Interviewer: So, let's just come and sit down
and we'll just take a moment.
We won't launch into anything just yet.
Michael's been telling me
how much you love doing interviews, gurrumul.
Michael: There's two cameras. Three, actually.
Interviewer: We're surrounded by cameras.
Michael: And a microphone and there's a light.
Interviewer: Well, we'll just give it a whirl
and see how we go.
Should I call you Geoffrey or gurrumul? What do you prefer?
What's the... what would you prefer me to call you?
- Michael: Gurrumul, I think. - Interviewer: Gurrumul, yeah?
Can we talk about your blindness?
There are a lot of very well-known blind musicians.
Does being blind give you...
Make you a better musician, do you think?
And why do you think that is?
No. Ok, ok.
Gurrumul, you haven't performed
in the opera house before, I take it?
Yeah?
Gurrumul, have you been surprised or...
As to how popular this album has become?
What do you think about that?
When did you first start playing the guitar?
Or maybe Michael can tell us about how it came about.
You're not going to get off the hook that lightly, though.
I'm determined.
You're going to have to get used to doing this.
You know that, don't you?
You're going to have to learn to enjoy it more.
See, he smiled now that it's finished.
What a relief, he says, that's finally over.
Susan: I can tell you the truth
and every song that he'd been singing...
He sings, he sings of himself.
So the world wants to know more about him.
The message is simply passed
through songs and the songlines.
Through closing their eyes and open their hearts,
they will see him clear.
Michael: Perfect.
- Is that comfortable? - Yo.
Ok.
Michael. Okay, we'll turn it louder.
Yeah.
Michael: We might track it. Yeah.
- That one? - Michael: Yeah.
- I sing like that? Ma. - Yeah.
Michael: Okay, I'll count you in.
- Yeah. - One, two. One, two, three.
Michael: Gurrumul's voice still affects me now,
like the first time I ever heard it.
How was that one, Michael?
Michael: That last note, really nice.
Whoo!
Michael: Beautiful. Whoo-hoo!
Whoa-ho.
Michael: I had no idea when I first heard it
how much it would impact on both our lives.
I was running a music industry course out of Darwin
and this was one of the first communities I ever went to.
I'd recently relocated from Melbourne
and here I was on elcho island,
one of the most remote places in Australia.
No-one spoke english
but everyone could play an instrument.
I was introduced to this guy called gurrumul.
He was also called 'miltjirri',
which I found out later meant 'blind boy'.
The young guys presented him as their Ace.
He was the one that was going to get them to the top.
He was a really impressive musician
who could play anything that he picked up.
The other guys were in awe of him
because he'd been in yothu yindi
but he'd left a couple of years ago.
♪ I heard it on the radio
♪ and I saw it on the television
♪ back in 1988
♪ all those talking politicians... ♪
Michael: Yothu yindi were really huge at that time.
Gurrumul was completely unassuming about that.
He had toured the world
and he was a very practised performer.
He was shy, really shy,
but could really sing and play - just a natural.
Song: ♪ treaty ma
♪ treaty ma treaty ma. ♪
Michael: There was so much raw talent
but I'm just a musician.
I didn't really realise the full potential
until I met Mark.
Mark: I'd been living in remote communities
for over 10 years and
I'd never seen anything have such an impact
on young aboriginal men like this music program.
It seemed to me that music was something special,
something that could make a difference to communities.
So Michael and I decided to take a chance
and we formed a record label called skinnyfish music.
Our first signing was the saltwater band
featuring gurrumul yunupingu.
Mark: Manuel and Geoffrey and me and Michael,
we had a big talk about saltwater band in the future.
I was going to say to everyone -
let's sign this contract about being here.
But I'm not going to worry about that now
because I know that you guys are serious.
You guys are onto it now.
So what can happen from now on
is a really good future for saltwater band.
Really good, I mean really good future.
You can go anywhere.
Saltwater band!
