‘Music is not what I do, it is who I am. My songs may be contemporary but they are over 40,000 years old. They come through me from my ancestors and my people and they tell the stories of what happens in a country where the first peoples are subject to invasion, genocide, segregation, assimilation and their children are stolen. My music continues the tracks of my Mutti Mutti Songline.’ Kutcha Edwards
Kutcha Edwards, Mutti Mutti, Yorta Yorta, Nari Nari Songman has been prolifically combining songwriting and activism since he began making music in the 90’s. As one of Australia’s most respected Indigenous singer/songwriters, Kutcha’s music and community work has earned him iconic status amongst both Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians. What Kutcha shares through his songs and stories and with the people he encounters is an often unheard truth, a heartfelt connection and a sense of belonging.
It is his experiences as a survivor of the Stolen Generations – the forced removal from Family, Culture and Country as an 18 month old baby followed by 11 years of institutionalisation in a children’s home - that has shaped Kutcha’s knowledge and diverse creative output. Kutcha’s remarkable journey of reconnection and reawakening of his proud Mutti Mutti heritage and language has bought a belonging and wisdom beyond the trauma of the stolen years.
Today, Kutcha performs and works within multiple genres through his music. Apart from creating 5 outstanding solo albums, Kutcha has also written and toured several ground breaking theatre shows sharing family and community songs and stories of truth and resilience. He has also produced 2 seasons of television with his show ‘Kutcha’s Koorioke” – the iconic format of conversational car rides, passenger sing-a-longs, personal reflections and often hilarious story telling. Kutcha hosts Aboriginal legends and emerging artists cruising the streets of inner naarm (Melbourne): “To me it’s talking about our spirit, our Songline, our connection - to not only our places of birth but our places of belonging. It’s a yarn, talking about family and about how our songs are created. That’s the true essence. It’s not all about me, it’s about us.”
Kutcha says music chose him and the same can be said for his work in radio and prisons. He has co-produced the annual Beyond the Bars Live Prison Radio broadcasts with 3CR community radio in Fitzroy for over 20 years. The broadcast received a Human Rights Award for the work of ‘sharing the mic and giving voice to the voiceless. When you have spent 11 years institutionalised as a child, there is a knowing, a connection and empathy to mob on the inside’. Another manifestation resulting from this work was Kutcha creating the ‘Inside Outside Prison’ show. He toured urban and regional Victorian prisons and the towns they are built in, aiming to create a two-way bridge between those incarcerated and the communities living around them.
While performing and touring in groups such as Blackfire and The Black Arm Band Kutcha developed his music and songwriting prowess. Ultimately he has forged a very successful solo career combining his ‘Bidgee’ blues with traditional songs of people and country. Kutcha’s most recent release is his extraordinary album ‘Circling Time’. This album is profound and it is a timely reminder of the incredible depth and talent of one of the most inspiring voices within the country. Kutcha’s songs and stories on ‘Circling Time’ are reflections on some of the highs, lows and formative chapters of this iconic singer songwriter’s life journey. It is insightful, reflective and deeply moving. It features the culturally poignant and celebratory song ‘Singing Up Country’, a heart rending tribute to his mother in ‘Mrs Edwards’ and the anthemic ‘We Sing’ featuring a chorus of universally well known & emerging vocalists from across the globe.
Kutcha uses music to create connections across cultures, generations, and spaces. With an innate ability to communicate, he uses his unique, diverse talents to generously 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 along with his own life experiences, to help his audiences understand themselves, reconnect with culture and promote cultural understanding. Kutcha’s music generates physical and spiritual rhythms that transcend and connects all of us to the universal themes of Love, Family, Justice and Country.
