When musician Guy Ghouse died in November 2025, Gina Williams-Ghouse not only lost her husband but her creative songwriting soulmate.
“He was the absolute love of my life,” celebrated Ballardong Noongar singer Williams-Ghouse shares, after the couple were married earlier last year.
“He was my husband, my hot boyfriend, my best friend, my greatest blessing, and my biggest challenge.
“We thought we were being very clever, hiding the world’s best secret, but it wasn’t a very good secret because everybody knew that we were a couple . . . I miss him like oxygen.”
Playing their first gig together almost two decades ago, the duo quickly realised how well they collaborated and soon became an exclusive music partnership.
It was guitarist Ghouse who suggested they combine her natural storyteller skills and traditional Noongar language through song, keeping the ancient Indigenous language alive by sharing it with audiences at every opportunity.
Together they wrote two Noongar language operas — Koolbardi wer Wardong and Wundig wer Wilura — both commissioned by WA Opera, plus children’s production Aliwah Bardinar!, recorded multiple studio albums and released two books.
“I always felt like Cinderella at the ball,” 57-year-old Williams-Ghouse says.
“I couldn’t believe that I was working with someone that I loved as much as I did and I love the music that we produced. I feel humbled by the response of the Noongar community and never in my wildest dreams did I think that this language journey would take us around the world.
“It was never about me and Guy. It was always about serving the language, serving community, serving Western Australia because this music is unique to this country. This language is unique to this country, and so Guy and I both wanted to make it as beautiful and as compelling as we possibly could.”
On receiving his cancer diagnosis, Ghouse was given a prognosis of 12 months, defying it to just short of two years.
After getting his affairs in order early, he pursued life with love and a passion to make every day count, which included the couple performing a gig at The Ellington Jazz Club in July 2024 with a live band, featuring Russell Holmes, Nick Abbey, Daniel Susnjar and Rupert John.
Not fans of having their live shows recorded, and unbeknown to them, manager Paul Bodlovich asked the sound technician to record a couple of tracks. He went above and beyond, capturing the entire show, which Williams-Ghouse will be forever grateful.
“Guy was always very fussy and concerned about how things sounded but when he walked off stage that day, he went, ‘That’s one of the best gigs we’ve ever played’,” she recounts.
“He was so happy, everyone was on fire. It all just worked brilliantly, so when Paul sent him the recording, he just turned around and went ‘I knew it. It’s amazing’.”
The 16-track recording, Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse — Live At The Ellington, has been released on double vinyl only, in a nod to their gen X childhoods of taking out a record and waiting for the tiny scratch of the stylus hitting the groove.
It features album and gig favourites including Bindi Bindi, Koolbardi wer Wardong, Bilya-k, Koondarm and new single Djidi Djidi.
“It’s taken us a couple of years to get to this point, but Guy knew that we were going to release this as Paul’s record label launch album, and he was so chuffed,” Williams-Ghouse says.
“I actually couldn’t listen to the record for a really long time and then one day I was sitting in our office and I just felt him give me a little nudge and go, ‘Come on, it’s time, just put it on, you’ll be right’, so I sat there and sobbed through the whole thing.
“I hear him through the music now. Listening to the album, it brings him into the room, and you can hear his voice. He and I have a bit of banter, and I love that that’s captured as well. The audience is laughing, and when you listen to it, you really do hear his genius.”
Ghouse’s significant service to music performance and education saw him join his wife in being made a member of the Order of Australia mere months before his passing.
Longtime fans helped Williams-Ghouse launch the new album with sellout shows in July in the place where it was recorded, filling the venue to capacity.
“I’ve never felt so much energy and love from the audience, and it was great because if I’m ever on a stage, he’s always going to be with me,” she says.
“Guy and I spent a long time building this world, and if audiences will continue to have me, then I would like to continue doing what I do. The language hasn’t changed and Guy will always have an indelible print on everything moving forward.
“I’ve got Aliwah Bardinar! which has been touring heavily, and the response to that has been extraordinary. Guy and I were doing up to 100 school incursions a year and I’ve just started taking bookings for that again.
“I’m hoping people will keep supporting what Guy and I have always done, and I’m hoping that I can just keep putting one foot in front of the other.”
Gina Williams & Guy Ghouse — Live At The Ellington is available at ginawilliams.com.au.
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