By Folk By The Sea's honorary publicity officer, Nick Hartgerink
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Songkeeper Jessie Lloyd is bringing her Sing On Country show to Kiama’s Folk By The Sea festival in September, hoping to create a “pub-choir vibe” for audiences to embrace the chance to learn songs that tell Aboriginal stories in Aboriginal languages.
Lloyd, who describes herself as a “hunter and gatherer” of her peoples’ stories and songs, developed the Sing On Country concept after being left disheartened by the failure of the 2023 referendum to enshrine an Indigenous Voice to Parliament in the Australian Constitution.
“I took the ‘NO’ vote (in the referendum) personally,” Lloyd admits. “I made the commitment to stop singing in English as my own protest at the result. Then I was convinced by music teachers to teach songs suitable for Australian classrooms because they were struggling to include Indigenous content.”
“Music is a powerful way to connect people and find commonality.” she says.
Sing On Country is a collection of songs Lloyd has either written herself or collaborated on from around the country that seek to share First Nations culture and stories. Jessie describes one of her songs as a “modern songline of Australia”.
“These songs are safe, not over-complicated, and a beautiful way to approach difficult subjects,” Lloyd says.
Topics range from explanations of the colours of the Aboriginal flag and Acknowledgements of Country to the title song that takes its audience on a musical journey around Australia singing the Indigenous names of the places where Australia’s state capitals are located, in the original languages of the people of those places.
Sing On Country also includes a song with deep family connections, from Lloyd’s Mission Songs Project from 2017, which revived the folksongs of Aboriginal Australians forcibly removed from their land onto state-run reserves and Christian missions in the early 20th century.
That project was inspired by Lloyd’s paternal grandmother, Alma Geia, who had been taken as an eight-year-old from her family in Cooktown and sent to live in a children’s dormitory on Palm Island, the notorious mission settlement off the North Queensland coast. Lloyd used her grandmother’s composition Down In The Kitchen, about the mission children surviving on rations of damper and tea, in the Mission Songs Project and in Sing On Country.
Having originally developed her Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander songbook for schools, her Sing On Country is a live show of the songbook. Lloyd is currently road-testing the songs as a show for audiences of all ages.
“It is a good chance for people to learn basic facts and words from Aboriginal languages from around Australia. I am looking forward to bringing the show to Kiama – hoping we can create a pub-choir kind of vibe at the festival, with people singing and dancing along and learning new words from our Indigenous languages,” she says.
You can hear all the Sing On Country songs on the website www.jessiesclassroom.com
Lloyd is part of a line-up of 40 acts from around Australia at Folk By The Sea, organised by the Illawarra Folk Club. Other acts include multi-Golden Guitar winner Darren Coggan, Americana/bluegrass duo The Weeping Willows, Indi-folk band Hand Over Hammer and Triple j Unearthed-winning folk rock/alt country duo Ally Row from Victoria, folk-country act the Sam Fletcher Trio from NSW and Kiama’s own The Water Runners.
Early Bird ticket and volunteering information is available on the festival website
Artists coming to Folk By The Sea
Alex Randles (ACT), Ally Row (VIC), Balkan Boogie, Charles Maimarosia (VIC), Chloe and Jason Roweth, Darren Coggan, Fly Little Sparrow (QLD/NSW), Grace Barr, Graeme The Scotsman McColgan, Hand Over Hammer (VIC), Good Tunes, Humbuckin' Pickups, Jessie Lloyd’s Sing on Country, Kane Calcite, Karen Law (QLD), Kiama Blowhole Buskers, Kiama Pipe Band, Kiama Sea Shanty, Louzco Fouzco, Marco and Rusty, Noel Gardner and Alex Bridge (QLD), Oceanique (VIC), Oliver Roweth, Robyn Sykes, Rhys Crimmin (VIC), Russell Hannah, Sam Fletcher Trio, Scupriri, Slippery John Sausage and his Bayou Boys, Southern Cross Band, Square Pegs, Stonybroke, The Butter Trackers, The Con Artists, The Lofty Mountain Band (SA), The Water Runners, The Weeping Willows (VIC), Whistle, Wood n' Hide.
