KANKAWA NAGARRA INDUCTED INTO WA WOMEN'S HALL OF FAME

A Kimberley legend has been inducted into the WA Women’s Hall of Fame or her work as a musician, environmentalist and advocate.

Fitzroy Crossing blues singer Kankawa Nagarra, also known as Olive Knight, was one of 16 women bestowed the honour on International Women’s Day.

She said she learnt to play play a cousin’s guitar when she was working on a pastoral station in her 20s.

“At the time, there was a cultural thing, women weren’t allowed to touch anything made of wood,” she said.

“We were forbidden to even go near the guitar, because it was a men’s wooden instrument.

“I vividly remember this glorious night … This one night, my brother-in-law was on his own, playing some country he’s learnt hanging around with this cousin. I just went over to him and said, ‘Look, give me the guitar please and show me some of the country riffs you’re playing there.’

“I did it. I quickly picked it up. It didn’t take me long.”

Kankawa Nagarra said a highlight of her career was using music to advocate for protection of the Kimberley’s Canning Basin.

“There’s been a lot of threats [to the Basin],” she said.

“People have been coming in to drill holes for fracking and taking the gas out of the earth. Its poisoning the aquifers. So I’m passionate about writing [songs like] ‘Canning Basin Blues’.”

Listen to Kankawa Nagarra speak to Ngaarda Media’s Tangiora Hinaki:

Watch Kankawa Nagarra perform in the Ngaarda Radio studios in 2022: