Maatakitj is Noongar singer and guitarist Clint Bracknell from the south coast of Western Australia. Maatakitj, Clint’s nickname, means ‘legs like spears’.
He sings in Noongar, the Indigenous language of Western Australia’s southwest, and is dedicated to creating new songs in one of the world’s longest continuing music traditions.
Maatakitj recently collaborated with Angelique Kidjo and was the support act for her 2024 Australian tour. In 2023, he composed for and performed with Kronos Quartet. Maatakitj partnered with ARIA-award winning producer Paul Mac in 2022 to produce the dance album Noongar Wonderland.
As a Professor of Music at UWA, Clint investigates connections between song, language, and landscapes while working on significant projects to improve Indigenous community access to cultural heritage collections. He has a PhD on Noongar song and has received awards and nominations composing for Australian stage productions over the past two decades.
Clint co-produced and co-presented Song With No Boss, an Australian podcast series for ABC Radio National. He is also a lead voice actor in Fist of Fury Noongar Daa, the audacious and ground-breaking Noongar language dub of the 1972 Bruce Lee film.
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Clint, whose great passion is the revitalisation of Noongar language and song, is no mere academic but a charismatic stage performer blessed with the powerful voice and rhetorical and compositional talents to convincingly connect past, present and future.
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A clattering of clapsticks and a rush of strings triggered the chant “Bindari”; rhythm, harmony and Maatakitj’s powerful, generous voice painting a folkloric soundscape with overtones of pop.
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Maatakitj’s eminently danceable and compelling songs in language mark his rich and evolving culture with driving rhythms and complex tempos and were clearly appreciated by the audience.