Kankawa Nagarra and Darren Hanlon perform live in Oxford

Coming to Oxford for the first time is 80 year old desert blues singer Kankawa Nagarra. She’ll be performing at the Iffley Church Hall at St Marys on Tuesday the 28th of July, fresh off stage from the WOMAD Festival.

Kankawa Nagarra has had an extraordinary musical career even though she didn’t own her own guitar until she was 40. A Walmatjarri Elder from the Kimberley, Nagarra has found musical inspiration from the tribal songs of her childhood, through the gospel songs of the mission she grew up on and the country music and rock ’n’ roll of the pastoral lease she worked on. But it was the blues that really awakened her and gave her the medium to express all her thoughts and feelings and turn them into songs. Her message of empathy extends to all of those she sees struggling around her and to the entire planet that she sees is being ravaged for profit.

In 2024 at the age of 78, won the 20th Australian Music Prize for her album Wirlmarni, beating acts like Nick Cave and Amyl and the Sniffers. The album was recorded outside on her own County, and shifts between musical styles and the four indigenous languages she speaks, backed by the buzz of night bugs and call of daytime birds. You can even hear the rustle of tin foil wrapping kangaroo tail to be cooked on the fire.

Accompanying her in the UK will be Darren Hanlon, who produced and recorded her award winning album, and runs the label that it is released on (Flippin Yeah Records). He is a well known Australian performer in his own right and after much touring and recorded albums he has built an adoring following in his home country and in other pockets of the world. He has previously toured the UK in support of some of his musical heroes the Magnetic Fields and Billy Bragg, as well as playing Green Man Festival and End of the Road. His other claim to fame is a cameo on the hit children’s TV show Bluey.

Hanlon will perform his own set and then conduct a Q & A with Kankawa where they’ll discuss her incredible history and connection to language, and then join her on electric guitar for her own musical set. Not to be missed.