Anselm “Pando” Harrigan

School Life

Anselm excelled at rugby league and athletics.  He was picked and invited by the Institute of Sport when he was 15, to represent Queensland and Australia for 200 and 400 metre running and travel to Los Angeles.

Anselm was a Sports Captain at school. He also loved woodwork.  He now does carpentry as a trade.

Musical Influences and The Brian Young Show
Anselm learnt from following his dad around: “I was never forced by dad but I would get up for jams”.  Anselm started doing this when he was around 8 years old.  His first gig at the pub was when he was 10 years old.  He remembers being nervous but enjoying it “especially because all the family was around”.

When he was 15, Anselm played in a band with the Walker Brothers as his weekend job.  Bennett Walker was a big influence.  They would go on gigs around Cape Tribulation, Port Douglas, and Mossman.

Anselm also followed his brother, Clifford’s footsteps and travelled around Australia for three years with The Brian Young Show.  After being injured in a bad car accident in Year 12, Anselm thought about what to do after school.  Then a call came from Brian Young to come and play the drums for his show.  This also happened right after Black Image recorded their first CD.  Anselm then went around the country with Brian Young whilst also promoting Black Image’s first CD.

Anselm travelled all over the Northern Territory, all throughout Western and Central Australia and all throughout the rest of Australia.  He credits Brian Young for picking out talented new musicians from around the country every year and inviting them to tour.  Aboriginal music celebrities like Jim Little, and Troy Cassar-Daley all toured with Brian Young.

During his travels he would pay keen attention to the ways of other Aboriginal communities. 

Anselm loves the blues and wants to one day travel to all the blues festivals around the world.  He listens to Gary Moore, Stevie Ray Vaughan, BB King, and Eric Clapton.  He also likes Jimmy Hendrix and reggae artists such as Lucky Dube and Bob Marley.

Anselm dreams of Black Image touring all over Australia.  He loves to travel.

Family Anselm credits his parents for supporting him and the band all the way.  He also loves his family’s “good cultural background and coming from two different tribes”.  He loves to hear stories from family and elders and appreciates tribal rules.  He says that family kept the boys out of the streets.  He remembers that he and his brothers used to go camping and hunting every weekend with his dad or grandfathers. Anselm has a real sense of the land.  Out of all the boys, he is likely to carry on his dad’s spiritual and medicinal work.  He can “read dad’s mind” and remembers his grandfather Jack’s healing ways.  He is extremely private on the subject as it is a very secretive tradition.  However, he will still show young people some things about traditional medicine.  He enjoys serving as a role model for other indigenous kids on how to respect their culture and the land.