Malcolm Turnbull gets emotional over an Aboriginal lullaby

Malcolm Turnbull has been moved to tears in an interview as he recalled reading a lullaby sung in the Ngunawal language.

Malcolm Turnbull

Malcolm Turnbull has been moved to tears in a television interview as he recalled reading a lullaby sung in the Ngunawal language by an Aboriginal mother to her daughter.

The song was in a children’s book given to the Prime Minister by Canberra-based Ngunawal man Tyronne Bell, who taught Mr Turnbull the language to use in his Closing the Gap address in federal parliament last month.

Mr Turnbull began crying when he spoke about the lullaby in an interview with journalist Stan Grant on National Indigenous Television last night.

“She was a very old lady and she remembers her mother singing this to her,” Mr Turnbull said.

“And the thing that’s so sad is to imagine that mother singing that story to her at a time when you are losing culture …

“That’s what made me sad, just to think about that.”

Mr Bell said he believed the lullaby Mr Turnbull was referring to was from the book Mununja the Butterfly, a dreamtime story of the Ngunawal people.

“I wanted to give the children’s books to Malcolm so he could not just have a look at them but give them to his grandchildren,” Mr Bell told The Australian.

“He must have had a go (of practising the lullaby) and he must have loved the beat of it, I guess.

“It’s really good to have Malcolm so keen and interested in our culture.”

It is the first storybook in traditional Aboriginal language from the southeast, according to the National Library of Australia.

Mr Bell said the lyrics of the lullaby included: “I am rocking you slowly skyward, singing, slowly singing, slowly bouncing.”

Mr Turnbull is not the first prime minister to cry in public.

Julia Gillard was brought to tears in 2013 when she introduced legislation to parliament to fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

She also delivered a heartfelt speech about the 2011 Queensland floods, fighting back tears as she revealed to the House of Representatives a mud-splattered Australian flag recovered from Murphys Creek by the crew of a defence force helicopter.

“It was a powerful symbol for them of what it means to face the elements, of what it means to be hurt, of what it means to endure, of what it means to be Australian,” Ms Gillard said.

Kevin Rudd “blubbered” when he was ousted by Ms Gillard in 2010.

Flanked by his family and giving what he thought would be his final press conference as prime minister, Mr Rudd was emotional throughout the address as he marked his legacy and thanked his colleagues and loved ones for their support.

Malcolm Fraser cried on election night in 1983 when Bob Hawke defeated him in one of Australia’s few double-dissolution elections.

Mr Hawke also cried numerous times during his time as prime minister, including breaking down in a 1984 TV interview about his daughter’s drug addiction.