"Shepparton is a place to look out for. We're coming through strong."
He is 18, charismatic and brimming with talent, but Nathan Adams might not have always attempted such a verbal flex about his regional Victorian hometown.
When he and his family first migrated to Shepparton from South Africa in 2018, things didn't immediately click.
"It was hard in the beginning, I won't lie," Nathan Adams said.
"Shepp is a very diverse city and it can be hard to find your place in it."
Like a growing number of other African Australian migrants in the area, he began to find something of a footing in the regional city's emergent music culture.
"With music and arts in general, it makes it that much easier to know that you belong to a certain group of people, that people got your back, regardless of culture, or nationality — all that heavy stuff."
He has now released his first single, a breezy RnB-inflected pop song performed under the name Naythn.
"Shepp is basically when my dream actually took off," he said.
The son of a pastor, Nathan Adams now feels at home in Shepparton and a true sense of belonging. Crucially, he can see in his adopted hometown what so many governments are desperate to create in regional Australia: a future.
"I 100 per cent believe we don't need to go to Melbourne or other cities to further the dreams that we have, or whatever things we want to do in the future.
"We can definitely find them where we are."
Fund the arts like infrastructure
That sort of radiant hometown pride brings a smile to the face of local Yorta Yorta man Neil Morris.
The musician, mentor and creative programmer has played an intrinsic role in helping to grow Shepparton's creative community.
In that time, he has seen a special synchronicity – a cultural "shortcut" of sorts – between the local First Nations community and the African Australian diaspora.
"There has been that natural gravitation towards one another within this community and a sense of union at some level.
"That's not to exclude other people, but it does mean there's a shorter pathway to connection."
Earlier this month, Neil Morris formed a key part of the inaugural Shepp Music Week, a sprawling festival of music, performing arts and cultural workshops.
At one of the festival's panels, a group of young artists gathered to discuss experiences and ideas around how to build diverse music communities. It is testament to the sort of emerging conversations that are happening in Shepparton right now.
Neil Morris said the regional city was starting to reap the rewards of years of slowly growing its music and cultural scene.
"I'm really excited," he said.
"We just need to make sure there's resourcing in the most diverse way possible for community development in regards to arts and culture."
A former footy player for Shepparton United, Neil Morris said he wanted to see an ongoing commitment to arts and culture in the same way as other forms of regional investment.
"The government invests billions of dollars for roads and other infrastructure, and I think arts and culture needs to be considered as an infrastructure project as well," he said.
"It's in the same way that there's been intergenerational investment into say, football grounds.
"I grew up playing football and it was a saving grace for me in this community, so I can understand it from the perspective of these things that have been supported intergenerationally and how that really works for the community."
To stay or go
That resonates with Jonathan Safari, a Congolese-Australian artist who performs under Yungkily. He and his family moved to Shepparton from Kenya four years ago.
He is grateful for the support he received not only from other community members, but also formal programs like those run by Multicultural Arts Victoria. Recently though, he made the call to move to Melbourne to pursue more paid live venue gigs.
"The government really wants youth to stay in regional areas and when I started, I was like 'I will never leave Shepparton.'
"We just need more opportunities here and in other regional areas. Sometimes you could be doing stuff for for exposure, but exposure doesn't pay the rent.That's why I moved to Melbourne, but I'm still a Shepp boy."
It is something 16 year-old Yorta Yorta, Kuku Yalanji and Girramay singer Lillie Walker is already grappling with. She loves singing on Yorta Yorta country — but she wishes there were more venues to do just that.
"It's getting there. I feel like the opportunities are there, they are just limited," she said.
"I just wish there were more spaces where people could make and record and perform music."
Melinda Walker is beyond proud of her daughter, but she's nonetheless realistic that Lillie may move further afield to pursue greater opportunities.
"I have mixed feelings. I always tell my kids to go out and experience and explore," Melinda Walker said.
While Shepparton's mixture of First Nations and African Australian communities may be almost singular in regional Australia, Neil Morris thinks what's emerging in the city can show if not a model, then at least a window into what's possible with the right type of investment.
"It is interesting that you've got parking meter officers but you don't have a music development officer in every regional centre.
"If you really support Indigenous communities and other communities to flourish and thrive, then music and all forms of art and culture must be supported."
