"MUSIC CAN HELP SAVE OUR LANGUAGES": SHELLIE MORRIS

BY TANGIORA HINAKI AND CASSIE ARIUU

Dr Shellie Morris from the Yanyuwa nation has spent 25 years doing what she loves - creating music with Aboriginal people across Australia.

This month, Ms Morris held music workshops at the Roebourne Regional Prison working alongside women for a Big Hart project.

She was still on a high after performing at the Woodfork Folk Festival in Queensland this year.

“I've been working with my family that's on my grandmother's side again, Ms Morris explained. Our last album was done about 13 years ago with a lot of senior elders, a lot of them have gone now from the first album. I am working with the next generation. Together, we're strong.”

Her favorite mob to work with are her grandmothers from Boorooloola and Groyte Island.

“They said ‘Oh we want to do new songs and share our stories Differently, but still through music’. So we went back there over the past few years and we were lucky to get a grant for languages because our languages are dying.

In Booroolooa, we've got four languages and they are, Yanyuwa, Garrwa, Gudanji, and Marra.

Marra’s got one speaker, Garrwa’s got twelve, Yanyuwa’s got six, and Gudanji’s probably got about four or five. So we wanted music that reaches to the next generation.

On this album, we've got country, but we've also got funk and the modern doof doof. Everybody in Booroolooa, the tiny little children is singing it already. Everyone's posting their stories with the songs because it's the history of the area.”

Shellie Morris and her grandmothers performed at the 2023/24 Woodford Folk Festival to a crowd of fifty thousand people.

Ms Morris said that the stars aligned for the project.

I've been working in the bush for 25 years in all the communities including this wonderful community here in Roebourne.

But to have the stars align on this album was getting the right people involved that we're doing the mixing and then mastering all the vocal edits because you could imagine there are lots of breaths and lots of noises that we all make when we're recording.

To have that care taken literally - I burst into tears when I got it back, every song that was coming through. I just could not believe it and still it's on high rotation in my car and I just was so honored and privileged and learning so much more about where I'm from. To have everybody on that project care as much for my family as I did. Wow. It just blew me away.”

You can purchase the album on bandcamp.com. The album comes with language interpretation.