Free event

Yumi Bung Wantaim: Songs of Gathering

Australian Museum
Tue 21 Oct, 6:30pm

*ALLOCATION EXHAUSTED*

Free event

Yumi Bung Wantaim: Songs of Gathering

Australian Museum
Tue 21 Oct, 6:30pm

*ALLOCATION EXHAUSTED*

Book now

Free, registration required

Free event

Free, registration required.

Venue

Hintze Hall, Australian Museum
1 William St Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Date & time

Tuesday 21 October, 6:30pm (doors open from 6pm)

Running Time

1 hour and 10 minutes.

Ages

All ages

Presented by Opera Australia, in partnership with the Australian Museum.

Yumi Bung Wantaim features Pasifika artists and the Opera Australia Orchestra in a moving concert celebrating identity, ancestry, and resilience through song, opera, and cultural storytelling.

Yumi Bung Wantaim: Songs of Gathering brings together celebrated Pasifika opera artists, community voices, and the Opera Australia Orchestra in a moving concert, a tribute to identity, resilience, and shared heritage. Set in the sandstone halls at the Australian Museum, Yumi Bung Wantaim explores themes of identity, ancestry, and cultural resilience through the unifying power of song. Through music, we Yumi – gather, bung wantaim—to honour the past, embrace the present, and sing into the future.

Traditional Pasifika songs alongside powerful operatic arias will be performed by Samoan bass-baritone Eddie Muliamaseali’i and Papua New Guinean soprano Heru Pinkasova; Tonga’s Afokoula Director Niulala Helu accompanied by the Tautahi Choir, conducted by Chad Kelly.

Cast & Creative

Eddie Muliamaseali’i

Eddie Muliamaseali’i

New Zealand born of Samoan heritage, Eddie Muliaumaseali'i's career has spanned almost 40 years beginning in 1987. Now based in Melbourne, he has performed in opera, musicals, plays as well appearing in Television soap opera around the world. Eddie has done the most tours in Australian Opera History as a singer with Opera Australia, Co-Opera South Australia, Melbourne Opera, Opera Queensland amassing over 25 tours from 1996 to 2025. He also developed education workshops with OzOpera alongside touring productions Australia-wide. Having sung in Austria, Samoa, PNG, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, China, Spain and traversing over 300,000kms around Australia, Eddie has a heart for the regions and communities of Australia.

Heru Pinkasova

Heru Pinkasova is a Papuan-Australian songstress whose artistry blends opera, ancestral song, and contemporary storytelling. Born in Port Moresby and raised in Cairns, she has performed across Australia and Europe, from Kaurna language works with Australian Dance Theatre to Andrée Greenwell’s Three Marys at the Sydney Opera House. Her creations, including Bilum Mamma, Songs My Aunties Taught Me, and her solo recital Pacific Harmonies for Opera Queensland’s Studio Series, honour her heritage while embracing new sounds. Based in Brisbane, she collaborates with Opera Queensland and serves on the Board of Springboard Opera.

Niulala Helu

Niulala Helu

Niulala Helu was steeped in traditional performance theory and practice from an early age. As a young man he sang and performed traditional, classical Tongan choral and operatic repertoire. Niulala took his knowledge to the US, Europe and Oceania as a choreographer and performer with the ‘Atenisi Foundation for performing Arts, eventually settling in New Zealand where he taught Pacific dance forms and theory at Auckland University and AUT University. He is now a teacher at Epsom Normal School in Epsom, Auckland.

Chad Kelly

Chad Kelly is a British keyboardist and director, with an extensive musical career throughout the world. Chad spent several seasons at the Bavarian State Opera (Munich) and at English National Opera (London) before joining Opera Australia in 2022, with a strong commitment to historically-informed performance practice. Chad studied at Cambridge University and at the Royal Academy of Music. He became Lector in Music at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was elected Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in recognition of his contribution to the music profession. He continues his nurturing of young musicians as a guest lecturer at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and at the University of Melbourne.