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During communion two songs will be played. Both feature the artist Gurrumul and both tell stories through song.
"Bayini" is performed in Yolngu Matha, an indigenous language of Northern Australia. According to the National Museum of Australia, "Bayini" are light-skinned mythological beings. In literature, the first non-Aboriginal visitors to the Arnhem Land coast are referred to as Bayini. In songs that record and preserve their traditions, Aboriginal people of Arnhem land tell of the Bayini gypsies with copper coloured skin who visited their shores. Yolngu are deep thinking people. The words in the song refer to many families sitting together on the beach looking to waves and sea, the horizon, contemplating. Long ago from over the horizon the Bayini came to Yolngu country." The map to the left shows the northern part of Australia (a complete map is in each primary classroom). Look closely and you will find Yolungu land. Aboriginal singer Gurrumul has the voice of an angel. Paul Kelly is one of Australia’s finest songwriters, famous for “From little things, big things grow”, his collaboration with another indigenous singer-songwriter, Kev Carmody.
In September 2015, Kelly and Gurrumul performed together in the Northern Territory, wowing the crowd with a rendition of the gospel song “Amazing Grace”, which the Arnhem Land musician sings in his native Yolngu language. |
Monica Brown, the composer of One People One Land, is a teacher and story teller through music. Her music is sung all over the world by people of all ages in schools and parishes, in family homes and religious communities, in hospitals and prisons and places of gathering and celebration.
Listen and learn the words to One People One Land as this will be the song to conclude our mass. |
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