"My Island Home" is a rock song written by Neil Murray and George Burarrwanga. It was originally performed by the

Warumpi Band Warumpi Band () were an Australian country and Aboriginal rock group which formed in the outback settlement of Papunya, Northern Territory, in 1980. The original line-up was George Burarrwanga on vocals and didgeridoo, Gordon Butcher Tjapanangk ...

. The song references lead singer's ( George Burarrwanga) home up at

Elcho Island Elcho Island, known to its traditional owners as Galiwin'ku (Galiwinku) is an island off the coast of Arnhem Land, in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located at the southern end of the Wessel Islands group located in the East Arnhem ...

off the coast of

Arnhem Land Arnhem Land is a historical region of the Northern Territory of Australia, with the term still in use. It is located in the north-eastern corner of the territory and is around from the territory capital, Darwin. In 1623, Dutch East India Compan ...

in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (commonly abbreviated as NT; formally the Northern Territory of Australia) is an Australian territory in the central and central northern regions of Australia. The Northern Territory shares its borders with Western Aus ...

. It was recorded in 1986 and released as a single from their second album, ''Go Bush'', in January 1987. It was covered by

Christine Anu Christine Anu (born 15 March 1970) is an Australian singer, songwriter and actress. She gained popularity with the cover song release of the Warumpi Band's song "My Island Home". Anu has been nominated for 17 ARIA Awards. Early life Anu was bo ...

in 1995; she had been a backing vocalist in Neil Murray and The Rainmakers during 1992–1993. "My Island Home" won 'Song of the Year' at the 1995

Australasian Performing Right Association APRA AMCOS consists of Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society (AMCOS), both copyright management organisations or copyright collectives which jointly represent over 100,000 songwri ...

(APRA)

Awards An award, sometimes called a distinction, is something given to a recipient as a token of recognition of excellence in a certain field. When the token is a medal, ribbon or other item designed for wearing, it is known as a decoration. An awar ...

for Anu's reworked version of the song. It was also listed in the

APRA Top 30 Australian songs APRA's Top 30 Australian songs was a list created by the Australasian Performing Right Association (APRA) in 2001, to celebrate its 75th anniversary. A panel of 100 music personalities were asked to list the "ten best and most significant Australi ...

of all time in 2001.

Warumpi Band version

Neil Murray,

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

and

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six string instrument, strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or Plucked string instrument, plucking the strings with the dominant hand, w ...

ist for

, recalls writing the song: It was first recorded in 1986 and released on the Warumpi Band's second album ''

Go Bush Go, GO, G.O., or Go! may refer to: Arts and entertainment Games and sport * Go (game), a board game for two players * '' Travel Go'' (formerly ''Go – The International Travel Game''), a game based on world travel * Go, the starting position l ...

'' by Parole Records in 1987. Rrurrumbu would later record a version of it in the Gumatj language for his debut solo album ''Nerbu Message''.

Christine Anu version

In January 1995,

released a version of the song as the second single from her debut studio album, '' Stylin' Up''. Anu, a

Torres Strait Islander Torres Strait Islanders () are the Indigenous Melanesian people of the Torres Strait Islands, which are part of the state of Queensland, Australia. Ethnically distinct from the Aboriginal people of the rest of Australia, they are often groupe ...

, 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. In the music video, it intercedes between her singing, and an Aboriginal man deciding to drop his job as a cleaner, and start running through the city, the desert, and finally to the ocean. When he gets there, he swims to his home island and waves at his kid and wife. At the 1995

APRA Awards APRA Awards may refer to one of two awards ceremonies: *APRA Awards (Australia) The APRA Music Awards in Australia are annual awards to celebrate excellence in contemporary music, which honour the skills of member composers, songwriters, ...

, "My Island Home" won Song of the Year. At the

ARIA Music Awards of 1995 The Ninth Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as the ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAS) was held on 20 October 1995 at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre. There had been a 18-month gap since the ...

, "Island Home" was nominated for

ARIA Award for Song of the Year The ARIA Music Award for Single of the Year/Song of the Year, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Austra ...

, but lost to "

Chains A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. A ...

" by

Tina Arena Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena (born 1 November 1967) is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress and record producer. She is one of Australia's highest-selling artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwid ...

. Despite peaking at number 67 on the

Australian singles chart The ARIA Charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling songs and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA became the offici ...

, it spent 20 weeks on the national top 100 chart. The song was voted at number 47 in the

Triple J Hottest 100, 1995 The 1995 Triple J Hottest 100, counted down in January 1996, was a countdown of the most popular songs of the year, according to listeners of the Australian radio station Triple J. A CD featuring 32 of the songs was released. A countdown of the ...

. Anu performed the song at the closing ceremony of the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

and at

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

of the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountains ...

. The song was also listed in

of all time in 2001. Anu re-recorded the song for her second album '' Come My Way'' in 2000, subtitled "Earth Beat" version, which removed the echoed effects during the choruses, but added subtle synth effects and more prominent guitar during the song, making it sound more rhythmic and polished, whereas the original was driven more with a drum beat. In 2016, Anu's rendition was inducted into the

National Film and Sound Archive The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA), known as ScreenSound Australia from 1999 to 2004, is Australia's audiovisual archive, responsible for developing, preserving, maintaining, promoting and providing access to a national c ...

Sounds of Australia The Sounds of Australia, formerly the National Registry of Recorded Sound, is the National Film and Sound Archive's selection of sound recordings which are deemed to have cultural, historical and aesthetic significance and relevance for Austral ...

. In 2018, Anu performed the song at the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

of the

2018 Commonwealth Games The 2018 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XXI Commonwealth Games and also known as Gold Coast 2018, was an international multi-sport event for members of the Commonwealth that were held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, be ...

in Gold Coast.

Charts

Tiddas

Aboriginal band Tiddas has also recorded a version of the song for the ''

Radiance In radiometry, radiance is the radiant flux emitted, reflected, transmitted or received by a given surface, per unit solid angle per unit projected area. Radiance is used to characterize diffuse emission and reflection of electromagnetic radiati ...

'' soundtrack.

References

{{authority control Australian patriotic songs 1987 songs 1995 singles Christine Anu songs Warumpi Band songs APRA Award winners ARIA Award winners Indigenous Australian culture