REVIEW BY JOHN TRACEY
BRISBANE — Theresa Creed has just recorded her first album, Unfinished Business, at Ando's Kitchen recording studio on the Gold Coast. It will be released through 4ZZZ's Zedhead Records later this year.
Creed was born at the Woorabinda Aboriginal settlement at a time when Aboriginal people were not allowed to travel, marry or work without the permission of the police or the mission manager. Her father was a talented country singer. Despite his attempts to be released from the mission to pursue a career in entertainment, he was not allowed to leave.
Creed and her family moved to Townsville, still under the restrictions of the notorious Queensland Aboriginal acts. Her older brother, (the late) John "Zonboy" Creed (and father of Jodie Cockatoo Creed from Yothu Yindi), a guitarist of the calibre of Jimi Hendrix, moved to Brisbane and joined the black power movement during the 1970s.
The repressed music of generations was being released in the form of rock and reggae. At this time, John Creed was playing with Bapu Mamoos, one of the first full electric rock/reggae bands in Australia which, long before Yothu Yindi, combined electric music with traditional Aboriginal song and dance.
When all this was happening, Theresa Creed longed to join her brother in the city creating new and exciting ways of being Murri. When she was old enough, she travelled around and ended up as a student of Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre in Redfern, Sydney. This began her career as a performer. Creed was among the first professional Aboriginal contemporary dancers.
Like her brother, Creed was part of the new wave of Aboriginal creativity that arose during the 1970s and 1980s. As a contemporary and traditional dancer, she toured Australia, the US and Canada.
Today, a new wave of Aboriginal performance is occurring. Mainstream audiences are developing a taste for Aboriginal music and Aboriginal artists are attaining new levels of excellence in music. Theresa Creed is among the Aboriginal women taking their place at the crest of it. Her new album expresses the power of generations of Aboriginal singers and dancers in a way that is understandable and accessible, but still challenging, to all Australians.
Unfinished Business includes a recording of the late Oodgeroo Noonuccal, the famous Aboriginal writer and poet, telling a story that connects ancient realities to contemporary life and explains the meaning of her name. Creed also sings two of Noonuccal's poems, "Colour bar" and "Son of mine", on the album.
"Old people" embraces the spirits of the ancestors. Creed considers young people are the hope for the future in "Waited too long" and a remake of the 1970s song "How", which was born in the struggles of the Brisbane Aboriginal community. Creed's insertion of some "rap", assisted by children in her family, into this old anthem establishes the link between past, present and future.
Listen out for the album.