Gday,

I'll apoligise in advance for the long posting ... but at least the "cut & paste" is all mine!

Sandra in Sydney asked me to post my review of the presentation of Yarri to which JudyB refers above. This is it (from the Singabout section of #178, December 2006):

P. S1
Yarri of Wiradjuri
I wonder when we will see a larger part of our nation appreciate just how perceptively someone new to Australia can see what the rest of us have long glazed over with superficial familiarity. John Warner's setting of an epic song cycle around the tragedy of the Great Flood in Gundagai in 1852 resonates with all the subsequent lessons from which we still fail to learn.

The new CD, with the full forces of the Roaring Forties (more often heard belting out shanties … with a sprinkling of old-time 'gospel' songs …), reinforced on the melody front by Tony Pyrzakowski's fiery fiddle, Christine Wheeler's flutes, flageolets and guitar and Matthew Doyle's didgeridoo, draws something extra from every participant. There's also an excellent song book to accompany – and inform – anyone who wants to bring their own perceptions to bear on John's epic work. Follow the web links to John's site (given in the head panel on page S2) to lots of on-line resources – but buy … nobody's subsidising anything as worthwhile as this!

p. S2
YARRI OF WIRADJURI A SONG & VERSE CYCLE BY JOHN WARNER ABOUT THE GREAT FLOOD IN GUNDAGAI IN 1852. Feathers and Wedge FWCD047 – PO Box 615, Glebe, 2037, including postage and packaging: $20.00
Web site: www.folkjohnwarner.com

Before I could really do justice to the material on this CD, I really had to get along to the full cast presentation of John Warner's epic song cycle: Yarri of Wiradjuri! The 19th century sandstone bulk of Gladesville Hospital's "Cornucopia Café" worked well in focusing my mind on the full tragedy of this particular true story of Colonial rejection of the offered assistance of the first people of this land … and how, even when the predicted disaster struck, the displaced ones risked all to save some of the white settlers.

The bare story is of the arrival of white settlers in the Gundagai region in the Murrumbidgee. As they greedily take up the lush flood plains and build businesses to exploit the travellers crossing the river at this point, they scoff at Aboriginal knowledge, memory and lore of mighty floods. John Warner has crafted fine songs of the archetype settlers and the representative Aboriginal couple Yarri and his wife Black Sally.

As the story proceeds, the settlers dig in, despite minor floods, and make their profits. The local Wiradjuri people warn … and live – as well as they now can – in harmony with the nature of their land. John's songs play the women of both groups against each other as one thread – the hard-headed men scoffing at Yarri as another … and, in a masterly style, he personifies the Murrumbidgee River and the local anabranch (encircling old Gundagai in a watery vice) as elemental Mother and Daughter – sung with great effective by Margaret Walters and Jennifer Lees. The rest of the established shanty crew The Roaring Forties each take parts of the various characters and a narrative like that of a Greek tragedy is superbly spoken by veteran Australian actor / reciter John Derum – while the didgeridoo of Matthew Doyle threads its own elemental undertones through the work.

The live performance focused questions that arose in hearing just the CD. I found myself on the edge of tears as the disaster unfolded, with its heroic rescue of many settlers by Yarri (as well as another Wiradjuri only remembered as "Jackey"). I still can't say whether those tears would be for the tragedy that destroyed Old Gundagai so long ago … or if they were called up by the knowledge that we have still learned so little from this country and the people who have lived with – and shaped it since time immemorial. Buy the CD … listen and hope to learn – and hope other will learn.

Bob Bolton

WHITE MAN FOOL (BIG WATER COME DOWN)
Words & Lyrics: John Warner

White man fool to camp on the low ground,
Big water come down.
White fulla* learn the ways of the land or drown.

One white man crossed the Murrumbidgee,
Soon there followed ten,
Soon there followed carts and cattle,
Horses, women, children, men.
White man fool to camp on the low ground, Big water come down.
White fulla learn the ways of the land or drown.

Water's high down at the crossing,
Travellers wait for days,
Smart man here has set up a sly-grog,
Can't you see how the business pays.

White man fool to camp on the low ground, Big water come down.
White fulla learn the ways of the land or drown.

Smart man here has set up a sly-grog,
A saddler's put roots down,
Blacksmith, tailor, butcher, baker,
Before you know it, there's a town.

White man fool to camp on the low ground, Big water come down.
White fulla learn the ways of the land or drown.

And the floods they come and the floods they go,
Wiradjuri people warn and plead,
But what's two inches of mud in the shop
To the hopes of profit, the drive of need?

Build an attic up in the rafters,
Done in a day or so,
We'll be safe upstairs when the river rises,
What do the primitive natives know?

White man fool to camp on the low ground, Big water come down.
White fulla learn the ways of the land or drown.

* Indigenous pronunciation of "fellow"