Crossing Roper Bar

Crossing Roper Bar is a collaboration between leading jazz musicians from the Australian Art Orchestra and members of the Ngukurr Aboriginal community on the Roper River in the south-east of Australia's Arnhem Land. The initiative is led by the Wägilak Yolgnu songman Benjamin Wilfred, jazz legend Paul Grabowsky and Freedman Jazz Fellow Julien Wilson.

Three years ago, songmen from the community began handing over traditional songs, with their origins in the Aboriginal Dreaming, to members of the AAO to be played collaboratively on both western and traditional instruments.

Crossing Roper Bar endeavours to provide a bridge allowing for greater understanding, appreciation and reconciliation between cultures in the years to come.

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