ORIGINAL RECORDINGS
2024 Keep On Singing - Single produced by Kutcha Edwards
2023 Mother Tongue - Single produced by Richard Pleasance
2022 Mrs Edwards - Single produced by Andy Stewart
2022 CIRCLING TIME - Produced by Andy Stewart2021 WE SING – Single produced by Andy Stewart
2016 BENEATH THE SURFACE - Produced by Brendan Gallagher
2012 BLAK & BLU - Produced by Craig Pilkington
2010 yuyukatha - Produced by Kutcha Edwards
2007 HOPE - Produced by Richard Pleasance
2002 COOINDA - Produced by Paul Hester, Paul Kelly, David Bridie
FESTIVAL PERFORMANCES – Some Selections
2025 Port Fairy Folk Festival, Brunswick Music Festival
2024 NOW or NEVER Festival - Wuigada-Gagada with AAO
2024 Big hART Songs for Freedom – Roebourne & Perth
2024 Golden Plains Festival, Nannup Festival, Sacrededge Festival
2023 Warta KiKi – Melbourne Youth Orchestra
2023 Rising Festival WARIPA (Commissioned Work)
2023 Big hART Songs for Freedom – National Tour
2023 Saltwater/Freshwater Festival
2022 WOMADelaide
2022 Port Fairy Folk Festival – Artist of the Year
2020 Cygnet Folk Festival - Tasmania
2020 Share the Spirit Festival - Melbourne
2020 Two Worlds Festival - Melbourne
2019 Yirramboi Festival
2019 Connecting Places Tour of Victoria & Tasmania
2019 Bruthen Blues Festival
2019 Ventana Festival - Frankston Arts Centre
2019 City of Monash - Winter Concert Series
2008/2014/2019 Yabun, Sydney Survival Day
2018 Brunswick Music Festival – Sydney Road Street Party
2018 Songs for Reconciliation Concert – Federation Square, Melb
2018 This Place Project – City of Darebin
2017 Wominjeka Festival
2017 Red Dusty Road Concert with Coloured Stone
2017 Newstead Live Festival
2017 Return to Country Concert – Mungo Man
2017 Melbourne Music Week Launch
2009/2015/2017 National Folk Festival, Canberra
2004/2009/2017 Port Fairy Folk Festival
2016 Blue Mountains, Illawarra
2016 Mordialloc Blues Music Festivals
2015 Alice Desert Festival
2013/2015 Darwin Festival, NIMA Awards
2014 Garma Festival
2008/2014 WOMADelaide, Adelaide Botanical Gardens
2006/2014 Dreamtime at the G, MCG, Melbourne
2005/2014 Black Harmony Day, Melbourne
2013 Canberra Centenary
2008/2012 Australasian World Music Expo
2010 The Dreaming Festival2010 Brunswick Music Festival
2010 Building Bridges Concert - Corowa
2009 Sydney Peace Prize, Sydney Opera House
2009 Rockwiz Salutes to Bowl, at Myer Music Bowl
2009 Shinju Matsuri Festival, Broome
2007/2009 Castlemaine State Festival
2006 Lake Mungo Festival, Lake Mungo NSW
2006 Commonwealth Games, Melbourne
2003 Yirpirinya Festival, Alice Springs
2002 Music Festivals: Apollo Bay, Tararer
MUSICAL THEATRE
2024 Delagada (Long Ago) Kutcha & Friends
2021/2022 ‘Circling Time – Songs & Stories’ –Touring Show
2019/2020 ‘The Kutcha Edwards Hour’ – RAV, Connecting Places Tour
2014/2015 Blak Cabaret2014/2015 'Inside Outside' - Tour of Regional Victorian Towns & Prisons
2014 KAGE Team of Life
2010 ‘yuyukatha’ - Regional Victoria Tour
2010 ‘yuyukatha’ - The Dreaming Festival
2010 ‘yuyukatha’ - Spiegletent, Melbourne
2008 ‘Songlines of a Mutti Mutti Man’, North Melbourne Town Hall
2007 ‘Songlines of a Mutti Mutti Man’, George Fairfax Theatre
CONCERTS/TOURS/COLLABORATIONS
2020 We Sing' - Collaboration with approx 100 Voices Online Choir
2019 Kutcha's Carpool Koorioke
2019 An Evening with Uncle Jack Charles
2019 Phillip Island Literary Festival
2018 Maroondah Project – Mullum Mullum Indigenous Gathering Place - Song Writing & Singing Workshops with Elder's Choir, Hip Hop Group & Secondary School Students
2017 Ulumburra – Wontok Music for Castlemaine State Festival
2016 Gather Together – Produced by David Bridie at Ulumburra Theatre
2016 Wheeler Centre for Blak & Brite - the Melbourne Indigenous
2016 Writer’s Festival – Stories Behind the Songs
2009-2016 Beyond Empathy – Song writing tutorials for disengaged remote/regional youth
2015 Victorian Arts Centre Trust, Dig Deep
2012,14 &15 Australasian World Music Festival (AWME)
2013-2015 KAGE – Team of Life – Local, Regional and Interstate
2013-2015 Blak Cabaret – Local, Regional and Interstate Touring
2002-2015 Victorian College of the Arts, Master Classes
2011/2012 Victorian Arts Centre Trust - Big Notes Concerts
2011 Nukkan Ya Ruby - Sydney Festival & Melbourne MOOMBA
2009 Dirtsong - Black Arm Band
2008 Hidden Republic - Black Arm Band
2008 Many Roads, One Voice Project, Alice Desert Festival
2007 Murundak - Black Arm Band
1998 Blackfire Culture Tour of China, Mexico and Japan
HONOURS & AWARDS
2023 Induction in to the VicMusic Hall of Fame
2021 Australia Council Fellowship
2017 Multicultural Arts Victoria – Outstanding Contribution to World Music
2016 Melbourne Prize for Music
2016 Distinguished Musician Fellowship – Victorian College of the Arts & Melbourne Conservatorim
2016 Induction in to the NIMA Hall of Fame
2015 Induction on to the Victorian Aboriginal Honour Roll
2007 VIPA Award - Songlines of a Mutti Mutti Man (Victorian Indigenous Performing Arts Award)
2001 National Indigenous Person Award
2001 Deadly Award - Best Male Artist
TELEVISION
NITV/SBS Kutcha's Koorioke (Season 2)
ABC ICAM - ABC TV Feature story
SBS - Rockwiz
NITV - Songlines in the City
RADIO
2001- Current - 3CR Beyond the Bars Live to air PRISON broadcasts
3KnD - Drive Time
