Entertainment · Music · 2 hrs ago
Kayps draws on his family's land rights fight for debut album
Western Australian rapper Kayps has made his family's land rights history central to his debut album, Bunuba Baby.
Released in August, the album reached number two on Australia's hip-hop charts within a week and was nominated for a major Australian music award.
Kayps found a photograph of his grandfather at the 1979 Noonkanbah protest, where family members helped block an oil company from drilling at a sacred site in Western Australia's Kimberley region.
The company eventually broke through the blockade, but drilling found no oil.
The album cover brings together three generations of Kayps's family, including a design by his father using their family symbol.
Kayps says the music reflects his growing cultural and political identity, while he has described earlier songs with misogynistic and violent lyrics as work he can no longer stand to hear.
He is performing the album on a national tour.
Western Australian rapper Kurrungaya Bieundurry, known as Kayps, says his debut album, Bunuba Baby, draws on his family’s fight for land rights.
The album’s cover uses a photo of his grandfather involved in the 1979 Noonkanbah protest and artwork featuring a family symbol painted by his father.
Kayps hopes the album will encourage younger Indigenous people to connect with their culture.
Released in August, the album reached number 2 on the Australian hip hop charts within a week and was nominated for a major Australian music award.
Kayps says his lyrics have become more politically charged, while acknowledging that some of his earlier work included misogynistic and violent lyrics.
- Who
- Kurrungaya Bieundurry, known professionally as Kayps, a Western Australian rapper.
- What
- His debut album, Bunuba Baby, draws on his family’s land rights fight and features a photo of his grandfather on its cover.
- When
- The album was released in August; the article was published on November 1, 2026.
- Where
- The story is rooted in the Kimberley, including the 1979 Noonkanbah protest; Kayps was born in Broome and raised in Wangkatjungka.
- Why
- Kayps hopes the album will encourage younger Indigenous people to connect with their culture.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
The Noonkanbah protest against an oil company drilling at a sacred site galvanised the Kimberley land rights movement.
Kayps and his family moved from the Kimberley to Perth.
Kayps discovered hip-hop.
Bunuba Baby was released and reached number 2 on the Australian hip hop charts within a week.
- Artist
- Kurrungaya Bieundurry, known as Kayps
- Debut album
- Bunuba Baby
- Chart position
- Number 2 on the Australian hip hop charts within a week of release
- Protest
- 1979 Noonkanbah protest
- Album cover
- Photo of Kayps’s grandfather; family symbol painted by his father
What people are saying
The mob up there — including my grandfather who is in that photo and a lot of my uncles and great-uncles as well — stood and locked arms and refused to let these big drilling trucks come in
they found nothing after they tore up all that land.
My dad painted the Pirlirr — the Indigenous symbol — on the cover art. That's his design, that's our family symbol
I can't stand listening to them