Mudjingaal Yangamba

We'll be back in the valley! 🌿

On Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October we're singing at Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival, in beautiful Gangagruwan. And we're singing twice!

Saturday 17 at 12:40pm in the Koori Tent, then 2:30pm in the Pavilion.
Sunday 18 at 12 noon in St Joseph's Church.
 

A whole weekend of music, poetry and dance, 16 to 18 October, and we get to be part of it again. Big shout out to the festival for having us back. Yadingji 🙏🏽

Four years in the Koori Tent

What a set with us looks like
 

The day after our first single
 

Every Sunday, we gather.
Not for show preparation. Or recording. Just for the singing.
We have done this since 2022. Hiring halls and filling up loungerooms.

We all bring a plate. Someone is always late 😀
Lyric sheets on laps and the kettle going in the background, and at least one moment where the whole room loses it laughing and we have to start the verse again from the top.

This is where the songs live. The stages, the festivals, the cameras: that is just what happens when other people are watching.

Nobody tells you that relearning your language is slow

We take our time with it. We listen, we laugh, we get it wrong, we try again. And we revisit it, cause our colonised tongues wrap around the words and we arent used to hearing our language everyday.

We currently sing in Dhurga, Dharawal and Gathang. Traditional languages of members of our group. But there are many more living languages, and as we get stronger, we keep refining, correcting and deepening our words. 

When we sing them out loud, we give voice to our old people. Every sound carries the memory of land, sky, water, and the ones who spoke these words long before us. And words our more-than-human kin and Country remember.

Ngadju dana-dha ngul. Duraya mana-dha. Feet in the water. Hands in the river.

All ages, at once

On any given Sunday you will find Aunties, Elders, emerging Elders and younger women in the same circle, learning the same line at the same time. Some of us are teachers, some are artists, some are dancers, some are cultural leaders. In here though, we are all equal. We are a community of women relearning our languages together.

That is the whole point of us. Knowledge moves from the women who carry it to the women learning to carry it, and then out to community. Shared authority. Balance. Respect. No one learns alone here, and no one writes alone here either.

Why we keep coming back

Our choir is not just a collective sound. It is the individual women who make it. Our unique voices, stories and experiences. 

So we keep showing up on Sundays, with food and tea and lyric sheets and laughter, because that is how the words come home. Every rehearsal strengthens something that was silenced but never lost. Every song is an act of return.
 

Music is medicine, and community is what keeps that medicine alive.

Our connection with Cooee began the way all good things do - with laughter, story, and an easy sense of kinship. When we first sang together, the harmonies found their place straight away, like voices that had been waiting to meet.

Together we recorded a selection of songs for their debut album, a beautiful celebration of connection, culture, family, and the pull of home. Their music holds honesty and gentleness, and we were honoured to have been a part of this album. When our sounds blended in the studio, it felt like we were singing both past and present at once.

We are privileged to make music held by many hands. Kirli and Mark of Cooee, our Elders, families, BighArt, Bulla Midhong Collective, Kinchella Boys Home Aboriginal Corporation, our Birrbay sisters Ngarrgan Miriiyn, our Ngunnawal sisters Wamburang, conductors, sound engineers, and many more who listen deeply - each one shaping the songs and keeping them strong. Recording is never about getting it perfect; it’s about finding the breath we share when the music settles into place.

We give thanks to everyone who walks this path with us. Music is medicine, and community is what keeps that medicine alive.

If you haven’t listened to Cooee’s two singles yet, follow this link 

You won’t be disappointed. 

When we sing in Dhurga, we give voice to our old people. Every sound carries the memory of land, water, and the ones who spoke these words long before us. Ngadju dana-dha ngul. Duraya mana-dha. Feet in the water. Hands in the river. These words remind us who we are and where we come from.

In our choir, women of all ages are learning to speak and sing language again. We take our time with it, listening, laughing, making mistakes, and trying again. Each song brings new confidence, each rehearsal strengthens the words that once fell quiet.

Singing keeps language alive. It moves through breath and heart, finding its way back to Country, community and to the next generation. This is how we honour the old stories and grow new ones.

We’ll be sharing some of our songs at the NSW Aboriginal Languages Festival on Sunday 19 October 2025 at Carriageworks, Sydney - a free celebration of Aboriginal languages across NSW. The day will be filled with performances, workshops, language lessons, markets, children’s activities, and an Elders’ tent. We can’t wait to be part of it, standing proud with many voices and languages side by side.

Find out more: https://www.alt.nsw.gov.au/whats-on/nsw-aboriginal-languages-week/nsw-aboriginal-languages-festival-2025

Each spring, when the days warm and the air smells of rain, we find our way back to Kangaroo Valley Folk Festival. The Koori Tent is our gathering place. A home for story, laughter, and song beneath the tall gums.

For three years now, we’ve been welcomed like family. Children dance barefoot on Country, Elders listen and nod along, as harmonies rise and settle with the valley around us. Singing there is a blessing, with the land carrying the sound of the people who hold it.
These times remind us why we sing: to connect, to keep language alive, to share joy and story with everyone who comes. 

This year, we’ll be sharing some new songs, alongside old favourites. So if you find yourself at the festival, come say ‘hello’, sit with us and listen. We would love to sing, and clap beside you.

For more information on the festival and program, click this link: https://www.kangaroovalleyfolkfestival.com.au/

Every song begins with Country.

Bulwal mabera wana badju-dha - Strength, Vision, Legacy grew from the 2025 NAIDOC theme -  a call to honour the wisdom of our old people and the footsteps they left for us to follow and pass onto our bubs. Each year, we find inspiration from the national NAIDOC theme, and so we decided to channel this into a new song - writing together as a choir.

Past NAIDOC theme songs, Black, Loud and Proud and Because of Her We Can, written by Janice Luland, have become favourites for Mudjingaal Yangamba and our audiences. These beautiful songs lift our voices and spirits every time we sing them.

We began this new song in the way we always gather - sharing a meal, sitting and talking stories. 
We yarned about what Strength, Vision, and Legacy meant to each of us. Some of us wrote quietly, some shared aloud. Common words and feelings rose up: courage of Elders, love, language, and future and always at the heart - Country, saltwater and fresh and the legacies that flow and tie us together.  

Once we had the lyrics, we wove Dhurga language into the chorus to strengthen our message. This is our legacy. Strengthening language for our community through song. As the song continued to take form over the coming weeks, it carried the sound of that day - laughter, reflection, and the steady heartbeat of Country beneath our feet.

When we sing Bulwal mabera wana badju-dha we feel our Elders beside us. Their strength flows through our breath, their stories move through our voices. Singing in language keeps those stories alive. It reminds us who we are: Mudjingaal Yangamba, Spirit Singing on Saltwater Country.