Tim Hammond (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It really is a tremendous privilege to rise to acknowledge the passing of Dr G Yunupingu today on the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, of all days. Dr G Yunupingu lived such an incredibly full life that touched so many of us in so many different ways. He was taken from us altogether too soon at the age of 46 on 25 July this year.

For those who are not familiar with Dr G Yunupingu's musical work, I will take them, if I may, through a very, very brief discography of albums of his which were very close to my heart. I will set out very briefly in this place the reasons for that. He was a wonderful singer-songwriter of the most unique talents I have ever heard in relation to both his ability to convey such meaning through his music, regardless of whether one had any real sense of his traditional language or not, and his inspirational guitar playing. He played a traditional right-handed guitar upside down and left-handed, as he was left-handed. For those who are not aware, Dr G Yunupingu was born blind. I would like to come back to that a little bit later on as well.

In about 2008 he released his first album, which was a self-titled album. Out of respect to his family and his culture I won't repeat the name of the album, but I would thoroughly impress upon any of those listening or reading this later in Hansard to do themselves a favour and get a copy of that album. It is truly remarkable. A couple of the early tracks on that album set the scene for the evocative nature of Dr G Yunupingu's words, such as Wiyathul, Bapa or History (I Was Born Blind). If any of you have the opportunity to take a trip, particularly across the top end of our country, and drive through the red dirt heading through either East Kimberley or Arnhem Land, just do one thing for me—or one thing, more to the point, for Dr Yunupingu's family and foundation—listen to those tunes as you take in the most remarkable piece of countryside. I defy anyone not to be profoundly affected by just how powerful his music was. That album was both a critical and commercial success and certainly set the stage for a remarkable piece of musicology to be played throughout the country and throughout the world. That was followed up by another tremendously successful album, called Rrakala. I hope I have done justice to the pronunciation of Dr G Yunupingu's second album. That was followed by many more pieces of music of critical acclaim.

There were just two moments when I personally had the great privilege of meeting this great man, both of which were really quite profound in their own ways. The first was many years ago in a tiny little obscure art studio in the west end of Fremantle where he was doing a gig for a charitable foundation. I cannot remember the precise name of the foundation. But the way in which he filled this small studio with his presence and his music was something that I will never forget. It made the hair on the back of my neck and on my arms stand up right from the start of his gig to the end of it. I couldn't believe just how he had the ability to draw everyone in to his music, most of it—almost all of it—sung in traditional language and in a very gentle tone. You could hear a pin drop through almost the entire gig.

The presence that he had was then replicated a couple of years later, when, again, acknowledging his foundation, the Yunupingu Foundation, he had a gig on the lawns of Kings Park. What was really interesting about that was that it was a very similar gig with similar music, again from his self-titled album and some other albums, but he drew everyone in. There were thousands and thousands of people sitting on that lawn, and he had precisely the same effect, telling his dahwul, which, as I understand, is traditional language for 'his story'. He had that presence again. It was so unique, it was so earthy, it was so heartfelt and it was so authentic that it impressed upon me like very few artists ever have.

Dr G Yunupingu didn't just touch us all and his community through his music. Mr Michael Hohnen, his long-term musical collaborator, partner and friend, told me earlier today about the inception of the Yunupingu Foundation. As I understand it, Dr G Yunupingu and Michael were in a studio in some wonderful surrounds in New York and Dr G Yunupingu reflected upon how he felt so incredibly lucky to be able do what he loved, to be able to express how he felt, to thousands, if not millions, of people around the world, and here he was, a million miles away from his traditional lands and in New York. He remarked to Michael, 'How is it that I have come to enjoy this life and others can't?' From that the Yunupingu Foundation was born. The Yunupingu Foundation—and I would encourage all of you to have a look at it on the website—simply seeks to empower Aboriginal Australians, kids in particular, to reach their goals and to reach their full potential through the ability of music and, in particular, to promote and celebrate traditional music and to ensure that every kid is given the opportunity to express themselves and what they are feeling and what they are hearing: warpum bukmak, which is 'everywhere to everyone' in traditional language.

From there, the foundation grew. In acknowledgement and celebration of Dr G Yunupingu's life, we have the ability now to draw inspiration from what he's done, to support the foundation, and I would encourage all of you to simply do that, to ensure not only that Dr G Yunupingu's music lives on in all of us, everywhere all the time, but that the Dr G Yunupingus of the future get a similar chance to sit in that studio in New York with life-long collaborators to bring their unique sound to the world.

I am pleased to say that, again, the legacy that Dr G Yunupingu has left will continue at the appropriate time, harking back to that gig in Kings Park, where we heard some new music for the first time. At an appropriate time, with the appropriate amount of grieving to be had, as I understand matters, there will be forthcoming music from Dr G Yunupingu that we can continue to enjoy. But I struggle to get past the lyrics of his 'History (I was Born Blind)', on that first self-titled album, which is sung both in language but also in English. The words are telling. He sings:

united we stand, divided we fall

together we'll stand, in solidarity

It just says so much about what he achieved during his short time on this earth in bringing people together, of all cultures, of all tongues, in music—all over the world, from Barack Obama to the Queen, to those living in outback communities, to some bloke in Perth that he'd never met in his entire life, who was completely transfixed by his music, to all of us. So, to Dr G Yunupingu's family and friends, we use this time in this place to appropriately acknowledge the tremendous and unique work that you brought forward in the past, right now in the present and most certainly into the future. Condolences to Dr G Yunupingu. It was a great privilege to be able to stand here and tell his dahwul, or his story.

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