Kev Carmody, indigenous composer and singer, Downlands College, 1959-1963.

The 2021 National Indigenous Music Australia celebrated the life and vastly important work of Indigenous musician Kev Carmody, inducting him into the Hall of Fame.

From the Downlands Magazine 2020

In August 2020 Kev featured on the cover of the Weekend Australian Magazine, along with an in-depth interview completed near his home outside Ballandean.

In 2019 Kev was awarded Australia’s highest accolade in the performing arts, the

JC Williamson Award, as part of the Helpmann Awards. We congratulate Kev on his exceptional acheivements in the field of music!

Kev, together with his wife Beryl, responded to the following questions...

Where are you from?

My grandfather’s country is from the Lama Lama Nation on Cape York.... grandmother’s Indigenous country is Bundjalung, Northern New South Wales.

(My) Irish heritage comes from County Clare and grandfather’s heritage mid-Tipperary.

How did your musical path begin?

In my mother’s womb...sounds and rhythms of her heartbeat and mine.

What do you consider the greatest achievements of your life thus far?

Our families and living until 70.

 What inspires you as a musician?

The Universe.

Please tell us about how you felt when your musical achievements were acknowledged through the Helpmann Awards – JC Williamson Award.

I accepted the JC Williamson, Helpmann Award on behalf of all First Nations’ Peoples.

Please tell us about what  inspired you to collaborate with your son and grandsons to produce the song about the story of Multuggerah?

Our son Paul wrote a poem about the warrior Multugerrah who resisted European expansion. He wanted me to narrate and record the poem and this involved the grandsons Cortay on clap sticks and Manson on didge. I then put music behind the poem and wrote a chorus for it which made it into song.

Who was your favourite teacher at Downlands and why?

Evan Whitton – because he had faith in my ability and helped me to develop confidence and to challenge myself.

Evan Whitton

Any advice for current students? Challenge your abilities and have strength and confidence in your chosen life paths.

 Challenge your abilities and have strength and confidence in your chosen life paths.

Is there anything else you want to add – any inspiration for the current Murri students?

You belong to the oldest living culture on Earth. Be proud and learn everything you can and where possible contribute to this ancient cultural gift.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about your multi-generational involvement with your grandsons, now members of the Downlands Community?

I am proud of all our children and all our grandchildren. Paul and his wife Tawana have contributed to Downlands College and to sport in general over time. Cortay and Manson are continuing to develop and achieve at the College.

_{From Wikipedia}

Kevin Daniel Carmody was born in 1946 in Cairns, Queensland. His father was a second-generation Irish descendant and his mother an Indigenous Australian. His younger brother, Laurie, was born three and a half years later. His family moved to southern Queensland in early 1950, and he grew up on a cattle station near Goranba, 70 kilometres (43 mi) west of Dalby in the Darling Downs area of south eastern Queensland. His parents worked as drovers, moving cattle along stock routes. At ten years of age, Carmody and his brother were taken from their parents under the assimilation policy as part of the Stolen Generations and sent to a Catholic school, Downlands College, in Toowoomba. After schooling, he returned to his rural roots and worked for seventeen years as a country labourer, including droving, shearing, bag lumping, wool pressing and welding.

In 1978, at the age of 33, Carmody enrolled in university, Darling Downs Institute of Advanced Education (now part of the University of Southern Queensland).

Due to his limited schooling, Carmody's reading and writing skills were not up to required university standard. Undeterred, he suggested to the history tutor that until his writing was suitable he would present his research in a musical format accompanied by guitar. While this was a novel approach at university, it was in line with the far older indigenous tradition of oral history. Although Carmody had extensive historical knowledge, learnt by oral traditions, much of it could not be found in library history books and was attributed to 'unpublished works'. Carmody completed his Bachelor of Arts degree, then postgraduate studies and a Diploma of Education at the University of Queensland, followed by commencing a PhD in History, on the Darling Downs 1830–1860.

From the Downlands 1963 Rugby report:

K. D. CARMODY: Scrum half and Vice-captain. Carmody’s talent inclined more perhaps to wing-forward or threequarter and, at first, he was technically a mediocre scrumhalf. By much lonely practice, he made himself more than competent and if anyone (apart from the coaches) had an armchair ride on Grammar Day, it was his partner, Carrigan.  He performed prodigies of defence and one doesn’t suppose Downlands has ever had a better half at following-up a punted ball. Sixteen matches. Coaches: Rev Fr J F Tyler MSC (Backs) and Mr Evan Whitton (Forwards)

(below) Downlands First XV 1963

KC Front row, third from left

 Perhaps his life illustrates, From little things, big things grow.