Harry and Wilga Williams were an Indigenous Australian husband and wife duet who performed professionally between the 1960s and 1980s. Harry Williams was called the godfather of Koori

Koori

The Koori are the indigenous Australians that traditionally occupied modern day New South Wales and Victoria....

 country

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

  and Wilga the first lady. They led the Country Outcasts, a band remembered as the first professional Koori band.

Harry Williams

Harry Williams was born in 1927 on the Erambie Mission near Cowra, New South Wales

Cowra, New South Wales

Cowra is a town in the Central West region of New South Wales, Australia in the Cowra Shire. It is located on the Mid-Western Highway, 317 kilometres west of Sydney on the banks of the Lachlan River at an altitude of 310 metres above sea level. At the 2006 census Cowra had a population of 8,430...

 and died in 1991. His father "Knocker" Williams led a travelling tent show in which Harry played. In his 20s he started playing with Alan Saunders. Williams also worked as an actor, appearing in films and on TV, including Blackfire (1972, the first known film by an indigenous Australia) and Matlock.

Wilga Williams

Wilga Williams was born Wilga Munro in Tamworth, New South Wales

Tamworth, New South Wales

Tamworth is a city in the New England region of New South Wales, Australia. Straddling the Peel River, Tamworth, which contains an estimated population of 47,595 people, is the major regional centre for southern New England and in the local government area of Tamworth Regional Council. The city...

 in 1940. She was named after the wild orange tree she was born under. After serving in the Air Force she returned to Tamworth and started performing.

Music

Harry and Wilga Williams started performing together in a band called The Tjuringas (meaning sacred object) around Newcastle in 1969. Other members were Alan Saunders and Keith Saunders. after this band broke up Harry and Wilga performed as a duo and then moved to Melbourne and in 1972 formed The Country Outcasts with Ian "Ocker" Mackay and Bert Williams. They toured widely throughout Australia and New Guinea and released two full length albums. Other Country Outcast members included Bill Brunswick, Debbie Williams, Ian Johnson, Harry Thorpe, Laurie Ingram, Claude "Candy" Williams, Mac Silva and Auriel Andrew

Auriel Andrew

Auriel Andrew is an Indigenous Australian country musician of the Arrernte people of Central Australia.Andrew grew up in Alice Springs, Northern Territory, leaving for Adelaide, South Australia aged 21 to pursue her music career.She appeared in the SBS documentary "Buried Country: The Story of...

.

Harry and Wilga Williams started a national Aboriginal Country Music Festival in Canberra

Canberra

Canberra is the capital city of Australia. With a population of over 345,000, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The city is located at the northern end of the Australian Capital Territory , south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Melbourne...

in 1976 and a radio show, Country Music Shindig, for 3CR.

In 1981 they were recognised in the Country Music Hands of Fame in Tamworth.

Discography

• "Home-Made Didgeridoo"/Arnhem Land Lullaby" (1974)
• "Nullabor Prayer" (1975)
• Harry Williams and the Country Outcasts (1979, RCA)
• Harry and Wilga Williams and the Country Outcasts (1981, Hadley)