If you’ve been to a major music festival recently, you may have been impressed by DJ RONA on the decks. She’s played Laneway, Pitch Music & Arts, Strawberry Fields, and Splendour in the Grass. Many are citing the 2024 Sugar Mountain Boiler Room set as a defining moment. RONA. is known for her original electronic music interwoven with nods to historical movements and resistance.
A proud Kaytetye woman from the vast desert landscapes of her home, Mparntwe in central ‘Australia’, RONA. seamlessly blends the rhythms of desert Country with the pulse of club life. Her breakout 2022 release, Closure, captured the immersive sonic storylines of her life. RONA. is a sonic and visual storyteller, with a deep connection to Country and her Ancestor’s power of story.
It’s exciting news that RONA. will be releasing an EP on 19th September, It’s All Here, via her imprint, Rarre Records. To mark the news, she’s teased the first single “Mars”, invoking a perspective of hope and resilience in uncertain times.
RONA explains the meaning behind the track:
“‘Mars’ reimagines a future not in the contemporary race to space, but in the soil. It’s a love song to Earth, to the possibility of regeneration, even when everything feels lost. In a world racing to escape, ‘Mars’ slows down to listen to the dirt, to the water, to the memory we carry in our bodies.The song poses a question: what if the most radical thing we could do was stay? To tend to the ruins. To let the flowers grow through us, because everything we need is here. It’s all here. Mars is a track for those who still believe this world can bloom again.”
The music video is directed by Arrernte and Kalkadoon filmmaker Tyson Perkins, and features a symbolic orb created by Carmen Glynn-Braun, a Kaytetye, Anmatyerr and Arrernte artist.
The EP It’s All Here is a bold form of Indigenous futurism, combining conversations on the current race to space with generations of embedded cultural knowledge. The wisdom and connection to Country which has guided the oldest living civilisation in the world is wrapped in electronic production, creating a powerful and exciting manifesto of sound.
To complement the upcoming EP, RONA. has also announced an extensive tour:
October 4 & 5 – North Australian Festival of Arts, Wulgurukaba Country (Townsville)
October 11 – Mode Festival, Wareamah (Cockatoo Island)
October 17 – Haven, Bundjalung Country (Byron Bay)
October 24 – Sub Club, Naarm (Melbourne)
November 1 – Ancient World, Tarntanya (Adelaide)
November 2 – Lubly Dae, Boorloo (Perth)
December 5 – 7 – Meredith Music Festival, Meredith Supernatural Amphitheatre
December 29 – 31 – Beyond The Valley (Barunah Plains)
January 1 – Wildlands (Brisbane)
January 3 – Wildlands (Perth)
To find more of RONA.’s music or the tour, check out her website here
Pic Credit: Bananas Clarke
