When Naomi Pigram was a young teenager, her Mum took her and her sister Ngaire to see a performance of Bran Nue Dae, Australia’s first Aboriginal stage musical, written by Jimmy Chi with the band Kuckles.

1993 production of Bran Nue Dae. Photo © Jeff Busby

Naomi’s dad Stephen Pigram was a member of Kuckles so she already knew much of the score – but that still hadn’t prepared her for the incredible thrill of seeing the show.  “The music was always there so we were really familiar with that as much younger girls. I went to kindy in Adelaide when Dad and Uncle Jimmy and all the Kuckles were over there studying music so I think it’s always been ingrained, that music,” says Pigram, a Broome-based singer, songwriter, performing artist and community service worker of the Yawuru and Wadjarri people.

“And then when we saw it in the theatre in Perth the impact of it was huge because there was like a whole theatre of people listening to music that I thought of as my Dad’s and my Uncle’s. To see the response that they got from the...