Tilly Tjala Thomas Releases ‘Ngai Yurlku Nhiina’
Photo Credit - Sia Duff
Do you know what’s fantastic? The increasing number of Indigenous Australian artists turning to their traditional languages to write songs. With artists like Baker Boy, Alice Skye and Emily Wurramurra all incorporating some of the 250+ Indigenous languages into their music, I have hope that the number of songs using these languages will grow both in quantity and in popularity.
A relatively new artist on the scene who sings partially in Nukunu language (the language spoken by the Nukunu People on Yorke Peninsula) is Tilly Tjala Thomas. Tilly’s new song ‘Ngai Yurlku Nhiina’ (which translates to ‘I Love You’) is a song all about the importance of language, especially those languages with a history of being restricted and destroyed by white Australia.
On the song, Tilly says “I want people to feel moved. To gain an inside perspective on how not using your native language can impact your ability to communicate with people around you. Aboriginal people had to adapt and lose their language – I want people to understand this”
With an EP on the way, I’m excited to see what Tilly has for us next.