Maroochy Barambah is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n Aboriginal

Australian Aborigines

Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...

 mezzo-soprano

Mezzo-soprano

A mezzo-soprano is a type of classical female singing voice whose range lies between the soprano and the contralto singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above...

 singer.

She was born Yvette Isaacs in the 1950s in Cherbourg, Queensland

Cherbourg, Queensland

Cherbourg is a town in the South Burnett region of Queensland, Australia. It is located off the Bunya Highway approximately north-west of Brisbane and from the town of Murgon. It is situated very close to the dam wall of Bjelke-Petersen Dam. Attractions in Cherbourg include the 'Bert Button...

. She is of the Turrbal

Turrbal

The Turrbal are a tribe of Australian Aboriginal people who inhabited the region around the city of Brisbane before European settlement of Australia. Tom Petrie, an early pioneer of Brisbane, shows the kind and trustworthy nature of the Turrbal people. He demonstrates how they were forgiving, even...

-Gubbi Gubbi people and is a member of the Stolen Generations. She considers herself a beneficiary of her removal. As a tribute to her Aboriginality she took the names Maroochy (meaning "black swan") and Barambah (meaning "source of the western wind").

Maroochy Barambah rose to fame for her part in the 1989 Sydney Metropolitan Opera production of Black River, an opera about black deaths in custody, and later starring in the 1993 film adaption

Black River (1993 film)

Black River is a 1993 Australian film directed and produced by Kevin Lucas and starring Aboriginal mezzo-soprano Maroochy Barambah. It is a film adaptation of an opera that tells a story around an Aboriginal death in custody...

. She also has appeared in the indigenous musical Bran Nue Dae

Bran Nue Dae

Bran Nue Dae is a 1990 musical set in Broome, Western Australia that tells stories and of issues relating to Indigenous Australians. It was written by Jimmy Chi, his band Kuckles and friends and was the first Aboriginal musical. The musical was originally directed by Andrew Ross, a prominent...

and in the opera Beach Dreaming (written for and about her by Mark Isaacs).

She has released two singles, one of which, Aborigine, reached the top 10 on the U.S. Billboard Dance chart

Billboard Hot 100

The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...

.

Discography

• Aborigine (1996) single - Daki Budtcha Records
• Mongungi (1994) single - Daki Budtcha Records
• Once upon a dreamtime (1997) - Daki Budtcha Records