UPK#4 CME (Concentrated Media Encounter) 18th - 30th July 2005

Rockin' at UPK#4 recordings at Ulkiya Homeland.

The week at UPK#4 rehearsals and recordings continued with some bands from Amata and surrounding communities converging on Ulkiya Homeland.
It seemed like another slow start to recordings with various activities and events happening throughout the Lands such as funerals and sporting activities.

This opened opportunities for recording sounds and filming a couple more cooking shows, scenery shots around Ulkiya before more bands arrived.
We also spoke with some of the bands to see if it was ok to do a film clip with them. There were certain band members who didn’t want to be filmed. We did manage to take Mark Burton and Stewart Gaykamungu who both wrote and recorded their songs at UPK#4.

We spoke to each of them about how they wanted the video clip to look and feel, wrote down a shotlist and then went to find a location nearby to film. At the locations we got the guys to sing along with a cd from the audio engineer. We then created a rough edit to show that night on a projector and screen.

Towards the end of the week, the organizers were worried that there were not enough songs from Anangu bands to get the number of songs on the UPK#4 cd. Thursday arrived with bands from the western communities arriving at Ulkiya on their way to a football carnival at Areyonga.

During the bands rehearsals and recordings, Bill Davis the project coordinator for UPK#4 spoke with the bands that were present about this problem. He emphasized that it took a lot of effort and money to organize this event and not to have the number of songs on the cd would be a problem.

The bands that heard what Bill Davis indicated to them went and considered the problem. They came back divided as some had organized to play football at Areyonga. But fortunately for the organizers some had agreed to stay and record more songs. UPK#4 ran over until Saturday but ended with enough songs for a full cd.

Kunmanara Harvey 2/8/2005