Woodford Folk Festival Part 2: Borroloola Cultural Songwomen featuring Shellie Morris

There was a strong showing of First Nations artists throughout the Woodford Folk Festival this year. Among them, one stood out for me and that was the Borrooloola Cultural Women led by Dr Shellie Morris. They were there launching their new album Waralungku: Arrkula Yinbayarra (available on Bandcamp) where songs, written mostly by Morris with collaborative input from the women, combine English with the threatened languages of the Yanyuwa, Marra, Garrwa, and Gudanji people of the Borroloola area. It was uplifting and powerful truth-telling in song from the Roper Gulf area of the Northern Territory that really moved people, got them thinking but also got them on their feet dancing as you can see in my video here.

If you’d like to know more about Shellie and the songwomen and their project together, you can see more here:

https://vimeo.com/730500308