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Barambah, Maroochy (c. 1950 - )

Published Resources
Opera singer
Born: c. 1950  Cherbourg Aboriginal Reserve, Queensland, Australia

Maroochy Barambah is a distinguished indigenous musician whose career since the 1970s has spanned the genres of jazz, rock, musical theatre and classical opera.


Career Highlights
Alternative Names:
  • Isaacs, Yvette (former name)
Maroochy Barambah, formerly Yvette Isaacs, of Gubbi Gubbi descent, was born in c.1950s at Cherbourg reserve in Queensland. Her early years were spent in the dormitory system, designed to sever Aboriginal children from their cultural heritage. She participated in the Aboriginal Inland Mission choir at Cherbourg and, when fostered out to a family in Melbourne, she went to school there under the Harold Blair Aboriginal Children’s project.

In the 1970s she was awarded a Melba Conservatorium of Music scholarship, and subsequently formed her own jazz group. She became lead singer with indigenous rock band Quokka and participated in the Rock Against Racism concert in Hobart, Tasmania. She also took part in the television series Women of the Sun (1982). In the same year she changed her name as a statement of pride in her Aboriginality.

In 1989 she performed in the Sydney Metropolitan Opera production, Black River, which won the Sounds Australian National Music Critics Award for the year and a film version has since been produced. In 1990 she played the lead role in the successful indigenous musical, Bran Nue Dae, and in 1991 was awarded the inaugural Aboriginal performing arts fellowship offered by the Aboriginal Arts Committee as she pursued a career as a classical opera singer. She also had the lead role in Beach Dreaming, an opera written not only for but about her, by Mark Isaacs.

 
Sources used to compile this entry: Horton, David (ed.). The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia, Vol. 2, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1994, p. 662.
 
Published Resources

See also

  • Horton, David (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Aboriginal Australia : Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, society and culture, Aboriginal Studies Press for AIATSIS, Canberra, 1994, 2 v. (xxxiii, 1340 p.) pp. [ Details... ]
  • Maris, Hyllus and Sonia Borg, Women of the sun, Penguin Books, Ringwood, Victoria, 1985, 177 pp. [ Details... ]

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Structure based on ISAAR(CPF) - click here for an explanation of the fields.Prepared by: Leonarda Kovacic and Barbara Lemon
Created: 20 May 2005
Modified: 24 March 2006

Published by National Foundation for Australian Women on Australian Women's Archives Project Web Site
Comments, questions, corrections and additions: awap@womenaustralia.info
Prepared by: Acknowledgements
Updated: 19 June 2008
http://womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE1171b.htm

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