Kev Carmody

Kevin Daniel Carmody (born 1946), better known by his stage name Kev Carmody, is an Aboriginal Australian singer-songwriter and musician, a Murri man from northern Queensland. He is best known for the song "From Little Things Big Things Grow", which was recorded with co-writer Paul Kelly for their 1993 single. It was covered by the Get Up Mob (including guest vocals by both Carmody and Kelly) in 2008 and peaked at number four on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) singles charts.

Carmody has won many awards, and in 2009 was inducted into the ARIA Hall of Fame as well as being a recipient of the Queensland Greats Awards. In 2019, Carmody was recipient of the JC Williamson Award at the Helpmann Awards. He is also known for his activism for Aboriginal rights.

Early life and education Kevin Daniel Carmody was born in 1946 in Cairns, Queensland. His father, John "Jack" Carmody, was a second-generation Irish descendant and his mother, Bonny, an Aboriginal woman of Lama Lama and Bundjalung descent, were not allowed to get married because she was Aboriginal, and they went to Cairns because "the rules were a lot slacker there" due to the large number of migrants working in the cane fields. Jack (also known as "Bull"), had been a member of the red beret parachute commando unit in World War II, and had sustained a back injury during training. They lived in a hut with a dirt floor, after Jack and Bonny were given the choice of sending the boys to school, or Bonny and the boys being sent permanently to live on Great Palm Island. The school was housed in an old army barracks on about and run by nuns. Carmody said that the boys did not do much schoolwork, but spent their time feeding chickens, collecting eggs, "hauling in coal for the kitchen stoves and buttering bread for the nuns". They were allowed to visit their parents twice a year. He did not learn to read until he was 11 years old. including droving, shearing, bag lumping, wool pressing and welding. The family all pooled their earnings into the same bank account, and lived mostly off the land.

Due to his limited schooling, Carmody's reading and writing skills were not up to required university standard. Undeterred, he suggested to the history tutor that until his writing was suitable he would present his research in a musical format accompanied by guitar.

At university, Carmody had used music as a means of implementing oral history in tutorials, which led to his later career.

Music career 1987-1989: Pillars of Society In the early 1980s, Carmody began his musical career. He signed a recording contract in 1987 A Rolling Stone (Australia) journalist, Bruce Elder, described it as "the best album ever released by an Aboriginal musician and arguably the best protest album ever made in Australia". with musical support from the rest of the Messengers and members of pioneering Aboriginal rock band Mixed Relations. black deaths in custody, land rights and Aboriginal pride and dignity. Carmody is deeply committed, powerfully intelligent and persuasively provocative. He uses images of revolutionaries... and challenges white Australia to stare unrelentingly at the despair which underpins Aboriginal society". The first single from the album, "Blood Red Rose", was described by Carmody as "a comment on personal isolation. Late night, big city alienation", whilst the B-side, "Elly", is the moving story of a young woman attempting to escape the poverty and racism of western Queensland, who finds herself trapped in Surfers Paradise working in the sex industry. it was an historical account of the Gurindji tribe drovers' walkout led by Vincent Lingiari at Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory during the 1960s, the incident which sparked off the indigenous land rights movement.

After the release of his fourth album, Images And Illusions, in September 1995, produced by Steve Kilbey of The Church, The album was nominated for a 1996 ARIA Award for Best Indigenous Release. Carmody re-evaluated his life and career, reducing the demands placed on him by the mainstream recording industry. The soundtrack won a Screen Music Award at the 2002 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA)/Australian Guild of Screen Composers (AGSC) Awards.

After a break of nearly ten years Carmody released his fifth studio album in 2004. The album, Mirrors, was completely self-financed and distributed. It was recorded at a friend's property "down the road" and was his first album recorded with computer technology. I first heard his music 20 years ago, and was drawn straight away to his blend of politics and prayer, poetry, anger and pride. His body of work is one of our great cultural treasures.|Paul Kelly singing alongside front man Bernard Fanning to the controversial "Black Tears" and also joined in with the encore of "These Days". The concert was a fundraiser and thank you to the "unsung heroes" of breast cancer with an invitation-only audience made up of a special group of people – those who have suffered and survived breast cancer and their support networks. The concert closed Breast Cancer Awareness Month and was the brainchild of 20-year-old Nick Vindin, who had lost his mother Kate to the disease a few years earlier.

