History

1964 1979:

24 January 1964, Getano BANN was born in Rockhampton, Queensland Australia to a Scottish migrant Johnathan GORDON and Weggina Bann a descendant of a warrior chief from the centre region of the Torres Strait.

Getano's first appreciation of music comes from his mother’s traditional music of the Torres Straits and his father's Andy Stewart records. During his early childhood years his godfather bestows his love of Elvis Presley and the Beatles by making the toddler 'twist and shout' to the guitar driven music.

"My mother always wanted me to be a singer, as she felt she never had the opportunity due to her 'crocked tongue'. English was her third language and she had had difficulty reading and writing." As Getano got older his mother would often encourage him to sit with her and sing songs together and yes there had to be the obligatory Elvis songs. "Hawaiian Love Song, from Blue Hawaii was the most requested of my limited repertoire."

Puberty arrived and the Bee Gee's 'Saturday Night Fever' sound track was filling the radio airwaves and Countdown was the number one show for an inquisitive air guitar or broom wheeling adolescent. "The first tape I ever bought was Status Quo's 'Rockin’ all over the World'". The admiration Getano felt for his hero's including, John Lennon, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, the Beatles, Elvis, the Bee Gees, Davis Gates and Bread, Cat Stevens, Harry Chapin, The Sweet, Status Quo, Deep Purple, Elton John, Queen, to name a very small few, sparked the fire which was to inevitably consume him for the rest of his life. "I fell in love with the Beatles, as individual artists before discovering they were members of the same group and my fondness and appreciation of the Beatles music Fourier on my new found connection".

Dancing became another outlet of expression for the gangly athletic fifteen year old and he would be smuggled into the local disco-tech by older relatives or friends of the family who were security guards at the door, keeping out underage drinkers! The throbbing pulse of the dance groups and artists like, Earth Wind and Fire, Bonney M, KC and the Sunshine Band, Stevie Wonder, The Fat Larry Band, Tina Turner, Chic, Patrick Harnandise, Roger Voudouris and the Commodores, that came through the subwoofers flamed Getano’s passion for music even more.

Having failed dismally at school and especially music class at high school, Getano sort to escape the sheltered confides of his family life in Mackay and become his father's worst nightmare.

1980 1992:

Getano approached Val Wright, the indigenous guidance officer during his last year at high school (1979) with a personal dilemma, which involved him either becoming a professional track athlete or trying to pursue his love of music and the desire to emulate his guitar hero's by learning to play his guitar.

The answer was to become a ballet dancer instead. Getano packed his cardboard suitcase and jetted off to the wilds of Sydney to join the Aboriginal and Islander Dance Theatre. "My father nearly had a heart attack. Accusations, finger pointing and comments of where did we go wrong went on between my parents". It took Getano's hardworking, even harder drinking ozzie indoctrinated father sometime to let his mates know what his first born son was up to in the big smoke.

Whilst in Sydney, Getano's desire of emulating his favorite guitarists started to come to flourishing after a few false starts with several guitar teachers. On the 8th December 1980 was to mark a pivotal moment in modern history, with the senseless slaying of John Lennon, Getano with countless millions of other people world wide wept for a man who along with his musical cahoots had helped shape modern music and provided the musical backdrop to so many lives. "It was such a tragedy and a real sense of hopelessness came over me as I tried to find some meaning to this pointless killing".

After graduating from the dance theatre in 1983, Getano's determination to chase his guitar and now song writing ambitions lead him to the Centre of Aboriginal Studies in Music (CASM) in early 1984. CASM was an affiliation of the Adelaide University in South Australia and at the time was home to indigenous bands like, 'No Fixed Address' and 'Us Mob'.

At last with a guitar in hand and a microphone in his mouth Getano's musical journey was starting to manifest. "I was lucky to have had a relative at CASM, come to think of it, there were relatives everywhere I went". Getano's Uncle Jardine 'Andy' Kiwat had also sort his musical aspirations in Adelaide. After renewing their family bonds, Getano and Jardine became 'partners in mayhem', as they forged a money making venture called 'Tudu Children's Theatre' to earn some extra cash to help supplement their parsimony student income. "Tudu was such a wonderful experience and a fantastic tool for honing our performance skills as entertainers and financial aptitude as entrepreneurs... or was it our spending prowess".

