group. Wangga are normally sung by one or two men, specialist singers, accompanying themselves on clapsticks while another performer plays the didjeridu. Wangga songs are performed for entertainment and ceremony, retaining their spiritual power while being adaptable to contemporary occasions. These songs derive from the traditional homelands of the Wadjiginy and Kiyuk peoples. Rak Badjalarr refers to North Peron Island in the Cox Peninsula region south and west of Darwin in the Northern Territory.