Musician with No Fixed Address, Coloured Stone, Mixed Relations, and Yothu Yindi. Bart Willoughby has also published his life story.
Bart Willoughby's clan is Mernin, south of Pitjanjatjara. According to Willoughby, he "grew up chaotic". At around 3 years of age he was flown to Adelaide where he was fostered out to a white family. After meeting his "real sister" in Adelaide, he left foster care to live with his sister in a children's home in "the Italian section of Adelaide." Willoughby spent most of his teenage years "locked up" for being "uncontrollable" and it was during these periods of incarceration that he learnt to play guitar, piano, keyboard and drums from other Aboriginal inmates.
In 1978, he formed the band No Fixed Address, a rock'n'reggae band, and toured Australia and the UK. No Fixed Address were acknowledged as a significant entry point for contemporary Aboriginal music and opened the door for many artists that followed. He also starred in the documentary films Wrong Side of the Road and No Fixed Address On Tour.
Sources: Indigenous Australia: Standing Strong (2001) and www.blackarmband.com.au/ (Sighted 31/05/2011).
Australian Writing and Rock Music affiliation: guitar, piano, keyboard, drums.
