DA BILLARD BOYZ
Da Billard Boyz – Faren ‘Buffy’ O’Reeri -also known as Teddy Bear- (Blank Page Summit Concert – 2009)
Written by Da Billard Boyz and family – thanks for hearing our story:
“The band ‘Da Billard Boyz’ was first established in November 2004. The band was founded by Nelson and Mary O’Reeri. The reason for this was ……..
In 1998 the Victor family had a tragic death in the family when one of the male members committed suicide. Three years (2001) later another member of the family took his life as well. Both deaths took place in the grandparents’ home of the band members of the ‘Da Billard Boyz’ in Beagle Bay.
The band members were just coming to terms with the death of their first uncle Stephen Victor Jnr when their second uncle Vincent Victor took his life the same way as the first. This then devastated the boys. Each of the band members expressed in their own way that their hopes, dreams, self esteem, motivation, education and the will to see life as a challenge and inspiration disintegrated and they felt life had no meaning to look forward to. Depression begun to set in, they felt like they were walking on egg shells and their young minds and spirits seemed to become shattered and disorientated. This was deeply disturbing to the rest of the family ……
As strong family members we had to intervene – aunts, uncles, grandparents, sisters, brothers – and find a way to combat these physiological and devastating experiences the boys were going through because we did not want to bury another member of the family through suicide. We then identified their talent which was their love of music.
We bought the basic essentials to form a band. Da Billard Boyz first performance was at Djardinjin Aboriginal Community on the feast day of the community ‘Christ the King’ in 2004. The Band members’ self esteem, motivation and individual characteristics began to excel to a level where they felt like they were professional stars. To sum up the boys’ comments:
“If we could bring a smile and make at least few people dance to our music, it’s what we look forward to, developing a good relationship with others which lifts our LIYARN to become more deadly and happy.”
‘Da Billard Boyz’ band objectives are:
- Life is too important to play around with so we need to value life.
- If you feel depressed, get help.
- Enjoy yourself and be happy.
Music to us can make the world go around in terms of lifting our ‘Liyarn’ (inner spirituality) and making us strong young dignified black and deadly men.”
Our names are Cameron ‘CJ’ Victor, Farren ‘Buffy’ O’Reeri, Dwayne ‘Da Wes’ Gordon, Kerwin ‘Kerwy’ Chatanalgi and Calvin ‘Cal’ Victor. Our manager is our Uncle Nelson O’Reeri.”
Play Da Billard Boyz - ‘Da Billard Boyz’
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Play Da Billard Boyz - ‘Thursday I’ll Be Going Back Home’
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
