Love of Life – The Minnamurra River

Guided by the Aboriginal Elders, Dr. Jodi Edwards, a Dharawal Custodian, and I agreed to collaborate to develop music, song, and dance for Dreamtime stories and others related to Aboriginal Lore.

This song describes the love of life on the Minnamurra River near Shellharbour in Dharawal Country. This is what was lost in 1818 when the Aboriginals were massacred by Dapto Farmer Lt. William Frederick Weston.

Jodi sang me this song in the doorway of a coffee shop in Shellharbour. I simply gave it structure and chords. I recall she heard this song while she walked on the banks of the Minnamurra River.

It is a beautiful guitar composition and song that awakens in me a profound sense of balance and serenity. This song describes history, a past to be remembered, a way of life on the river of gentle folks that cared deeply for this land. I believe the past becomes the present as I play this song since music has no time of past or future; it simply describes what it is.