On the official Sydney New Year’s Eve (NYE) 2024 website, new details about the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections have been revealed along with the fact that First Nations rapper, BARKAA, will feature in the Calling Country Fireworks soundtrack.
The 8-minute soundtrack, titled Our Greats, will feature First Nations supergroup, 3%, along with children, Olivia (7), Calula (6) and Eliana Webster & Lenny and Paycen Wright. First Nations rapper, Alinta-Jade Quaylee is also part of the soundtrack. She is the daughter of BARKAA, whose real name is Chloe Quayle. Her artist name is the Barkindji word for the Darling River & her 2021 debut album, Blak Matriarchy, honoured powerful First Nations women who paved the way for future generations, which is a central message during the fireworks of this upcoming edition of Sydney New Year’s Eve.
She told National Indigenous Television News when Blak Matriarchy was released:
My main inspiration has been my mum, raising us kids, working, going to Uni & juggling like a superwoman. We have a lot of women like that in our lives. Our aunties, grandmothers & mothers are people who carry community on their backs.
‘BARKAA’
She said on her official website:
It’s always from the heart, still. I want people to still connect with me & on a different level. I’ve shown how proud I am as a Blak woman & how proud I am of my culture with Blak Matriarchy.
‘BARKAA’
BARKAA, along with the already-announced Calling Country soundtrack artists are the next generation, expressing their pride of being young, Blak & bold.
Produced by 18YOMAN, Nooky, Tasker & One Above, Our Greats is written by Nooky, Dallas Woods, Angus Field & One Above with mixing & mastering done by Tasker.
I wanted to give them (his daughters, Olivia & Calula Webster) the opportunity to get up here & show the world their culture and the strength they carry.
‘Nooky’, Yuin and Thungutti rapper & ‘We Are Warriors’ Co-Founder
I felt a little bit afraid, but you’ve just got to stand up, tell them what you’re feeling, what your culture is & what you want to do.
Calula Webster, singer
I was a bit nervous & when I found out that my favourite singer (BARKAA) was on the song too, I really wanted to do it.
Olivia Webster, singer
BARKAA previously performed live at Sydney NYE2021’s Welcome To Country, performing the song Blak with DOBBY:
Meanwhile, new details about the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylon projections have been revealed. The pylon projections will feature “ancient & futuristic themes” & bioluminescence as well as the “shape” of water itself.
The Midnight Fireworks‘ centrepiece pylon projection, The Woman Of The Water, an ocean spirit representing the Gadigal women of Sydney Harbour, who will be dancing during most of the Fireworks, will, naturally, have its chorography, “water-based”. This chorography will be synchronised to the ocean’s rhythms, represented in the original score by Luna Pan.
Portrayed in dance by Alice Robinson, The Woman Of The Water will morph in-between coral, kelp, fish, octopus & finally to water. This sequence combines human dance, motion capture, photographs of ocean flora, marine fauna and the texture of water & a custom cutting-edge generative artificial intelligence (AI) system allowing creative studio VANDAL to produce the largest & most complex generative AI motion capture animations yet.
Sydney New Year’s Eve 2024 begins at 7:30pm on the 31st of December.
Sydney Spectaculars 