Hearing Country Workshop

Local Music with Uncle Noel Butler

Hearing Country is about learning to read and exist with Country. Through understanding the deep relational basis of everything we see, hear and feel, we can build a sense of accountability that challenges ingrained individualism and ego.

This cultural immersion workshop was developed through the Bugia Nawway Gabun Buridja artist residency with Local Music and experimental music communities from around Australia. Developed for Siteworks 2022: From a deep valley, it focuses on improving understanding of traditional knowledge systems for all. Throughout the session, stories and themes relating to local songlines will be shared and guided by Uncle Noel, offering participants a basis from which to understand connection to place.

Uncle Noel Butler is a Budawang Elder of the Yuin Nation, South Coast NSW. A qualified teacher and mentor, he has been working as a cultural educator for over 30 years. Uncle Noel’s interactive lessons include walks, camps and cook-ups, and are inclusive events for all Australians who have a desire to learn about traditional Aboriginal Cultures. Uncle Noel is an accomplished speaker who delivers his knowledge with passion and urgency.

Emily Fishpool (who performs under the name E Fishpool) is a Budawang person learning and facilitating alongside Uncle Noel Butler. Fishpool’s work is informed by cultural practices that allow Country to be heard, and known, inside of themselves, channeling outward through samples and electronic composition that build unique sonic experiences that reflect Country and memory.

Sam Miers is an artist born and based in Batemans Bay, Yuin Country. His work focuses on local practices of dialogic health. Miers is dedicated to a life in Batemans Bay working on ceremony with both Yuin practitioners and newcomers to the culture.

Local Music is Emily Fishpool and Sam Miers together with Elders and contributors from Yuin Country. The Hearing Country residency and project has been developed in partnership with Liquid Architecture. Active since 2000, Liquid Architecture is a Naarm (Melbourne)-based organisation supporting experimental, interdisciplinary and critical work addressing sound and listening in context.