Jasmin Sheppard on the music for Mourning

"(David Page, Jasmin Sheppard and the Bangarra female vocalists) recorded all the women singing a D’harawal mourning song; Aunty Frances Bodkin told us that it was the women who were by the cliffside who tended the bodies of the men in their camps first - they were discovered and moved upon shortly after. David’s instinct was to record the women as though they were emerging from a sandstone shelter, and to make their voices cavernous and echoed,” recalls Sheppard.

“It wasn’t until I was taken to the site 
by Aunty Frances that I heard my own voice in a similar way, knocking off the sandstone cliffs and reverberating in my own ears. He (David Page) was truly instinctual and a man of story. He manipulated sounds to draw out certain emotions.”

Mourning

Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi - There is no death

Goomada mudong o' mi - Your spirits live on

Ngyee'yingyee naba nalawa' o' mi - Your ancestors await you

Illa' wallama 'o mi' - Do not return

Illa nandintah' ba'ngun - We will not know you

Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi - There is no death

Goomada mudong o' mi - Your spirits live on

Ngyee'yingyee naba nalawa' o' mi - Your ancestors await you

Illa' wallama 'o mi' - Do not return

Illa nandintah' ba'ngun - We will not know you

Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi, Illa booyee'o mi - There is no death

Goomada mudong o' mi - Your spirits live on

Ngyee'yingyee naba nalawa' o' mi - Your ancestors await you

Illa' wallama 'o mi' - Do not return

Illa nandintah' ba'ngun - We will not know you

Goomada mudong' ba' mi - You spirit lives forever