‘Gunii Gii’ - Authentic Allyship in song
These last few months I’ve been lovingly pouring my energy into creatively producing a song and spoken word project to bring 💚’Gunii Gii’ - The Mother’s Heart💚 to life. Filmed here at Feathertail Nature Refuge & edited into a 6.5minute creative masterpiece (well in my opinion of course - it’s my first time ever using iMovie so I’m pretty pleased with my efforts!), you can check it out here on Youtube.
But first, let me explain…
💚‘Gunii Gii’ - The Mother’s Heart💚 is a beautiful invitational collaboration from a dear Sister, Mel, a proud Gomeroi woman living in Lake Macquarie on Awabakal Country. Mel has been studying the Aboriginal Gamilaraay Language and completed 3 certificates in Language and culture; Cert I, II & III in Gamilaraay, Yuwaalaraay & Yuwaalayaay Languages. Pretty impressive huh!… especially when you consider that this language is actually Mel’s birthright and was freely spoken on Country for thousands of years pre-colonisation. Mel has written an impactful poem, translated part of it into language, and asked me to bring that part into song. It’s been such a respectful and humbling experience. Walking allyship proper way and sharing something that goes beyond notions of division or separation and speaks to our oneness, our common humanity.
The invitation to collaborate with Mel came up months ago, after spending a life-changing weekend on Country together…
Soon after, on another road trip together, Mel was at the wheel, and another friend was in the passenger seat and ‘lil sis (that’s me!) was in the back seat. Somewhere between coffee stops & op shop play, I received my first Gamilaraay language lesson, and almost immediately a melody started to form inside my being. Eager to give it expression (and with little comprehension of the Gamilaraay translation at that point) it was the English version of the chorus that began to sing its way through. As the chorus became an ear-worm, I crossed my fingers that I’d be able to phrase the Gamilaraay language to fit the same melody.
After a focused language session with Mel, I had 8 lines of Gamilaraay language to not only learn to pronounce, but to phrase to my existing melody! Hmmm, I remember feeling a little daunted at this point. But the actress in me set about making palm cards - 1 card for each line of the song In Gamilaraay language - phonetically breaking each word into a series of syllables I kept trying to get my mouth around. For the next few weeks, I took long walks in the afternoon, sometimes with Mel’s voice in my ears from the recording I’d made… and slowly bit by bit the Gamilaraay language became more natural for me and I was feeling it move into the melody that was already working for the English version. I still remember my excitement when I first felt 4 lines of Gamilaraay in my body… I was singing it gently whilst walking, but I needed to release it to see how it really sounded! I ducked off the road and into the depths of the creek line, found a couple of rocks to tap out the rhythm and the song burst forth. This was the first time I had sung the Gamilaraay language aloud with the melody I’d created and as I was finishing the 4th line, a huge flock of sulphur crested cockatoos screeched their way in raucous joy down the creek line and over my head… it felt like wild applause, and I knew this was a positive sign! I sent the recording to Mel for approval… and at the very same time, she was being visited by a curious white cockatoo, one of her totems!… and it gets better… as soon as I got back to the house, and pressed record on the computer for another sound capture, white cockatoo appeared right infront of me… what a beautiful confirmation! In the video, you’ll see a white cockatoo feather in my hair and yellow crest feather earrings I made (feathers that were gifted to me by a beautiful woman and Gubbi Gubbi Elder). I wear these to honour the spirit of the white cockatoo, and cockatoo’s support in helping me to sing up my joy, play, and fully embodied expression.
To be gifted this opportunity is a deep honour… to learn a language that was stolen from its people, and to feel in my body a vibrational sound and frequency that’s been aligned with Country for more than 70,000 years. I hope you feel my gratitude, reverence and joy in singing up Mother Earth when you watch this. As Mel expresses in the description on YouTube, “true allyship of any kind requires courage” and that’s exactly what we’ve both shown to walk this together… oodles of it! We’ve trusted each other because we SEE each other, and I’m so grateful for that.
… and so it is, 💚‘Gunii Gii’ - The Mother’s Heart💚 awaits your deep listening…
(be sure to click on ‘more’ under the title to read Mel’s description of the project and appropriate acknowledgements)
Inviting you to enter a place of receptivity now.
Take off your shoes,
Place your bare feet on Mother Earth,
and connect with your heart.
Meditate with the water flow,
Feel your personal invitation to allyship in the spoken word,
and connect to the ancient heartbeat of this land through Gamilaraay language in song.