Darren Hanlon and Kankawa Nagarra at Bent on Food Wingham

**PLEASE NOTE** After purchase of tickets please head to www.bentonfood.com.au to book your table. This ensures you are sat as a group and assists the cafe staff to ensure the night runs smoothly. Please arrive as close to 6pm as possible so we can have any meals out and finished before the music starts. 

DARREN HANLON
The Darren Hanlon universe can be summed up in two words: human connection. He has built a self-sustaining career via his catalog of songs alone. His shows are built around his narrative songwriting and storytelling, and his intimate connection with the audience.

He has recorded many albums and spent years traveling the far-flung corners of the world on his own terms. Over time he’s been hand picked to embark on long tours with a lot of his musical heroes (Billy Bragg, Michael Hurley, the Magnetic Fields) but more importantly he has also inspired other younger musicians like Courtney Barnett, Jack Davies and Kate Dillon (Full Flower Moon Band) at formative times in their lives.

Hanlon runs his own Flippin Yeah Records which also showcases a lot of the people he connects with through his travels. Most importantly this has led to Hanlon’s research and documentation of First Nations music. For his LP compilation "Buried Country” (not to be confused with the Clinton Walker version) he traveled on his own steam to every corner of Australia to gather interviews and archival recordings of forgotten Aboriginal songs. Darren is currently 5 years deep into a much larger research project on another lost Aboriginal artist - Black Allan Barker.

Over these past years Hanlon appeared in and sang the credits of the new Slim Dusty biopic 'Slim & I,' wrote songs and acted in Mick Thomas' critically acclaimed theatre show 'Vandemonian Lags,' garnered high rotation with his pandemic-themed song ‘We All Cope in Different Ways,’ and had a cameo in the hit kids TV show Bluey.

In 2024 he debuted 'Songs Are Made of Air' at the Mona Foma Festival in Tasmania. This was a commissioned collaboration with Sydney composer Bree van Reyk, and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

KANKAWA NAGARRA
Aboriginal Australian blues, country, and gospel by the great Kankawa Nagarra, Queen of the Bandaral Ngadu Delta.

These intimate recordings introduce the world outside Australia to Kankawa Nagarra, a beloved
Walmatjarri Elder, teacher, human rights advocate, and environmental activist. 

Born in the traditional lands of the Gooniyandi and Walmatjarri peoples of North Western Australia,Kankawa grew up with the tribal songs at cultural ceremonies. When she was taken from her family to the mission, she was taught hymns and Gospel songs with the choir. On the pastoral lease where she was sent to work, Country music was everywhere. She first heard rock and roll on the station gramophone. But it wasn’t until many years later her musical journey truly began, when she stopped to listen to a busker outside a shop in Derby, Western Australia. It was the first time she’d heard the blues, and it awakened something in her. Through it, she found a medium to express all her thoughts and feelings, and it inspired her to turn these into songs. The empathy of her message extends from those she sees struggling around her to the entire planet being ravaged for profit.