| In 2014, when I was preparing Buried Country to be born again as it has been in 2015, a few people said to me, ‘Maybe Australia will be a bit more ready for it now’, fifteen years after it was first released. Well, as much as I had to hope they were right, I couldn’t have anticipated just how right: The response has been little short of overwhelming, with notices and enquiries coming in from overseas, like this great review in Louder than War here, and with the BBC working on a radio story, and with cold-clock fan-mail coming in from random local indie popsters, and with more major local coverage forthcoming from ABC-TV’s 7.30 – see pic here of me with 7.30 reporter Conor Duffy and the lovely Leah Flanagan after shooting a bit of stuff in my back shed… |
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| All this is giving me a huge boost in confidence, such that, after Marty Jones said in Rhythms, “Like many of Walker’s projects, Buried Country was at least a decade ahead of its time,” I’m now prepared to come out and say it, to anyone who would wish to keep up the resistance I’ve had to put up with for years (including getting up Buried Country itself), Look, see, why don’t we all just save a lot of time and aggravation and get on board with my next thing as of, like, NOW – instead of waiting ten years! That’s how and why that terrible recent documentary Stranded (scroll down to see) was able to come along in the first place – because I hadn’t been able to get up a film of the same name on the same subject more than a decade back. Get with the strength now and do it first and get it right! Perhaps one thing I never thought I’d be doing though is talking to a room full of barristers, pillars of the establishment and millionaire philanthropists – but that’s precisely what I did in Melbourne on December 11, at the city chambers of law firm Arnold Bloch Leibler, where I presented a screening of the Buried Country documentary, accompanied by a short live performance by Frank Yamma and David Bridie, as part of the ABL’s pro bono involvement in RAP (Reconcilliation Action Program). |
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| And I have to feel honored to have done so, because when I consider the great work ABL is doing with Aboriginal people in Victoria especially – like helping the Yorta Yorta mob with their recent land claim – I think, well, without this sort of silky support in the halls of power, the road would be SO much rockier. I was great to see Frank and David have a sing, Frank who contributes a track to the new Buried Country 1.5 CD – “She Cried” – which is one of the most moving, saddest songs I’ve ever heard. |
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