Frank Yamma is an Australian folk singer-songwriter and guitarist from the Northern Territory. He is a traditional Pitjantjatjara man from central Australia and speaks five languages. He lives in Alice Springs and has performed with the Isaac Yamma Family, the Ulpanyali Band and Piranpa.

Background and early performance

Yamma grows up following his father, who is among the first Aboriginal Australian singers to be recorded performing contemporary songs in language and helps found the Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA). By his early teens, Yamma is playing in his father’s Pitjantjatjara Country Band. He begins performing his own songs in 1988 at the inaugural Sing Loud Play Strong Aboriginal Music Festival in Darwin, where he appears alone with acoustic guitar at the Darwin Amphitheatre. That performance is recorded on video and distributed internationally by CAAMA.

Recordings and collaborations

In 1988, Yamma also performs Make More Spear at the Port Fairy Folk Festival, a performance recorded by the ABC and later included on its Celebration-Highlights of Port Fairy's Last 25Years CD. He works with other Aboriginal performers including Tiddas, Amunda and Bart Willoughby, and also plays with outback performers Bill Davis and Brian Young. His song Everybody's Talking is recorded by the ABC’s Songlines program for television and CD, and he joins Tiddas on Bart Willoughby’s track Sunrise. Queensland group Aim 4 More records its own version of Yamma’s first song, Make More Spear.

Albums, bands and later work

In 1989, his band Ulpanyali records one of the biggest sellers on the CAAMA label. In 1999, Yamma releases Playing with Fire, which combines dance rhythms, mixed-language and English vocals, and a range of styles. The album wins Album Release of the Year at the 1999 Indigenous Music Awards. He later performs at the CAAMA Music showcase in Melbourne, supports Moses O'Jah, appears at the Corroboree 2000 reconciliation concert in Sydney, and takes part in Olympic torch ceremony events at Uluru. He and the band Piranpa support Ruby Hunter on her Feeling Good national tour in 2000, and perform at the Stompem Ground festival in Broome, with the set broadcast on Triple J’s Live at the Wireless. After that festival, Yamma and Piranpa tour the Kimberley and remote parts of the Northern Territory. In 2001 he records Coolibah, produced by David Bridie, for the Corroboration compilation on Festival Mushroom, and performs in Sydney for the International Racism Conference.

Style and significance

Yamma’s singing is in language and draws on folk, world and cross-cultural influences. His performances and recordings combine acoustic guitar, strong vocals and songs about landscape, Aboriginal life and social hardship, and he is noted for work that moves between dance-oriented material and more reflective songs.