Uwankara Palyanku Kanyintjaku – Pitjantjatjara for everybody building and caring for the future!

UPK MUSIC is contemporary indigenous music about Life on the Lands written and performed by musicians on the Lands.

UPK itself is an underpinning approach to the operations of the Nganampa Health Council which services the region of northwest SA (110,000 square kilometres). Uwankara Palyalku Kanyintjaku, UPK, is an expression meaning ‘everybody creating/building, caring and being responsible’ for the future.

Australia is a signatory to the Declaration of Alma Ata produced at the first International Conference on Primary Health Care held in Kazakhstan in 1978 by the World Health Organization. This declaration goes far beyond the mere clinical aspects of health care and extends to the physical, mental, educational and environmental in a comprehensive approach to health care delivery.

About six years after the Declaration of Alm ata, following the successful implementation of the Pitjantjatjara-Yankunyatjara Land Rights Act in November 1981, Anangu pressed for the establishment of a community controlled health service to meet the health care needs of the people living on the APY Lands. This organization became known as Nganampa Health Council and, to this day, is responsible for the delivery of health care to all communities on the APY Lands. In its design it calls upon the principles contained in the Declaration of Alma Ata for the devising of its rationale and the implementation of its services.

The core work of a fully functioning primary health care system includes intersectoral cooperation between the many sectors and disciplines to address the broad social, economic and environmental factors that impact health including education and health promotion.

UPK MUSIC deliberately addresses and highlights issues impacting on the well-being of the individual and the community. Songs about abuse and violence, drugs and alcohol, injustice, housing, childcare, mental health, land rights, water, waste management, the environment, cyber bullying, hunting, bush-tucker and nutrition; in fact any aspect of life and living that impacts the individual and group well-being.

Since 1989 there have been 7 albums produced and 98 songs written and recorded to address factors affecting the quality of life in the modern age. When funding becomes available the word goes out to musicians who will assemble at the designated point on the Lands and stay in situ for two weeks while the songs are written and the recording is made. Usually the site is an old outstation with a bore. All equipment and building supplies are brought to the site; rolls of hessian for wind breaks, second-hand carpet for flooring, whole kitchen and barbecue trailer, water trailer, benches and stools, a complete backline of drums, amps, keyboards, guitars and a complete mobile recording studio.

An intense period of writing, recording and review follows. The methodology strongly includes playback/review of each song to see that it matches the intent and purpose of each new UPK theme. The musicians are actively and openly engaged in this process. Each album is literally recorded in the open air on the Lands, on Anangu country. An intense online broadcast of project progress gets underway so those not directly involved can still participate actively.

All songs are recorded in the language of the people, Pitjantjatjara and Yankutjatjara.
The purpose of UPK MUSIC is to address the factors affecting our well-being and maintain this awareness through the power of popular music.