Allen Murphy gets involved in music project to stop kids skipping school

A SONG made in collaboration with town campers celebrates the joy of going to school and learning

TANGENTYERE Council has released a song that celebrates attending school in an effort to reduce truancy rates.

Tangentyere produced the song in collaboration with leaders and children from Alice Springs’ town camps, along with former Yothu Yindi and Village People drummer Allen Murphy.

Mr Murphy wrote the base track with Papunya musician Sammy Butcher.

The song features lyrics in six different languages, including Walpiri and Arrernte.

“We’d been talking over a few months with town campers about making music,” Tangentyere’s Nick Chandler told ABC radio on Tuesday.

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Mr Chandler said the project came to fruition when the Department of Education introduced its summer school holidays program.

“They worked with Tangentyere, and the Gap (Youth Centre), and the Youth Hub to deliver a range of activities,” Mr Chandler said.

“At one of the initial planning meetings, I kind of threw up the idea of doing a song to encourage kids to go to school.

“I got the go-ahead, then went back and spoke to town campers at a range of community centres at different town camps and got it going from there.”

Mr Chandler and Mr Murphy held workshops in the town camps around writing and translating lyrics, and coming up with melodies.

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Mr Chandler said the main message of the song was “go to school so you can learn.”

Originally published as Allen Murphy gets involved in music project to stop kids skipping school