In the aftermath of the Australian Labor Government's 2008 apology to indigenous Australians, Carmody and Kelly reprised their song "From Little Things Big Things Grow" by incorporating samples from speeches by Prime Ministers Paul Keating in 1992 and Kevin Rudd in 2008. Released under the name The Get Up Mob, part of the GetUp! advocacy group, the song peaked at #4 on the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) singles charts. This version featured vocals by Carmody and Kelly, as well as other prominent Australian artists (including Urthboy, Missy Higgins, Mia Dyson, Radical Son, Jane Tyrrell, Dan Sultan, Joel Wenitong and Ozi Batla).

On 27 August 2009, Carmody was inducted into the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) Hall of Fame alongside The Dingoes, Little Pattie, Mental As Anything and John Paul Young, Carmody's first reaction was to laugh and reply "I must be getting into the Hall of Fame with the lowest record sales in history". At the ceremony, Missy Higgins inducted Carmody, who accepted the induction,

Carmody was joined onstage by Paul Kelly, Dan Kelly, Missy Higgins and John Butler to perform "From Little Things Big Things Grow". Carmody has reduced his musical activities due to the effects of arthritis. 1993 "From Little Things, Big Things Grow" Heritage Award 2012 "Children of the Gurindji" by Sara Storer & Kev Carmody Video of the Year Deadly Awards The Deadlys Awards was an annual celebration of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement in music, sport, entertainment and community. 2005 himself Lifetime Achievement in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Music

Helpmann Awards The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia (LPA) since 2001. In 2019, Carmody received the JC Williamson Award, the LPA's highest honour, for their life's work in live performance.

Mo Awards The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Kev Carmody won one award in that time. (wins only) 1993 Kev Carmody Folk Performer of the Year

National Indigenous Music Awards The National Indigenous Music Awards recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians from throughout Australia. They commenced in 2004. 2021 Kev Carmody Hall of Fame

Queensland Music Awards The Queensland Music Awards (previously known as Q Song Awards) are annual awards celebrating Queensland, Australia's brightest emerging artists and established legends. They commenced in 2006.

(wins only) 2007 himself Grant McLennan Lifetime Achievement Award

Other recognition and honours 2001 Australian Film Industry's Open Craft Award in a Non-Feature Film for an Original Score 2008: Honorary Doctorate - University of Southern Queensland 2009: Great Queenslander in the Queensland Greats Awards 2010: "From Little Things" added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry 2013: University of Queensland Alumni Awards: Vice Chancellor's Excellence Award for Indigenous Community Impact 2022: New student accommodation at the University of Queensland named Kev Carmody House Label: Festival Records Formats: CD, Cassette

Released: September 1995 Label: Festival Records Formats: CD

Released: May 2003 Label: Song Cycles Formats: CD, DD

Soundtrack albums Title Details One Night the Moon Released: 2001 Label: MusicArtsDanceFilms Formats: CD, DD

Compilation albums Title Details Messages Released: 2000 Label: Song Cycles Formats: CD Cannot Buy My Soul: The Songs of Kev Carmody Released: February 2007 Label: Virgin / EMI Formats: 2xCD, DD Recollections... Reflections... (A Journey) Released: 30 October 2015 Label: EMI Formats: 4xCD, DD

Extended plays Title Details Street Beat Released: December 1992 Label: Festival Records Formats: CD

Singles "Jack Deelin" (1988) "Thou Shalt Not Steal" (February 1990) "Eulogy" (November 1990) "Cannot Buy My Soul" (December 1991) "Blood Red Rose" (April 1992) "Living South of the Freeway" (October 1992) "Freedom" (July 1993) "From Little Things Big Things Grow" (1993) "On the Wire" (May 1994) "The Young Dancer Is Dead" (1995)