Mararradj

Wildfire Manwurrk

An intimate glimpse into remote Stone Country Arnhem Lands Culture Heritage and Rock Art

Why we wrote this song

In the olden days, people were really fit and healthy living on their own country. We could recognise one another. We knew everyone’s moiety, skin, language. We lived in the bush. We travelled and shared everything. Ceremony, culture. These important things are being broken.

Mararradj means hope, a love that can never die. It’s like a fire burning that will never go out. It’s not about me, that song, I wrote it about everyone. It’s about boyfriend and girlfriend going through break up, having argument, jealous talking, but then something tells you, you want to get that love back. You want to be sitting down together again. It’s because of Mararradj. It never finishes, it’s an unbreakable love.

About us as artists

WILDFIRE MANWURRK are a melting pot of traditional songlines from ancient times, thrashing rock guitars and the stories men face in a world of culture, chaos and change.

From Arnhem Land NT Australia, they live between Maningrida Community and their ancestral home, Korlorbidahdah, 8 hours drive from Darwin. They are the intersection where a tidal wave of change meets the oldest culture on earth and sounds like an 80’s garage rock anthem sung in age-old endangered languages Kune, Dalabon and Rembarrnga.

“This music, it’s looking at both worlds. We’re telling our honest story using Balanda (whitefella) and Bininj (blackfella) music together. Kunborrk (ceremony songlines) with modern instruments are our double tools”

About the music video

Mararradj video takes us into the remote world of the band’s (Rostron family) ancestral lands at Dukala-djarranj, Arnhem Land NT. It’s a place that holds great significance for the family and their clan groups where the Rainbow Serpent rests and Mimih songline lives.

The music video walks us through the family caring for their country using traditional methods such as healthy seasonal burning. We see the family in natural co-existence with their home where their ancestors lived in balance for thousands of years.”

Climate Crisis is a driving theme for the band. Our music is a means to live and create on Country where custodianship maintains an age-old harmony keeping vital stories about the landscape and features alive. Waters, bush, rock art and caves hold sacred meaning representing ancient connection that builds keys to how we can learn from First Nations wisdom and land care management.