Emily Wurramara Nara

“What’s more important than sharing your story?” sings Emily Wurramara on her second album. Arriving six years after her 2018 debut, it finds the Warnindhilyagwa songwriter in a markedly different place. She’s now a mother and a published author—thanks to her 2024 children’s book Marringa Lullaby, co-written with Sylvia Wurramarrba Tkac—and she lost her Brisbane home in a devastating fire in 2019. Taking its title from the Anindilyakwa word for “nothing”, NARA finds strength in that hard-earned life experience. It also branches out from the folk/roots direction heard on 2018’s Milyakburra, making fruitful forays into several other genres. Clubby beats and a disco hook punctuate “DTMN” (shorthand for “Don’t tell me nothin’”), while “Lordy Lordy” sees Gumbaynggirr man Tasman Keith add heavily treated vocals to a soul-searching dance anthem with the affecting refrain “Lordy, Lordy, what do we do now?”. Other guests include Lisa Mitchell on the Pacific Islands-influenced “See Me There”, Wiradjuri man Zeppelin Hamilton (Velvet Trip) on the low-lit ballad “WWGBH” (“When we go back home”) and Wurramara’s younger brother Arringarri, making his musical debut on the duet “STFAFM” (“Stay the fuck away from me”). Other tunes incorporate ska guitar licks (“Boom Biddy Bye”), romantic neo-soul (“It’s You”) and rumbling rock catharsis (“FRIEND”). Everything here feels deeply personal, especially “Magic Woman Dancing”—penned when Wurramara was in high school—and the opening “Midnight Blues”, a tribute to her supportive mother. “I’ve been there,” she sings knowingly on the latter. “We’ve all been there before.”