1984 saw the birth of Getano’s first born child Josh. "Things were starting to happen, I had played two live to air shows with two different bands a reggae outfit called 'Subaker' and 'All States' an originals band". Getano by now was in well demand as a guitarist and singer, playing in several CASM school bands, 'The CASM Blue's Band', 'The Indulkana Suit' (which toured to Tahiti in 1985 for the 4th South Pacific Festival of the Arts), 'I Witness' and 'The Urban Corroboree'.

The start of 1986 saw Getano back at home in Mackay with the loss of his Father in late January. "No work, no music, no father and a grieving mother, welcome home I thought". There wasn't a great demand for ex-ballet dancers or budding rock stars in Mackay and Getano's work prospects look bleak. "I went down to enroll for the dole and my work status became unskilled labour... I was sent on a cane carting course to get a tractor licence".

In 1987 Getano applied for a 12 month training position in the Canberra Public Library Service as a trainee storyteller, upon completing his training Getano returned back to Mackay an in February 1988 welcomed the birth of his daughter Alya.

The next five years proved very fruitful for Getano as he became a regular performer on the east-coast of Australia, as a soloist, arts worker at several festivals including 'Arts Fusion', Innisfail, QLD, Mackay Festival of the Arts, National Folk Festival, Kuranda, QLD, a band member of 'KOYAN', a clothing model, choreographer (Outback Children’s Spectacular, Dubbo, NSW involving over 2,500 school children in regional NSW), cross-culture presenter (Dreamtime Cultural Centre, Rockhampton, QLD) and a public speaker at schools engagements.

In 1990 Getano conceptualised and staged 'Peace in the Park', a concert for John Lennon, the only concert in Australia to mark the 10th Anniversary of the ex-Beatle's slaying.

December 1992 ushered the death of Getano's mother and the beginning of the lost years.

1993 2005:

"Grief is a useless friend and sadness is a tragic motivator", Getano ventured south to consul himself over the loss of his mother and ended up employed in the Premier's Department working at Arts Queensland, Brisbane. Bureaucracy became the next playground and Getano's inquisitive mind enjoyed the "power plays, egos and assholes" he encountered over the course of the next 5 years within Arts Queensland and then the Brisbane City Council.

During these years Getano was to have direct involvement and input into the establishment of Q Music, the naming of several parks and reserves in Brisbane with indigenous names, the establishment of Kooemba Jdarra, First Contact’s 1st Sports and Cultural Festival, Getano also was a committee member of the Brisbane Fringe Festival, Contact Inc. and Kooemba Jdarra, Woodford Folk Festival's Indigenous Advisory Committee member and was part of many other numerous community boards and art advisory panels and steering committees.

"I didn't have the heart to play or make music for several years and if I did money was my main motivation not the joy or love I once felt". Getano's involvement with Contact Inc. started to resurrect his passion and love for community arts which eventually lead Getano to working with the company on several projects in the Torres Strait, touring there several years in a row.

1999 was to see the release of 'Inside Solwata' Getano's first full length feature album which paid homage to Getano's mother and family in a series of oral stories which Getano transformed into musical pieces.

In 2000, after reading an article on music therapy and a need for that "piece of paper", Getano, undertook a three year study at the University of Queensland to become a music therapist and to dispel his sense of inadequacy for failing at school. "How do you complete a University course? With the assistance of good friends and a naivety of the amount of work you're required to do. If I had any inkling of the volume of work, I seriously doubt I would have ever started". 2003 Getano graduates from the University of Queensland with a Graduate Diploma in Music Therapy, becoming Australia's first Indigenous Music Therapist.

After working at BoysTown Logan for eight and a half years (1995-2004), Getano decided to start working as a sessional music therapist, musician, storyteller and freelance arts worker.

October 2005 Getano marry's Raelene Atkins.