One Soul, One People

Not Drowning, Waving celebrate the Tabaran album with George Telek and Pius Wasi || SF2025

Not Drowning, Waving with Papua New Guinea's George Telek and Pius Wasi tonight at Angel Place in Sydney… Some mix of steady-building energy and open, warm friendship visible on stage in ways that lifted everyone here as they recreated their world music past from the classic 1990 album ‘Tabaran’.

Telek summed it up in Pidgin English with recognisable phrases that collided with our hearts… ‘Melbourne boys’, ‘PNG’, ‘one soul, one people’.

We got that message in song and sound: John Phillips astral guitar meshing with Telek’s gravel-and-stars voice… David Bridie’s grand piano, breathy singing and socio-political lyrical snapshots joined by Pius Wasi from the Sepik on log percussion and barely-holding-back-the-party energy.

Wasi offered up his mountain flute, too: one hole to blow in, he demonstrated – his hand cupped over the open end, playing it like a theremin literally built of air – taking us, as he foretold, “for a ride”.

Stunning documentary footage of PNG shone overhead: slowed down, colorised and painted, split-screen contrasted… a knockout visual presentation: historical, environmental, hypnotic.

This was a big band, maybe ten musicians in all on stage… including what looked like three drummers - or maybe two drummers and percussion - because what NDW-meets-PNG means tonight is intensely involved with rhythm and breath, communal sweetness and, sometimes, something almost mystical.

It seemed like everyone had a gentle yet powerful contribution to make: Danielle Morgan, a backing singer from Rabaul whose voice was sky mighty (we just wanted more of her); Alice Hurwood, the daughter of NDW’s more usual cello player, Helen Mountfort (not present because of long COVID illness), here in family spirit sitting where her mother would have been. Bougainville brothers Ben and Manu (Emmanuel) Hakalitz likewise providing a deep line of unity that was above and beyond great drumming and percussion, their rhythms twinning with NDW’s own drummer Russell Bradley and bassist Rowan McKinnon, masters of funky thunderstorms and coastal moods all their own.

'The Kiap Song' painted a picture of colonial authority atop a tune that positively skipped along like child's play, Bridie's voice deceptively appealing and quietly sarcastic (“that’s the way it’s done up here”) – if ultimately recognising something bright against the odds, survival and endurance becoming expressions of strength and grace all their own, at least in the ability to tell a story. 'Mr Suharto Man' meanwhile touched on Indonesian intra-colonialism, a weighty malice riding in on Phillips guitar; 'Blackwater' likewise evoking the rape and pillage of West Papua.

lsewhere, songs like 'Pila Pila' and 'Abebe' brought on the beauty of Rabaul, home to Telek; the heartland where 'Tabaran' was originally recorded at Pacific Studios, destroyed like much of the town by a volcano explosion back in 1994. In those songs, the beauty of the place emerged, as it had been and had grown to be again, its landscape and its way of life marking all the musicians on the stage and the bonds they shared. Near the end of the show, Bridie dedicated the evening to PNG's 50th anniversary this year as an independent nation. This was the musicians way to celebrate it in Sydney. Just when it seemed over Telek had a parting gift for us, a solo vocal in language that can only be described as spell-binding.

It was a concert that was a very giving experience, all up and in every way. So heartening to see people ‘crossing cultures’ and working together to raise the rafters higher and make us all feel taller as we left.

One soul, one people, one night. What fine magic is that?

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