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The two lives of Clint Bracknell are on a collision course for 24 September.

The musician and academic from the School of Indigenous Studies has been nominated for a prestigious Helpmann Award for the music he composed and performed for the theatrical production of Shaun Tan's The Red Tree .

But he won't be able to make it to the glittering awards night at the Sydney Opera House because he'll be on a camp with his students in Albany.

Assistant Professor Bracknell coordinates the unit Knowing Country: The Dreaming and Darwin in the Indigenous Knowledge History and Heritage major and the camp is an integral part of the course for his first year students.

Clint, the musician, has already won a WAMI (Western Australian Music Industry) award for his work in the rhythm and blues band Boom! Bap! Pow! This Helpmann Award nomination is for the Best Original Score in an Australian show.

It is the 12th annual presentation of the Helpmann Awards to artists involved in all areas of live performance from theatre and music to opera and ballet. The Red Tree has been nominated for four Helpmann Awards, in the categories of Best Scenic Design, Best Lighting Design, Best Original Score and Best Presentation For Children.

Clint is nominated alongside such theatrical luminaries as Cate Blanchett and Colin Friels.

He wrote and performed the music for The Red Tree (along with two percussionists, David Salvaire and Dylan Hooper) in a Barking Gecko Theatre Company production in Subiaco last year. It was revived during the 2012 Perth International Arts Festival and also performed in Albany, as part of the PIAF Great Southern Program.

"It's the first time I've done something like this," he said. "I was going to say no when I was approached because I thought I was too busy at Uni, but by the time I'd finished talking to the director, I already had ideas."

The show, like Shaun Tan's award winning book, had few words. Clint composed the music and lyrics for five songs and what he describes as atmospheric music for the rest of the production.

He sang the songs and played the guitar, accompanied by the percussionists on original instruments made from industrial machinery. "It was a bit of a junkyard orchestra!" he said.

Clint says he rarely writes down his music, committing his songs to memory.

Alongside music in his head and his heart is language, especially his own language of the Noongar country.

"Language is passion of mine," he told UWAnews last year. "The philosophy of language and how it can uncover different ideas.

"The beauty of the Noongar language is that it is born of this place." And this language and the knowledge it helps to uncover is what Professor Bracknell will be sharing with his students while his co-nominees are walking the red carpet at the Opera House.

Published in UWA News , 20 August 2012