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ABOUT THE PROJECT

The Power of Music

Jessie Lloyd’s profoundly moving Mission Songs Project reveals the daily life of Aboriginal people on the missions, settlements and native reserves during the colonisation of Australia. A musical time travel of original compositions from the residents over the generations.

Starting in 2015, Mission Songs Project explores the human reality of the ‘missions era’, where Aboriginal people were forcibly removed from their homelands and moved onto missions. In a time of great distress, these truthful songs are surprisingly filled with optimism and hope, revealing a forgotten story on an unexplored corner of Australian history.

Mission Songs Project faithfully navigates the musical journey of Aboriginal music and connects the traditional with contemporary, revealing the continuation of cultural practice and song traditions into the 21st Century. This is a musical journey through time and place, this is our songlines.

Jessie Lloyd is an Australian Aboriginal singer, social historian and cultural practitioner of Indigenous song. Jessie takes audiences on a profoundly-moving musical journey into the depth and diversity of Australia’s cultural identity.

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About Jessie Lloyd

A composer, performer and creative entrepreneur, Jessie Lloyd is a cultural practitioner of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander music. Dedicated to the continuation of song traditions through the presentation of stories and song.

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“Jessie describes herself as a hunter and gatherer of songs. She believes the mission songs are evidence of continuing tradition – passed down from generation to generation; a new genre of music created in places where people were banned from using their language, and not allowed to practice traditional culture.”

Margy Burn, Assistant Director-General at National Library of Australia

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