Every refugee journey is unique filled with experience, knowledge, and pure resilience.
THIS IS THE STORY OF LELE.
Lele, is a refugee, proud West Papuan Woman, and mother of four daughters, wife to Australian World Music Star, Mitch Tambo, and advocate for refugee women in Australia and the freedom of West Papua.
Many West Papuan people crossed borders and fled the country to escape violence and persecution by militias and Indonesian military, which has been ongoing since Indonesia annexed the region in 1962. Lele, and her family were granted refugee status in Australia in 1988 after fleeing West Papua.
Lele was first introduced to music through her late father. A strong cultural song man who not only influenced Lele’s musical path but planted the seed that you can share your culture and songs with the world. As the lead singer and composer of the Black Brothers Band, they not only filled stadiums across Pacifica and Indonesia but paved the way for many other Melanesian artists. With a passion for music and commitment to raising awareness of West Papa, Lele and her sisters followed in their father’s footsteps and created their own group called The Black Sistaz.
The Black Sistaz toured the world performing along the likes of UB40, Julian Marley, Michael Franti, Katchafire, Natiruts, George Telek, Edou and SOJA. They have also performed at many renouned music festivals on their global journey, including Cali Roots in Monterey (USA), Mundial (Netherlands), Glastonbury (UK) Montreal Jazz Festival (CA), Ottawa Blues Festival (CA), Winnipeg Folk Festival (CA), Ostrada Reggae Festival (POL), Womad (AUS), Woodford Folk Festival (AUS), Melanesia tour New Celand opened the Rugby League World Cup in 2017.
Committed and passionate about inspiring the next generation of performers, Lele collaborated with husband, Mitch Tambo on the cultural exchange between the Melbourne West Papuan and Aboriginal communities called The West Papuan Youth Project. A project that resulted in a newly devised song embracing and celebrating the strengths of both cultures. The song ‘I Wanna Know’ later received radio play on Triple J and other radio stations across Australia and through the Pacific.
In 2019, Lele took a hiatus from Black Sistaz to join Mitch Tambo on stage. During this time, Lele toured extensively across Australia and abroad showcasing and sharing Australia’s World Music star’s music with the world. It also gave Lele the first-hand experience to work and support vulnerable youth and members of the wider Aboriginal community through Mitch’s Walanbaa workshops in areas that Lele is most passionate about – culture, language and purposely empowering young people and other First Nations men and women in creating positive and meaningful change.
