My Island Home (1987) – Warumpi Band (& Christine Anu version)

My Island Home is not just a great narrative about Australian identity but captures the yearning essence of my home country. I went and saw Christine Anu in Melbourne when this song came out. Apart from her voice and the melody, I love listening to the guitar reverberation, synthesiser and that drumbeat. I don’t know who the producer was, but they deserve a ‘high five…and on the flip side‘.

I assumed Christina wrote this song, but My Island Home was written by Neil Murray for George Burarrwanga (see image inset). It was originally performed by the Warumpi Band, and you can see their wonderful version at the end of this article. Anyone that responds to this article, will be immediately asked which of the two versions do you favour. You have been forewarned. Hehe.

The song references lead singer’s (George Burarrwanga) home up at Elcho Island off the coast of Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia. It was recorded in 1986 and released as a single from their second album, Go Bush! in January 1987. The description of their video also echos the Aussie lexicon and the spirit of unity and ‘mateship’:

Hmm…Blackfella, whitefella, any fella, it doesn’t matter – it’s our sacred land to acknowledge, to share & protect, treasure & to pass on as ‘intact’ as we can..

[Verse 1]
Six years I’ve been in the city
And every night I dream of the sea
They say home is where you find it
Will this place ever satisfy me?
For I come from the salt water people
We always lived by the sea
Now I’m down here living in the city
With my man and a family

[Chorus]
My island home
My island home
My island home is waiting for me

[Verse 2]
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 again
And I’m holding that long turtle spear
And I feel I’m close now to where it must be
My island home is waiting for me

Christine Anu had been a backing vocalist in Neil Murray and The Rainmakers during 1992–1993. Her version of My Island Home won Song of the Year at the 1995 Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) Awards. The song was also listed in APRA Top 30 Australian songs of all time in 2001. Christine also performed My Island Home at the closing ceremony of the Sydney Olympics. Anu, a Torres Strait Islander, changed some lyrics to reflect her circumstances. e.g: Rather than moving to the desert, she compares island life to the city life, and from the point of view of a woman.

Neil Murray, vocalist and guitarist for Warumpi Band, recalls writing the song:

My Island Home came to me on a bus one night in June 1985…I had been living in the deserts of Central Australia for some six years. I had spent a week with our singer, George, at his home at Galiwinku in Arnhem Land. We camped on a remote part of the island with his family and had been living like kings on bush tucker and seafood caught by ourselves. I had to leave and make trips to Melbourne and Sydney in mid-winter to promote the band. I suffered an exceptional longing to be back in a boat on a tropical sea. The words came to me.I had no notebook with me. I held on to the tune till I got to Sydney and pulled my guitar out of the luggage to find the chords.

References:
1. My Island Home – Wikipedia