Warumpi Band - Go Bush

The Warumpi Band are the stuff of music legend, a band which
came out of the western desert region of central Australia,
a melding of black and white culture that was groundbreaking
in so many ways. This their 2nd album (of 3) gave us one
of the greatest Australian songs ever penned "My Island Home"
Heres what Neil Murry says about it

“My island home” came to me on a bus one night in
June 1985 while traveling from Melbourne to Sydney.
The antecedents are clear. I had been living in the
deserts of Central Australia for some six years,
estranged from the fresh water country of my
youth in western Victoria. The Warumpi Band
had just completed a national tour and at the
conclusion of it I had spent a week with our
singer George Rrurrambu, at his home at Galiwinku
( Elcho Island) in Arnhem Land, Northern Territory.
We were camped on a remote part of the island
with his family and had been living like kings on
bush tucker and sea food caught by ourselves.
It seemed like paradise at the time. I had to leave
and make trips to Melbourne and Sydney in mid
winter to promote the band. On the overnight
bus trip to Sydney I suffered an exceptional
longing to be back in a boat on a tropical sea.
The words came to me, I was singing it in my head.
I had no notebook with me. I held onto the tune
till I got to Sydney and pulled my guitar out of the
luggage to find the chords. I completed the verses
with a view to George Rrurrambu singing it,
which he did. The Warumpi Band recorded
“My Island Home” in 1986, released in 1987.
Christine Anu released her version a decade later
The Tiddas recorded a lovely version for the film
“Radiance”. George Rrurrambu has included a
Gumatj language version of the song on his
debut solo album ”Nerbu Message” I know that
the song has also been recorded and released
by a group in Tahiti.
cheers,
Neil Murray.

My Island Home - Neil Murray
Six years I've been in the desert
And every night I dream of the sea
They say home is where you find it
Will this place ever satisfy me

And my island home
my island home my island home
is waiting for me

For I come from the salt water people
We always lived by the sea
Now I'm out here west of Alice Springs
With a wife and a family

And my island home
my island home my island home
is waiting for me

In the evening the dry wind blows
From the hills and across the plains
I close my eyes and I'm standing in a boat
on the sea a-gain
And I'm holding that long turtle spear
and I feel I'm close now to where it must be

And my island home
my island home my island home
is waiting for me


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