WANTOK MUSIK FOUNDATION

“Music is what we all share. It’s our history, our lore, it’s our future, our education, it’s our hurts, it’s our joys, it’s our injustices, our struggles, it’s our future, our love, and our hope.
This is how it is for all cultures, this is common, and it’s through music that we hear, share and learn these things. Music can and has crossed every cultural barrier imaginable and will continued to do so.
There may be different sounds, different beats, different instruments, but we are singing the same things, we are talking with a common language – with one talk.”

Drawing on the rich musical talent of our region, The Wantok Musik Foundation, an Australian-based not-for-profit organisation, promotes and facilitates various cultural exchanges and a greater level of economic empowerment for Melanesian and indigenous artists and their communities.

Aims and objectives

The Wantok Musik Foundation aims to generate and foster various cultural exchanges between Australia and our neighbours throughout Oceania by establishing a leading, not-for-profit Music Label representing indigenous and world music groups of this unique region., that will:

• Record, release and promote music from Indigenous Australia and Melanesia
• Raise the local and international profile of Indigenous and world music groups based in the region
• Provide greater economic opportunity for artists and long-term career sustainability by providing a viable outlet, and distributing royalties/profits through equitable and culturally appropriate mechanisms,While simultaneously managing various initiatives to:
• Address various social issues with creative, culturally focused approaches
• Increase Australians’ understanding and appreciation of the diverse cultures of their region
• Cultivate ‘capacity building’ for music recording within the region
• Increase the cultural exchange between Australia and countries within the region
  

Context

There is a diverse mixture of cultures in the Australasian and Oceanic region that yield many rich musical traditions and talent. Whether it’s the string-band music of the PNG highlands, traditional Indigenous Australian songs, or artists of the Torres Strait Islands fusing contemporary styles with traditional languages and stories, the Indigenous and world music landscape of our region is a complex and vibrant one.

However, an interested and informed Australian audience keen to learn more about the cultures shared in our region, can often struggle to access and enjoy such music due to a distinct lack of representation in the commercial sphere of Indigenous and world musicians from the region.

There is also a number of extremely talented Indigenous and world musicians from the region whose work is not being released or achieving the attention it deserves.

It is to provide a greater level of economic independence for the musicians and their communities, to address the gap in the musical tapestry currently available to the Australian public, and to create opportunities for meaningful and lasting cultural exchanges between Australians and some of our closest neighbours, that the Wantok Musik Foundation has been established.

The focus of the Wantok Musik Foundation is the recording and support for traditional, contemporary, folk, roots and fusion music played or created by musicians that identify with a particular culture from within the region.

Wantok Musik will also capitalise on expanding international markets by elevating our region’s music and artists on to the global stage through high quality recordings and performances at competitive rates.