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Its lyrics are filled with many historic and cultural references, such as to the "digger", Albert Namatjira and Ned Kelly, among others. Its popularity has made it one of a number of Australian patriotic songs considered as alternatives to the current national anthem, " Advance Australia Fair ".
It asserts that Aboriginal peoples were the first on the continent now known as Australia, occupying and caring for the land for more than 65,000 years, [4] and that sovereignty of Country has never been ceded. [1] It is sometimes shortened to "Always was, always will be." [5]
Aboriginal country and folk singer Jimmy Little covered the song on his 1999 album, Messenger, a collection of covers of 1980s popular and alternative Australian rock music. [ 9 ] Australian singer Missy Higgins features the song on her 2014 album OZ , which includes supporting vocals by Crystal Itjuwalyi Butcher.
Bruce William Woodley [1] AO [2] (born 25 July 1942) is an Australian singer-songwriter and musician. [3] [4] He was a founding member of the successful folk-pop group the Seekers, [3] and co-composer of the songs "I Am Australian," "Red Rubber Ball," and Simon & Garfunkel's "Cloudy."
In 2015, Aboriginal Australian soprano Deborah Cheetham declined an invitation to sing the anthem at the 2015 AFL grand final after the AFL turned down her request to replace the words "for we are young and free" with "in peace and harmony". She has advocated for the lyrics being rewritten and endorsed Durham and Edwards' alternative version. [52]
Performance of Aboriginal song and dance in the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney.. Indigenous music of Australia comprises the music of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples of Australia, intersecting with their cultural and ceremonial observances, through the millennia of their individual and collective histories to the present day.
Most Aboriginal people today speak English and live in cities. Some may use Aboriginal phrases and words in Australian Aboriginal English (which also has a tangible influence of Aboriginal languages in the phonology and grammatical structure). Many but not all also speak the various traditional languages of their clans and peoples.
The version of the song used by Qantas in its 2009 advertisement replaces the entire first verse with one sung in Kala Lagaw Ya, a dialect of the Torres Strait Islands. [1] This version was performed by the Gondwana National Indigenous Children's Choir and the Sydney Children's Choir as well as the Australian Girls Choir and National Boys Choir.