Healing Stone by Yothu Yindi

Formed in 1986 Yothu Yindi crossed the cultural divide by blending musical aspects of indigenous and non indigenous cultures to create a sound that was uniquely Australian. Their unique music has had a lasting impact both on the Australian musical landscape and around the world. Healing Stone is the first new song by the band in 12 years, co-written with INXS tunesmith Andrew Farriss. It is also the title track to a compilation album released in November 2012 to mark their induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame.

Pronounced jathu: ‘jIndi:’, a matha (kinship term) meaning ‘child and mother’, the group emerged from a merger of two bands formed in 1985 – a balanda rock band called Swamp Jockeys (Todd Williams, Michael Wyatt, Cal Williams, Stuart Kellaway and Andrew Belletty) and an Aboriginal folk group that included Mandawuy Yunupingu on manikay (traditional vocals), bilma (ironwood clapsticks) and dance, Witiyana Marika on yidaki and Milkayngu Mununggurr on percussion. All came from the Yolngu homelands on the Gove Peninsula in Northern Territory’s Arnhem Land.

Bakamana Yunupingu was a tertiary education student and became principal at Yirrkala Community School, where he established a revolutionary curriculum combining traditional Yolngu values with the Balanda system of Western literacy and numeracy. He would later establish the Garma Festival of Traditional Cultures and the Dilthan Yolngu Foundation to promote Yolngu culture and develop youth, including running the Yirrkala school.

Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu died on Thursday of kidney disease, aged just 56. He was a winner of the inaugural GR Bururrawanga Medal for Excellence in Indigenous Songwriting and a four time National Indigenous Music Award winner, and he had been crowned Australian of the Year in 1993.