Kevin Carmody

Kev Carmody was raised until the age of ten on a cattle station near Goranba in the Darling Downs district of Queensland. His father was of Irish heritage and his mother was a Murri (Indigenous) woman. He was exposed to music at an early age, listening to old 78' records of country and classical music. Carmody was also deeply influenced by Irish and Indigenous rural oral traditions and as a child learnt many folk and popular songs as well as traditional Murri songs and stories. Carmody did not often mix with other children and the family suffered the contempt from the local community due to the mixed marriage of his parents. Despite this, his childhood was a happy one until he reached the age of ten.

In 1956 Carmody was forcibly removed from his parents and was enrolled in a Christian school for orphans. After finishing school Carmody returned to his parents and rural work. For a few years he worked as a drover and shearer on cattle stations and properties, and later became a welder, working in Dalby and Toowoomba in Queensland. In 1970 Carmody enrolled in a music theory course and was also accepted as a history student at the University of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba, from which he later graduated with a PhD.

It was not until the early 1980s that Carmody began his music career in earnest even though he had been composing songs and poetry for many years. He released his first album Pillars of Society in 1988. A political album, Australian Rolling Stone branded it as "the best album ever released by an Aboriginal musician and arguably the best protest album ever made in Australia". Many of Carmody's songs have been written about social justice and Indigenous issues, particularly land rights. In 1991 Carmody co-wrote From Little Things Big Things Grow with Paul Kelly, which became an anthem for Indigenous land rights.

Throughout his career, Carmody has toured nationally and internationally, released a number of albums and has become one of Australia's most celebrated Indigenous singer songwriters. A committed social and political activist, Carmody has regularly performed at a variety of rallies and fundraisers. He has also played at numerous jails throughout Australia and has worked with under-privileged children in Queensland. Carmody has also interviewed numerous folk singers and folklorists for the National Library of Australia.

Information from
Record number
557997
Other names
  • Kev Carmody
Born
  • 1946, Qld.
Gender
male
Activities
  • musician
  • performer
  • songwriter
  • singer
  • interviewer
  • historian
  • Aboriginal rights activist
  • drover
  • shearer
  • welder
References
  • The Age, 02/04/1992
    p14, Mike Daly, Story of a humble poet
  • The Courier Mail, 26/01/1989
    p29, Mark Strong, The "black Bob Dylan" tears down the pillars
  • Kev Carmody website http://www.kevcarmody.com.au Last accessed 08 June 2004
Updated
10 August 2004
To cite this page
http://nla.gov.au/nla.cs-ma-ANL%3AMA~557997

Kevin Carmody

Information from
Record number
000000557997
Updated
11 May 1992