Events - Australian Artist Performs in Manila for Celebrate Australia 2012

Australian Embassy

The Philippines

Embassy address: Level 23-Tower 2 RCBC Plaza 6819 Ayala Avenue, Makati City, 1200 - Telephone: 757 8100 - Fax: 757 8268

CELEBRATE AUSTRALIA 2012: Musical Performances by Dewayne Everettsmith

Dewayne is a young indigenous singer and songwriter from Tasmania who has been described in Australia as a future great of the music industry. One of Australia’s pre-eminent music critics, Bruce Elder of the Sydney Morning Herald described Dewayne as “a uniquely gifted singer with hints of the soul of Marvin Gaye and the sunny beauty of Johnny Nash.”

Only in his early 20s, Dewayne has been places and done things many Australian performers only dream of—
• Supported Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu across Australia and in Europe;
• Performed a private show as part of Oprah’s famous “Road Trippers”;
• Starred in a Tourism Australia video “Making Tracks” available on Youtube;
• Performed in Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York as part of G’Day USA; and
• Wowed audiences in two shows at the Melbourne International Arts Festival performing with the prestigious Black Arm Band.

It’s not surprising, though. From his childhood appearances within his own Tasmanian Aboriginal community, through many festival stages around Australia and across the Pacific, his audition for Australian Idol, one thing has become very clear – Dewayne’s a very special performer.

Though proudly seeing himself as both Aboriginal and Australian, Dewayne Everettsmlth's roots and musical heritage are very strongly connected to Aboriginal communities of Tasmania and southeast Victoria. His grandfather was born and raised in the Aboriginal community on remote Cape Barren Island in Bass Strait, birthplace of a unique form of folk music (a blend of many styles known simply as Cape Barren music). His grandmother was from the Gunai/Kurnai people of southeast Victoria. Adopted as a child, he was raised within a family descended from Fanny Cochrane-Smith, a Tasmanian Aboriginal woman whose voice is heard on the oldest known recording in Australia, singing in her traditional dialect.
Dewayne’s music though can’t be neatly pigeonholed as Indigenous. It’s been influenced by his heritage, and then shaped by his tough early years and his love of so many musical styles and great singers.

The Australian Embassy is supporting Dewayne’s visit and series of performances in Manila as part of “Celebrate Australia 2012”. Experience Dewayne’s style of contemporary acoustic performances at:
27 January – Bonifacio High Street at 7:00PM as part of the opening program
for Cinemanila’s Moonlight Screening outdoor film series
28 January – Greenbelt Park 3 at 8:00PM
31 January –Salon de Ning, The Peninsula Manila at 8:00PM

While in Manila, Dewayne will also visit and perform for the schoolchildren of the EVA Aeta School in Bataan. The school is supported by the Australian Government through the Embassy’s Direct Aid Program.