Shellie Morris AO | |
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Genres | Folk music, folk rock, roots revival |
Occupation(s) | Singer, singer/songwriter |
Instrument(s) | Singing, guitar, piano |
Labels | independent record label |
Shellie Morris AO is an Indigenous Australian singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary folk music and contemporary acoustic ballads.
Shellie Morris was raised in Sydney and began singing at an early age. She often performed in Church choirs in her twenties and in the 1990s Morris moved to Darwin, Northern Territory to find her Indigenous family. She completed a Certificate 3 in Contemporary music at N.T.U in Darwin and then began working with producer/ musician/ songwriter Glen Heald for the next ten years who produced the albums Shellie Morris and Waiting Road.
Morris toured with Yothu Yindi in 2001 and also performed with Neil Murray from the Warumpi Band. In 2002 Shellie Morris and Glen Heald co-wrote and produced the music to the play "To the inland sea" inspired by Charles Sturt's 19th Century journey to discover the mythical inland sea in the center of Australia. Morris was named best female musician at the 2004 and 2005 Northern Territory Indigenous Music Awards [1] and her album Waiting Road was nominated for Album of the Year at the 2007 Deadly Awards. [2] She has been featured nationally on two episodes of ABC TV's Message Stick program, Shellie Morris Swept Away and Shellie Morris in Concert. [3] Shellie also was on the SBS show Rockwiz and once again performed "Swept Away" and also performed a unique version of "Louis Louie" with Ross Wilson.
Shellie Morris works with Indigenous / aboriginal communities and youth throughout Australia helping aboriginal people to write music about their stories and experiences. She has worked in over fifty Indigenous Communities and is an ambassador for the Fred Hollows Foundation (an organisation undertaking blindness prevention in Australian aboriginal communities, Asia, Africa and the Pacific) and an ambassador for The Jimmy Little Foundation (established to help improve kidney health in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities). [4]
Morris is currently a featured Aboriginal singer with the Black Arm Band. (A collaboration of Australia's top indigenous artists and jazz musicians including artists such as Archie Roach) Her song "Swept Away" was orchestrated and performed in 2008 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. In 2009 Shellie Morris performed at the Sydney Opera house with world-renowned aboriginal musician Gurrumul Yunupingu. Morris also performed and co-wrote the music Liberty Songs with Australian guitarist Glen Heald, a collaboration between refugees from Liberia and indigenous Australian female singers. In 2010 Shellie performed her song "Swept Away" at the opening of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver with the Black Arm Band. In 2011 Morris sang alongside the international music stars Sinéad O'Connor, John Cale, Meshell Ndegeocello, Rickie Lee Jones and aboriginal singer Gurrumul Yunupingu for the show 7 Songs to Leave Behind. Shellie Morris was featured in the Australian film 'Murundak – Songs of freedom' (a feature documentary on Aboriginal protest music following The Black Arm Band From the concert halls of the Sydney Opera House to remote Aboriginal communities of the Northern Territory.)
In 2011 Shellie Morris was chosen by the famous Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil to be included in his film "Viramundo" a transnational voyage of the southern hemisphere that takes Gilberto across the Australian Outback to inner-city Johannesburg and Soweto and on to the Amazon forests. Directed by Pierre-Yves Borgeaud. "The film explores different aspects of the relations between countries of the southern hemisphere," Gil says.
In 2013, she released a song album Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu – Together We are Strong, on ABC music with songs in several indigenous languages: Yanyuwa, Marra, Garrwa and Gurdanji. The project won the 2012 National Indigenous Music Award for Traditional Music, the 2012 Music Council of Australia's Music in Communities Award and the 2013 National Indigenous Music Award for Song of the Year for li-Anthawirriyarra a-kurija [5] [6] [7]
Title | Album details |
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Shellie Morris |
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Waiting Road (with Glen Heald) |
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Together We Are Strong: The Song People's Sessions (with The Borroloola Songwomen ) |
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Morris was appointed as an Officer of the Order of Australia in the 2023 King's Birthday Honours for "distinguished service to the performing arts, to the Indigenous community, and to not-for-profit organisations". [10]
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
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2013 | Together We Are Strong – Ngambala Wigi Li – Wun the Song Peoples Sessions | Best World Music Album | Nominated | [11] |
The Australian Women in Music Awards is an annual event that celebrates outstanding women in the Australian Music Industry who have made significant and lasting contributions in their chosen field. They commenced in 2018.
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
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2018 [12] | Shellie Morris | Auriel Andrew Memorial Award | Nominated |
The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA) (formally NT Indigenous Music Awards) recognise excellence, dedication, innovation and outstanding contribution to the Northern Territory music industry. It commenced in 2004.
