Old Songs are Always New Publisher / CSIRO Publishing We are creative beings

We are creative beings

who with close colleagues Roger Kemp and Leonard French introduced abstract painting to Melbourne audiences in the 1950s

the multitude of ways in which we embrace plants in spiritual ceremony

but it is a hugely important quality nevertheless and one that we neglect at our peril

Old Songs are Always New Publisher / CSIRO Publishing We are creative beingsPerhaps the most defining feature of Tiwi song is the importance placed on the creative innovation of the individual singer composer. Tiwi songs are fundamentally new, unique and occasion specific, and yet sit within a continuum of an oral artistic tradition. Performed in ceremony, at public events, for art and for fun, songs form the core of the Tiwi knowledge system and historical archive. Held by song custodians and taught through sung and danced