Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu - Crown and Country

Step into a world of profound beauty and extraordinary ceremonial knowledge, in the vast desert landscapes of the immersive First Nations audiovisual project, Crown and Country.

This transcendental, reflective and deeply enveloping body of work is released worldwide via ABC Music.

At the heart of Crown and Country is the voice of prolific Warlpiri philosopher, teacher and visionary, Wanta Jampijinpa Pawu-Kurlpurlurnu, from the desert community of Lajamanu in the north Tanami.

Wanta Jampijinpa is a critically important figure in contemporary Warlpiri philosophy and research, a leader in cultural education and community-based art, and an international ambassador for Warlpiri culture.

Wanta Jampijinpa joins his father, First Contact elder and one of the most important Warlpiri songmen alive today, Jerry Jangala Patrick OAM, whose traditional

singing grounds the work in Warlpiri ceremony.

Crown and Country translates their deep intergenerational cultural knowledge into an immersive experience of music and film. 

Wanta Jampijinpa invites you into the experience of being in the heat and the vastness of the desert, to glimpse the depths of the Warlpiri cosmological worldview, while encouraging you to reflect on your position and agency in a shared future.

This project is the distillation of Wanta Jampijinpa’s poetic, evocative and nuanced teachings of Warlpiri knowledge and culture, driven by his goal for Australians to embrace their shared heritage of Country.

It is anextraordinarily intimate conversation with a fully initiated Warlpiri man, inviting you to reflect on your relationship to Country, your identity, and your own personal journey.

The album was created in collaboration with award-winning music producer and composer Marc ‘Monkey’ Peckham.

The three share a remarkable creative relationship spanning 15 years in Lajamanu, working on the innovative community-based Milpirri Festival. Inspired by early 2000s Berlin electronica meets Rhythm & Sound minimal dub techno, the music of Crown and Country is steeped in Monkey’s signature hypnotic dub-infused grooves: a sonic journey through a brooding,meditative, synth-laden soundscape. 

The album encapsulates years of recordings of conversations between Wanta Jampijinpa and Monkey, and these discussions reflect their deep friendship over 15 years.

Crown and Country has been brought to life as a film with filmmaker James Gillot shooting Wanta Jampijinpa, Jerry Jangala and their grandson/great-grandson Keshawn Patrick on Warlpiri country, with support from filmmaker Jeff Bruer. The film will see its debut screening as part of Darwin Festival’s opening weekend, before travelling to Melbourne to screen as part of the

interdisciplinary art festival Now or Never in late August.

Crown and Country is foremost sharing profound Warlpiri knowledge, while also offering listeners
the opportunity to experience the point of view of a deep friendship and respect between
Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. At a critical turning point for desert communities, as
the last Warlpiri elders who grew up in a traditional lifestyle remember their first contact with
colonial Australia and the next generations look to find meaning in a shared and contested land,
‘Crown and Country’ is a quietly charged offer of reconciliation, belonging, and re-imagining of a

shared future.