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
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2004 | Shellie Morris | Female Artist of the Year | Won | [13] |
2005 | Shellie Morris | Female Artist of the Year | Won | [14] |
2012 | Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu – Together We Are Strong (with The Borroloola Songwomen) | Album of the Year | Nominated | [15] [16] |
"Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu" (with The Borroloola Songwomen) | Traditional Song of the Year | Nominated | ||
2013 | Ngambala Wiji Li-Wunungu – Together We Are Strong (with The Borroloola Songwomen) | Album of the Year | Nominated | [17] |
"Waliwaliyangu li-Anthawirriyarra a-Kurija (Saltwater People Song)" (with The Borroloola Songwomen) | Song of the Year | Nominated | ||
2014 | Shellie Morris | Artist of the Year | Nominated | [18] |
2021 | "Dharuk Gurtha" (with Jason Durrurrnga) | Indigenous Language Award | Nominated | [19] [20] |
Morris utilized her renowned career in music to help raise awareness for the Fred Hollows Foundation, becoming one of their distinguished ambassadors. [21] The Fred Hollows Foundation is an international non-profit organization that educates surgeons on how to cure avoidable blindness within underserved communities and countries. Specifically, they work within the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities of Indigenous Australia. [21]
Yothu Yindi are an Australian musical group with Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal members, formed in 1986 as a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a white rock group called the Swamp Jockeys, and an unnamed Aboriginal folk group consisting of Mandawuy Yunupingu, Witiyana Marika, and Milkayngu Mununggur. The Aboriginal members came from Yolngu homelands near Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory's Arnhem Land. Founding members included Stuart Kellaway on bass guitar, Cal Williams on lead guitar, Andrew Belletty on drums, Witiyana Marika on manikay, bilma and dance, Milkayngu Mununggurr on yidaki, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu on keyboards, guitar, and percussion, past lead singer Mandawuy Yunupingu and present Yirrnga Yunupingu on vocals and guitar.
Tribal Voice is the second studio album by Yothu Yindi, released in September 1991 on the Mushroom Records label. The album peaked at number 4 on the ARIA Charts and was certified 2× Platinum.
Freedom is the third studio album by Australian band, Yothu Yindi released in 1993. The album peaked at number 31 on the ARIA charts.
Birrkuta – Wild Honey is the fourth studio album by Australian band, Yothu Yindi. It was released in November 1996 via Mushroom Records. It was co-produced by Lamar Lowder and Andrew Farriss.
Mandawuy Djarrtjuntjun Yunupingu, formerly Tom Djambayang Bakamana Yunupingu, and also known as Dr Yunupingu, was a teacher and musician, and frontman of the Aboriginal rock group Yothu Yindi from 1986. He was an Aboriginal Australian man of the Yolŋu people, with a skin name of Gudjuk.
Galarrwuy Yunupingu, also known as James Galarrwuy Yunupingu and Dr Yunupingu, was an Indigenous Australian activist who was a leader in the Aboriginal Australian community. He was involved in Indigenous land rights throughout his career. He was a Yolngu man of the Gumatj clan, from Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. He was the 1978 Australian of the Year.
The National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMA), also known as the NT Indigenous Music Awards from 2004 to 2008, are music awards presented to recognise excellence, innovation and leadership among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians in Australia.
Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, commonly known as Gurrumul and also referred to since his death as Dr G. Yunupingu, was a Yolŋu Aboriginal Australian musician. A multi-instrumentalist, he played drums, keyboards, guitar and didgeridoo, but it was the clarity of his singing voice that attracted rave reviews. He sang stories of his land both in Yolŋu languages such as Gaalpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, a dialect related to Gumatj, and in English. He began his career as a member of Yothu Yindi and later Saltwater Band, and his solo career brought him wider acclaim He was the most commercially successful Aboriginal Australian musician at the time of his death. As of 2020, it is estimated that Yunupingu has sold half a million records globally.
Saltwater Band are an Indigenous roots band from Galiwin'ku on Elcho Island, around 560 kilometres from Darwin. The members are Yolngu and they sing mostly in Yolngu languages. Their songs are a mixture of traditional songs and reggae/ska influenced pop. One member of the band, the late Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, is a close relative of Mandawuy Yunupingu of Yothu Yindi and was a past member of Yothu Yindi.
Black Arm Band is an Aboriginal Australian and Torres Strait Islander music theatre organisation.
"Treaty" is a protest song by Australian musical group Yothu Yindi, which is made up of Aboriginal and balanda (non-Aboriginal) members. Released in June 1991, "Treaty" was the first song by a predominantly Aboriginal band to chart in Australia and was the first song partly in any Aboriginal Australian language to gain extensive international recognition, peaking at No. 6 on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play singles charts. The song contains lyrics in Gumatj, one of the Yolngu Matha dialects and a language of the Yolngu people of Arnhem Land in northern Australia.
Glen Heald is an Australian guitarist and multi-instrumental singer/songwriter who plays a mix of contemporary rock, fusion, blues, blues rock, folk and acoustic ballads. He is a fully independent Aboriginal recording artist who has written, recorded, and produced eight solo albums.
The National Indigenous Music Awards 2016 were the 13th annual National Indigenous Music Awards.
The National Indigenous Music Awards 2013 were the 10th annual National Indigenous Music Awards.
The NT Indigenous Music Awards 2004 were the inaugural annual National Indigenous Music Awards, established by MusicNT. The new awards recognise excellence, dedication, innovation and outstanding contributions in the Northern Territory music industry.
Witiyana Marika is an Aboriginal Australian musician, filmmaker and elder, known for being a founding member of the band Yothu Yindi and producer of the film High Ground.
Yirrmal Marika, known mononymously as Yirrmal, is an Indigenous Australian vocalist. A Yolngu man, his music features traditional sounds and elements of Yolŋu music.
King Stingray is an Australian rock band from Northeast Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory. With a sound self-described as "Yolŋu surf rock", the band perform songs with lyrics in both English and Yolŋu Matha. King Stingray released their debut single, "Hey Wanhaka", in October 2020, and their self-titled debut album on 5 August 2022.
Gavin Campbell is an Australian club DJ and remixer based in Melbourne, Victoria. He created the dance music production outfit known as Filthy Lucre, which is known for its 1991 remix of Yothu Yindi's single, "Treaty", known as "Treaty ".