Kutcha Edwards

Kutcha Edwards has been prolifically combining songwriting and activism since 1991, when he joined Koori group Watbalimba and began the remarkable journey that has taken him from the tiny Riverina town of Balranald to tours of Australia and the world. It is his experiences as a member of the Stolen Generations and his proud Mutti Mutti heritage that has shaped his diverse creative output in groups like Blackfire and the Black Arm Band. At the same time he's also been able to forge a successful solo career combining his ‘Bidgee’ blues with traditional songs of people and country. Beginning in 2002 with his friends Paul Kelly and Paul Hester (Crowded House) he created his first solo album, Cooinda. In 2007, he released his second solo CD titled Hope, co-produced with Richard Pleasance. Inspired by the Songlines told on the albums, Kutcha wrote, produced and performed his first theatre-based and VIPA award winning show, Songlines of a Mutti Mutti Man, to houses at the George Fairfax Studio. Kutcha created a one man version of his story called yuyukatha and toured it throughout Victoria. He has since produced two further solo albums blak n blu and Beneath the Surface. 
Kutcha says music chose him and the same can be said for his work in radio and prisons. He has produced Beyond the Bars Live Prison Radio broadcasts with 3CR in Fitzroy for the last 20 years. The broadcast received a Human Rights award for the work of giving voice to the voiceless. 
More recently, Kutcha created and premiered a successful Screen Australia web series Kutcha’s Carpool Koorioki at Yirramboi Arts Festival 2019, with more episodes planned in 2020. Joining Kutcha in the car in Series 1 are artists Archie Roach, Dan Sultan, Alice Skye, Bart Willoughby, Bunna Lawrie, Emily Wurramara plus Elaine Crombie and local legend and regular passenger Uncle Jack Charles. 
Kutcha uses music to create connections across cultures, generations, and spaces. With an innate ability to communicate, he uses his unique, diverse talents to nurture understanding and self-knowledge amongst all those with whom he has contact. Kutcha is a songman, not simply a songwriter. He draws on a profound sense of all those who have gone before him on this land, along with his own life experiences, to help his audiences understand themselves, reconnect with their culture and promote cultural understanding. 
His music touches the soul and through his humour and insights we realise that with recognition of the true Aboriginal history, there can be hope of reconciliation.