WOMADelaide reserves the right to change timetable without notice.
WOMADelaide reserves the right to change timetable without notice.
From the small Aboriginal community of Woorabinda (population around 950) in Central Queensland comes a 20 year old with a voice ready to be heard. A strong, proud Pitjantjatjara/Torres Strait Islander woman, Miiesha has been singing for her family and her community since the age of eight, developing her songwriting skills while still a teenager. Now stepping onto a bigger stage, Miiesha is sharing her music and her message with the world.
Inspired by RnB, gospel and soul and the potency of spoken word poetry, Miiesha’s music seeks to bring people together to help educate and inspire. Gifted with a velvety voice that showcases immense vulnerability and strength, often in the one breath, Miiesha sings of her people and her community with the words of a leader and a teacher.
Her powerful debut Nyaaringu, released in mid 2020, both soothed and broke hearts around the country with its elegantly crafted songs and fearless storytelling about the Indigenous experience. Accolades include Feature Album on Triple J, FBi, 3RRR and 4ZZZ; taking out the ARIA Award for Best R&B Release (with Miiesha also nominated for Best Female Artist and Breakthrough Artist); being nominated for The J Awards Album of the Year and winning NME’s #1 Australian Album of 2020.
“Nyaaringu is a collection of stories that I wanted to tell. For me it represents my journey and where I’m at now coming from Woorabinda. The interludes in the collection are recordings of my grandmother speaking. For me she was and always will stay with me as the strongest voice in my life so I felt she had to be a part of this with me,” she says.
The album’s lead single Drowning won the Remote Region Award at the Queensland Music Awards and Miiesha was nominated for three National Indigenous Music Awards, winning Best New Talent. She also won the Levi’s Music Relief Fund Prize and was featured in early 2021 in the #YouTubeBlack Voices global campaign - one of 20 artists worldwide and one of only three Australian artists.
