SHELLIE MORRIS SINGS HER WAY HOME
SUBJECT Shellie Morris
OCCUPATION Singer-songwriter
INTERVIEWER Danielle Caruana
PHOTOGRAPHER Natalie McComas
LOCATION Darwin, Australia
DATE May, 2021
Dr. Shellie Morris is a Yanyuwa and Wardaman woman who knows that songs are a map, and that music is a passport which can be used to find your way back to yourself and to others – a passport she used to find her way home, back to her biological family and her heart country. A song-crafter, work-shopper, storyteller, now an honorary Doctor of Music, a tireless community worker and a performer, Shellie sings in over 20 traditional languages and works across more than 70 remote communities. She has collaborated with and is beloved by generations of children, to whom she carefully listens, delicately turning their lived experiences, challenges and triumphs, their stories, intentions and dreams into songs – songs that capture language, breed confidence and give voice.
Shellie and I have crossed paths backstage and at festivals for over 16 years now, and I’ve always been awed by the seemingly endless energy she has for her mob. She is always returning from a residency in a remote community, full to the brim of heart-wrenching anecdotes, preparing to head out to another with a quick performance in between. She is a woman who lives with a foot in each world, who is a bridge between extremes. The demand on her to deeply listen and then draw out songs from people seems insatiable. I often wondered how she sustained such a pace with little downtime at home.
From our conversation, I realised that every one of those communities has become pieces in the jigsaw of what she now calls home. I got a glimpse into the role music plays as a pathway to healing and understanding both for herself and those she works with. All of those smiling faces, singing voices, babies thrust into her arms, people welcoming her back time and again – that love and trust is her home, flung like a web across the hearts of those she has worked with. From homeless youth to displaced adults, school children to the elderly, Shellie’s legacy zigzags far and wide across this great land.
DANIELLE CARUANA: So this is my first time interviewing for Dumbo Feather.
SHELLIE MORRIS: I’m excited that it’s me.
The fact that it’s you just feels like I’ve been kissed from the gods. We were supposed to be meeting in Melbourne. Around about now I would have had you tucked up in my mum’s house in the western suburbs. I was going to pick you up from your hotel and snatch you away from your Victorian tour with Mission Songs Project. I was going to feed you pastizzi and strong tea with evaporated milk in my mum’s good room. But alas! [Laughs]. We’ve become masters of adaption. So we’re dialling in on Zoom. I’m back home, I’m on Wooditch Bilya in Wadandi Boodja country, Margaret River. I would like to know where you are and why you are there.
I’m on Larrakia land in Darwin. All the women from the Jawoyn area, which is around Katherine – who I’ve known for 20 years from doing workshops in the community – were determined that I came up and sang for them. So I flew from Tasmania all the way to Darwin and then drove 500 kilometres to sing for the family. Then COVID broke out in Melbourne so I didn’t go back for the rest of the MSP tour. So I’m still in Darwin. It’s a cool 26 degrees here at the moment. And I’m kind of thawing out from a bit of winter.
Awesome. You’ve been busy and you seem to be getting busier as your career and life keeps flowering, in so many beautiful directions. I’m in awe of the connections and the collaborations you make. I want
