The Australia Council’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board has presented the $50,000 Red Ochre Award, Australia’s highest peer-assessed award for an Indigenous artist, to Western Aranda country musician Warren H Williams for his outstanding contribution to the Indigenous arts.
Warren H Williams is a singer, musician and song writer from Hermannsburg in Central Australia. While known widely as a country musician, he brings together many threads of the contemporary Australian sound, merging Aboriginal music with country and rock and bringing these musical genres onto a world stage.
The turning point for Warren's career came when he joined with John Williamson to sing 'Raining on the Rock' – the duet became an anthem for reconciliation and one of Australia's most recognised country songs.
To date, Warren has released nine albums. His latest offering is a move away from country music to a language album Winanjjara, or 'song man' in Warumungu language. It was recorded with the song men
of Tennant Creek and sung in two of his maternal ancestors' languages: Warumungu and Western Aranda.
With his Red Ochre prize money, Warren plans to go to the US country music capital of Nashville to create an album.
