Barefoot Divas include the critically-acclaimed Indigenous singer-songwriters Ursula Yovich (Burarra/Serbia) and Emma Donovan (Gumbaynggirr), NZ Laureate Whirimako Black (Māori), multi-award-winning Maisey Rika (Māori), Merenia (Māori/Romany-Gypsy) a beat-throwing artist who sings in five languages and Ngaiire from Papua New Guinea.
Barefoot Divas kicked off in 2012 when they performed their world premiere production of Walk A Mile In My Shoes to sold-out houses, receiving standing ovations for every single performance as part of the Sydney Festival and New Zealand International Arts Festival.
Producer and manager, Vicki Gordon (Ngati Kahungunu), is a New Zealand-born Australian who has worked as a musician, music and festival director, record label executive, artist manager and producer for the past 25 years. Barefoot Divas is the culmination of her kaupapa (sacred cause) to explore her connection to her Maori heritage and combine it with her enduring commitment to the importance of showcasing women singer-songwriters on the international stage.
Award-winning Sydney playwright Alana Valentine was commissioned to write a script for the Sydney and NZ festivals in collaboration with each of the women and produced the ground-breaking work Walk A Mile In My Shoes; a combination of spoken word poetry, storytelling and song. With musical direction by acclaimed musician Adam Ventoura, and with their six-part harmonies and soaring voices, the Barefoot Divas perform a combination of original compositions in Aboriginal & PNG languages and a fusion of English and Maori (Te Reo), swinging between Acoustic Roots, R&B and Latin-infused Soul. The women are supported by six world-class musicians from Chile, Sicily, Greece and New Zealand Maori, each of whom brings an individual cultural heritage to the stage.
Barefoot Divas’ live album, Walk A Mile In My Shoes, was released in the US, Canada, Australia and NZ in July 2013. The album received glowing reviews and was hailed as being as new and exciting as new African sounds were a generation back in the wake of Paul Simon exploring the continent (Midwest Records).
The late and highly respected theatre critic James Waite describes his Barefoot Divas experience: “I felt like I was lying on my side on lush grass and these beautiful women performers were pouring nectar into my ear – and it was running down into my soul. It was the integrity as much as the accomplishment, the gift for ‘healing’ these empowered women artists possess. I don’t believe you have to be autobiographically connected. I am pretty sure most people in the audience felt the same way. It’s to do with the preservation of centuries-old truths in the bodies of these women – what makes them Indigenous artists. And they remind us how ‘emptied out’ so much of our own culture has become.”
In less than two years since they debuted as the “surprise hit” of the Sydney Festival, Barefoot Divas have gone on to perform at music festivals across Australia (QMF and Mullum Music Festival), opened the 2013 Australasian World Music Expo in Melbourne and secured a US agent. They have recently returned from their first North American tour wowing audiences and engaging with marginalised communities in Oakland California, Pearl City Hawaii, Banff Centre Canada and Washington DC. Opening at the top of the US presenting field, Barefoot Divas commenced their North American tour with a concert in the Zellerbach Auditorium Berkeley, a leader and taste-maker renowned for presenting internationally acclaimed artists such as Sweet Honey in the Rock and Lady Black Smith Mambazo.
In Oakland California Barefoot Divas worked with TEMPO students (Teens Empowered by Music and Performance Opportunities) in the School Age Families Education Program (Cal-SAFE), an alternative high school program for pregnant and parenting 14-18 year olds from low and moderate income backgrounds. Many of the students in the program have had little or no exposure to music or other arts programs. Several of them have known abandonment, abuse and violence (last year, two Cal-SAFE students were murdered by their partners).
In Canada, Barefoot Divas wove their magic with young children from the Stoney Nakoda Nations (Sioux People) and in their final US performance, in the Seattle Town Hall, they dedicated their concert to One Billion Rising for Justice, a one day call to strike, dance and sing to end violence against women and girls founded in 2013 by US playwright Eve Ensler, the largest recorded global social action event in human history.
As a result of their extraordinary impact in the US, Barefoot Divas have been invited back to Hawaii, and strong interest has been confirmed for Japan and Cuba. Barefoot Divas perform as part of the Hong Kong International Arts Festival for International Women’s Day, March 8, 2015.
