Coloured Stone are from the Mirning Tribe of South Australia’s Nullabor Plains region. They formed around 1978 playing at parties and football carnivals and slowly began building up their collection of original songs.

In 1984 they released their first record – a single called ‘Black Boy’. It was No.1 on the Alice Springs radio request list for 9 months and topped Radio Australia’s play list in the Pacific Islands. Later that year they recorded their first LP and named it ‘Koonibba Rock’ after the sacred rockhole corroboree ground at Koonibba Mission in South Australia.

Coloured Stone in the year 2000, have just released their single ‘Australia’ which encompasses their pride to be part of this modern nation as members of the oldest race of this nation.

Since Koonibba Rock, Coloured Stone have released the following albums:

1984 Koonibba Rock
1985 Island of Greed
1985 Black Rock from the Red Centre
1986 Human Love
1988 Wild Desert Rose
1989 Crazy Mind
1991 Inma Juju
1997 Best of Coloured Stone Vol. 1
1998 Rhythm of Nature
2000 Australia (single)

After twenty years and seven albums Coloured Stone have become the longest surviving aboriginal band in Australia. They have toured all over the country from the major cities to tiny communities. They have travelled in old cars on rough dirt roads usually only passable in 4 wheel drives. They’ve squeezed their instruments and P.A. along with their swags into their small vehicles and camped on dance floors or out in the scrub after shows.

The music of Coloured Stone reflects their passion for land rights and environment issues and justice for the aboriginal people of Australia. They continue to sing out for their people and tell the world the importance of reconciliation for Australia’s future. They also hope to continue to be role models for young aboriginal bands encouraging self-esteem and respect for the planet.

Coloured Stones blend of rock, reggae, country, ska, funk and disco has been heard all over Australia and the world. They have played Stompem Ground festival in Broome, WOMAD in Adelaide, Survival & most recently Corrobboree 2000 in Sydney, Livid in Brisbane and hundreds of bush community shows in between. They have performed at the Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, the Austrade Expo in Indonesia, and the world music festival in Scotland and also toured New Zealand.

The band was awarded Best Indigenous Album at the ARIA Awards in 1986 for Human Love (the first year this category was included) and has reached final nominations in three other years.

In 1995 the Australia Arts Council presented Bunna Lawrie with the Brian Syron Scholarship Award for his contribution to Aboriginal music. This award enabled him to do a 12-month Ausmusic Industry Skills Course in Canberra along with 14 other aboriginal music students including his band

Buna Lawrie returned to live at Koonibba with his family after touring and living throughout Australia. In 1994 and 1996 Buna was elected as Chairman for his community and in 1998 stepped down to concentrate more on his work with Coloured Stone and his song writing. 1998 was looking like a very big year for the band with major festivals to attend and the release of 2 albums imminent.

As singer, songwriter and multi-instumentalist in the band, Buna Lawrie was awarded the Don Banks Music Award in 1999 for his outstanding contribution to Australian Music – the first time this award has ever gone to a rock musician or an indigenous musician. This award, supplied by the Australia Council Music Fund, has enabled Bunna to further develop his technical production and computer skills culminating in the production of the new video clip ‘Australia’

Coloured Stone are looking forward to many more years filled with sharing their music with the world. They are still committed as ever to social justice causes and healing the planet and hope they can encourage others to feel the same way through the message of their music. After 20 years Coloured Stone are still going strong.