This project was made possible by funding from the:
- Northern Territory Community Benefit Fund
- Sony Foundation
- Australia Post Community Grants program
- Milton Corporation Foundation and
- Public donations.
The Gurrumul Yunupingu Foundation sincerely thank you!
You can now listen to all thirteen of the Indigenous Children’s Songs!
The Gurrumul Yunupingu Foundation is very pleased to announce the posting of the thirteen traditional Indigenous children’s songs.
The songs are sung in the Kunwinjku dialect of Bininj Kunwok, an Australian Aboriginal language of the Kunwinjku people. They are one of several Australian Aboriginal groups of the Bininj people, who live around West Arnhem Land to the east of Darwin, Northern Territory.
The strength of language execution, by First Nations Women, singing pre-colonial stories and songs in a genre that combines traditional and contemporary singing is something of which we are extremely proud. The songs are, to our knowledge, the largest collection of traditional Indigenous children’s songs to be professionally recorded in Australia.
The songs have been handed over to the Bininj Kunwok Regional Language and Culture Centre who worked alongside the amazing First Nation singers and the Gurrumul Yunupingu Foundation’s project leader to undertake the project.
Going forward, the Bininj Kunwok Regional Language and Culture Centre will promote the recordings of these songs in the Bininj and wider community, especially in schools in the Kakadu and western Arnhem Land region where there has been to date very few resources in the area of traditional children’s songs.
It is our hope that current and future generations of Bininj children and their families will listen and enjoy the songs and continue to keep their language alive.
Listen here:
Background
As a way of helping to give Indigenous languages and songs a future, in consultation with Indigenous communities, Michael Hohnen from the Gurrumul Yunupingu Foundation developed the Indigenous Children’s Song Project. The key goal of the project was – To collect, translate and record traditional Indigenous children’s songs.
Funding was applied for and received by government and philanthropic organisations to undertake the project, and it all seemed set to go ahead. But this was in 2019 and the emergence of COVID-19 the year later threw all plans into disarray.
However, in 2023 the project proceeded, and the outcomes have surpassed our hopes. Working closely with Indigenous singers from the Wildflower band, project leader Michael Hohnen recovered and professionally recorded thirteen Indigenous children’s songs primarily for the Bininj community, the Aboriginal Australian people of West Arnhem Land. The project was significantly supported by the Bininj Kunwok Regional Language and Culture Centre who assisted the singers and worked on the transcriptions and translations of all the songs into the Kunwinjku language to ensure cultural accuracy.
The songs are beautiful in their own right but they also have importance beyond the wonderful singing, lyrics, music, and production. As stated by Indigenous academic Associate Professor Associate Professor Clint Bracknell:
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people affirm that performance, languages, and associated ways of knowing country are fundamental to positive health outcomes and identity… It has never been more important to understand and appreciate the links between Indigenous performance, language, landscapes, and social cohesion…
Our dream is that the songs will help to keeping traditions alive – enhancing cultural knowledge and wellbeing within community.
Writers and singers of the Children’s Songs: Vanessa, Jean (Rear), Salome, and in the middle seated is Jill who is the lead and elder.