Musician James Mangohig says Darwin's melting pot was key to ARIA success

Australia Broadcast Center

01-06-2025

If you've ever been to a Darwin festival or community event, chances are the beats you heard had something to do with James Mangohig, aka Kuya James — Kuya meaning big brother in his Filipino father's language.
Mangohig has collected a swag of awards recognising his creative talent over the past few decades, but for the kid from Karama, in Darwin's outer suburbs, his work is all about collaboration.
One such effort with fellow Northern Territory musician Emily Wurramara made history when in 2024 she became the first Indigenous woman to win the Best Adult Contemporary Album ARIA Award for Nara, which Mangohig co-produced.
"I've noticed the crowds since winning, the crowds are bigger, they're singing along more," he says.
"Watching her enjoy that, that's the win for the soul."
Mangohig is proud of his ARIA success, but his focus remains firmly on the community where he discovered his passion.
As a teenager, when his father's church band needed a bass player, with the help and tutelage of a local family he picked up a bass guitar — and never put it down.
"That began me getting into like rock and soul and funk and being like, 'now I really want to play music all the time, and bass is the instrument for me,'" he says.
Mangohig joined a Darwin hip-hop collective, which led to producing music, and 25 years on he has secured his place in the Darwin arts and music scene.
He formed a soul duo, Sietta, with blues singer Caiti Baker, has made music with Silverchair's Daniel Johns and even wrote a few as-yet unreleased songs with Jessica Mauboy in Los Angeles.
"Maybe it'll never see the light of day and that's okay too," he says.
"But what I love about working with [Mauboy] is that you work with her anywhere and you get that sense of dialogue, that real sense of the territory."
And it's the multicultural Northern Territory community Mangohig calls home that continues to inspire him.
"I never thought I would have a place in the art world or the contemporary dance world," he says.
"But when things happen authentically, you know, and you feel at home, you kind of just keep following that vibe."
That vibe has led to collaborations with the Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Country to Couture, Tracks Dance Company, Brown's Mart Theatre and the NT Writers' Centre.
"I love building these kinds of worlds and working with different people. There's so much opportunity up here, those collaborations happen really naturally," he says.
Although Mangohig is passionate about working with organisations and believes governance and budgets have their place, he also sees a need for independent spaces where artists can create without limitations.
He has invested with like-minded creatives in a warehouse space to do just that.
"[It's] so that we can create here under our own rules and at any time we want," he says.
"That to me is like, that's really special, because it means that when people come here, they have complete freedom."
Mangohig believes music and art are forces for good in society and wants Darwin's identity to reflect its melting pot of cultures, so that others can follow in his footsteps.
"I really believe in this place," he says.
"We need to add value to the young, mixed-race people in this town who maybe sometimes feel like they don't have a place to land as their identity.
"But it's OK if maybe Darwin, it starts becoming more that is our identity that we are this melting pot and we can still celebrate all of our rich cultures through it.
"And for me, art, music is the best way to do that."