What are you listening to? 
Ivan Perez Nuñez’s Alla Rustica.

Your all-time favourite albums? 
Our Home, Our Land, a compilation album released in 1995 focusing on the beliefs of Australian First Nations and Torres Strait Islanders; Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force; and AC/DC’s If You Want Blood You’ve Got It. 

Musician you most admire?
Marcus Miller; Herbie Hancock, whose music is so timeless; and Pauline Oliveros, a great musician, composer and friend. 

Favourite new artist? 
Rhyan Clapham, aka Dobby, a Filipino-Aboriginal hip-hop artist and drummer.

Memorable musical encounter? 
Working with Herbie Hancock and trumpeter James Morrison; performing with my mother, Aunty Delmae Barton, at Centre Pompidou in Paris and at the Vatican for Mary MacKillop’s canonisation; and having members of the Queensland Symphony Orchestra sing in my traditional language, Kalkadungu, in my work ‘Apii Thatini Mu Murtu: To Sing and Carry a Coolamon on Country Together’.

Your claim to fame? 
I’m passionate about creating new works for the Western classical canon with strong indigenous elements.

If you weren’t a musician, what would you be?  
A pilot.

This interview originally appeared in the August/September 2022 issue of Songlines. Never miss an issue – subscribe today