officer for the Aboriginal Advancement League of Victoria where he would, "visit local schools to play didgeridoo, teach dance and demonstrate traditional cooking." Geia was granted $90,000 by the Australia Council for the Arts to fund his first solo album, Yil Lull, which was released in 1988 (Australia's bicentennial year), on the Only Gammin' label. It achieved an unprecedented level of critical and commercial success for an Aboriginal performer. The Council also sponsored his six-month national Uncle Willie Tour of 1988. and reached a wide audience. The album was considered vitally important among Aboriginal people, and was well-timed to express a growing sense of pride in culture and identity, and hope for the political fight for land rights. Geia has been cited as an important influence by almost every Aboriginal musician to achieve prominence since that time. He has worked with many other Australian musicians including a long-term close relationship with ARIA award-winning Tasmanian band Wild Pumpkins at Midnight, who often appeared as his backing band in various combinations. In 1995 Geia toured Europe with members of Wild Pumpkins under the name Joe Geia and the Black Snake Orchestra. They performed in Germany, The Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium. In 1996 he was a guest vocalist on the song "Pretty Valley," based on the oral history of a massacre of tribal people in New South Wales. Produced by Tony Cohen, it featured on the Wild Pumpkins' album Sad Trees, released by Way Over There, 1996. Wild Pumpkins guitarist Nick Larkins has been a regular member of Geia's live band since 1995, and contributed to his most recent album. Geia released a second album, Tribal Journey, in 1996, through Larrikin/Festival records. He has also contributed songs to other projects and worked as a session musician for other bands. His third album Nunga, Koori and a Murri Love was released by Across The Borders, Melbourne, in December 2005. Produced by former bandmate, Shane Howard, the album was made with a cast of well-known Australian support musicians. These include Kerryn Tolhurst (The Dingoes), Ross Hannaford (Daddy Cool), Bob Sedergreen, Nick Larkins, Russell Smith, Ricardo Idago, Rebecca Barnard, Shelley Scown and many more. Stylistically Geia's songs fit the category of roots music and range from simple Pacific songs to reggae, rock and funk. The songs are written in Aboriginal language and English, and touch on universal themes as well as issues of Aboriginal Australia, although