Beautiful Brown Eyed Girl - Grenville Westlake

Mowanjum Hawks

Recorded live at Moonrise 2001, Derby Racecourse, originally released as a CD

09 SeaSide Drifters - Bidyadanga

On August 25th, 2022 The Krui3ers released their first studio album Rebel Child co-produced by Australian songwriter and musician Nicholas Allbook (POND) and The Krui3ers. The Krui3ers sing of their connection to Country (Worrorra) and share their understanding from the old people and their experiences of being forced to move five times onto other Country. The songs contrast their life growing up in Mowanjum (which means settled at last) and the comfort of going back to visit Country on the coast. The 3 in The Krui3ers represents the three tribes in the Mowanjum Community - Worrorra, Ngarynin and Wunumbal.

She's Gone

Zenith - Interstate

Order Vinyl ~ https://thekrui3ers.bandcamp.com/album/rebel-child

The Krui3ers are an original four-piece rock band from the Mowanjum Community in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, made up of members Kallum Mungulu (acoustic guitar, lead vocal), Derek Oobagooma (drum kit/vocal), Edmund Jungine (bass/vocal) and Cassius Bear (lead guitar). The band play high-energy country rock with melodic choruses and distinctive guitar lines. 

As direct descendants of legendary Mowanjum band Gulingi Nunga, they continue to perform the music of their people, while also bringing their own distinct style to the strong musical culture found within the community. 

Says lead vocalist Mungulu of their connection to Guilingi Nunga, and the history of music in the Mowanjum area - 

“We learned music from Gulingi Nunga, they are our family and mob, we call them our uncles, the lot of us. Their music is important to the Mowanjum Community, they share stories from our old people, and we carry that on. Our bands are a representation of our community. The bands and community are not separate things; even the name ‘Gulingi Nunga’ (rain coming) was given by the old people. For us and for other bands, members come and go, but the band is the community identity.”

The Krui3ers sing of their connection to Country, or Worrorra, and share their understanding of life passed on from the old people, as well as their experiences of being forced to move no less than five times onto new Country. Their music contrasts life growing up in Mowanjum (a word which translates as “settled at last”) and the comfort of going back to visit their ancestral Country on the coast of what is now Western Australia. The numeral ‘3’ in  The Krui3ers represents the three language groups found within the Mowanjum Community - Worrorra, Ngarynin and Wunumbal.   

Munugulu elaborates on the songwriting process, and the meaning behind selections found on ‘Rebel Child’ - 

“We sing about the same things, they (Guilingi Nunga) sing about their era and we sing about ours. ‘Broken Glass’ is about mob drinking, looking at the backstreet drinking, glass shattered. Gulingi Numga sang about thinking things over, reflecting and looking back. Most of our songs were written out bush. We got inspiration for all our songs from Yaloon, our Country, saltwater country. I feel there is more to write about our own Country rather than Mowanjum, but there are still songs about Mowanjum. ‘Settled at Last’ is about how we were moved; our old people were moved five times from our Country in the early 1900s. Mowanjum means ‘settled at last’ in Worrorra language.”

Growing up in Mowanjum, Kallem Mungulu, Edmund Jungine, Derek Oobagooma and Cassius Bear were exposed to music as an important part of daily life. Says Mungulu - 

“Music means everything, we grew up listening to music…we knew music from overseas before we knew the music of our people. 

There was a lot of live music growing up, more than today…the festivals were bigger….all of our experiences are from live music. Music was in our everyday life growing up, everybody knew the words to Gulingi Nunga, they were the biggest band in the Kimberley.  We knew how to play before we went to school, but school gave us extra help, like the name of the chords.”

This past year has seen The Krui3ers record and release their first studio album, Rebel Child, named for vocalist Mungulu’s mischievous daughter Celeste, who is pictured on the album’s cover. The album was co-produced by The Krui3ers and Nicholas Allbrook, vocalist and guitarist of legendary West Coast favourites POND, and was recorded by Bill Hart at 6DBY Studio in Derby, Western Australia.

Rebel Child

The Krui3ers - Broken Glass

The Krui3ers - She's Gone

The Desert Feet truck was set up on the Newman oval for the final day of the NAIDOC celebrations. 

The tracks in this playlist were played live by the bands, multitrack recorded and then mixed down!

The bands and artists who performed on stage were:

Yurti Band

Theona Councillor ft. Boyd and Delly Stokes

Wild Dingo Band

Yabu Band

Newman NAIDOC Celebrations 201

Beautiful Girl

🎧 Use headphones for this one. Bass. 🤟

🎤 💋 New song by Juru man, Johnny Tchooga for all the girls on the dance floor on the Mardoowarra / Fitzroy River in the Kimberleys WA dancing to his reggae. 💧

🎹 Junior Green Jerry on keyboards, me and Junior Tchooga on the Garage Band, and a cheeky sound recording sample of the Mardoowarra by Mark Coles Smith. 🔈

Mardoowarra Ngarnga / Woman of the Fizroy River

I can see this Riverside Woman dancing to our music
She comes from Wangkatjungka
She comes from Yakanarra
She comes from Bayulu
She comes from Mingalkala
She likes to dance to our reggae music
Reggae music played for you

Come on all you riverside womans
Get on the dance floor

She comes from Fitzroy Crossing
She comes from Noonkanbah
She comes from Looma
She likes to dance to our music

Come on all you riverside womans
Get on the dance floor

Mardoowarra Ngaringa - Riverside Woman by Johnny Tchooga (2020)

Party

Featuring; Bardi Dancers, Billard Boys, Brian Hunter, Coloured Stone, Danny Maher, Deep Water, Djarindjin Band, Family Shovellor Band, Jadadi, Kevin Birch, Lucy Cox, Red Alert & Yatangal

Beagle Bay Keep Culture Festival 2013 - Billiard Boys - Dreaming of the Wandjina

Music in Exile is a not-for-profit record label & artist services company that champions Australian musicians from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, particularly those with lived experience of displacement or diaspora. Our organisation is artist-led, working collaboratively with individual artists to build viable and sustainable career opportunities in the Australian music industry, and in doing so to highlight the invisible barriers that exist for these artists and to work toward a more accessible and equitable Australian music industry.

The Krui3ers - Broken Glass

Music in Exile

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