Mark: We had a simple plan -
get aboriginal music to aboriginal people.
And the simplest way to do that
was get the band in a bus and head for the bush.
Mark: One thing about saltwater, though -
I could never understand
why the quiet blind guy
who was playing a guitar upside down
never got any attention.
The cameras, the media, everything
would always focus on the lead singer,
who was standing, who was full of energy,
and right next to him was this quiet genius
that everyone saw but no-one actually...
You know, the camera rarely went to him
to go, "what's going on here?"
Michael: On the third saltwater record,
he and I recorded a couple of tracks just with him.
I thought it would be really special
if we could do something like this
and it was just him playing.
And so I finally put it to him
that what if he did something solo?
I got the usual answer, which was silence.
It was almost like
it's against a yolngu person's nature to go out on their own
and go and do something solo or by themselves.
And then one day, Mark and I talked to him
and once he realised kind of what we were talking about,
he said, "ma, let's go."
Michael: Perfect.
Michael: His voice, its purity, its longing.
I just thought, "that is...
"That is like nothing else I've heard."
Susan: Those tears in your eyes
are telling you that you understand his songs.
Those people that is just closing your eyes
and just listening to his songs,
you know that his singing that touch your heart.
That's him, gurrumul. You know it.
Already the song has told you
who he is in the world.
Thank you and goodnight.
Michael: That was amazing.
Michael: John, the sound engineer, John O'Donnell,
said, "they just kept clapping.
"And I just turned the sound right up
"and turned the lights right up
"and they just kept clapping and stomping their feet."
Michael: What do you reckon?
Audience: More! More!
Michael: Look, I'm downstairs begging him but he won't come.
I'm so sorry. Thank you so much.
Michael: This is out of control.
I don't know what happens now.
So I think I haven't really thought past today.
Radio host: The voice of Geoffrey gurrumul yunupingu
was introduced here on mornings early in the year.
It was Stuart matchett, who chooses our album of the week,
who selected the right moment.
It was when Kevin rudd said sorry in parliament
and we played tracks from that cd throughout the week.
And each time we played one,
listeners rang up wanting to know where they could buy it.
And a wave sort of started
and pretty soon, the little skinnyfish record company
in the north of Australia
was getting calls from Sydney record shops
asking, "who is this guy?”
Let's catch up with Michael hohnen,
who is his collaborator.
You act as his spokesman
and perhaps you'd better explain why that is.
Well, he doesn't talk much. He hasn't spoken at all today.
But also, english is his fourth or fifth language
and he is always asking me to speak for him.
And I think, yeah, sometimes I feel uncomfortable doing that
but that's the way gurrumul wants it
so that's how it has to happen.
Mark: If you wanted to succeed in the music industry,
you would look at gurrumul and do everything the opposite,
because everything that he was doing
was absolutely anti-success.
No media. You know, he wouldn't tour extensively.
He wouldn't do any sort of promotional stuff
that had no meaning to him.
There's no history in Australia
of albums that are completely in language
having any success.
But what's happened
is that because his reluctance to do these things
is genuine -
he has no real fear of his career ending -
it's actually had the opposite effect.
The media have gone, "here's a mystery here."
Here's someone who couldn't care less about the hype.
Here's someone who doesn't talk to the audience on stage.
Here's someone who genuinely says through his music,
"listen to the music, don't listen to me.
"My words are nothing except when I sing."
In this, you know, mad sort of frenzy
of having things rammed down our throat all the time,
that's an incredibly refreshing approach to take.
Man: You're welcome, guys. I wish you all the best.
Michael: Okay, have a good day.
Same to you. All the best, mate. See you later.
Michael: No worries.
Susan: There should be trust. They have to trust.
Number one priority is trust and faith -
whether Michael feel
that he can be trusted by gurrumul's family.
Michael: He wants to ask you a question.
Every year I do portraits -
a portrait for the Archibald prize.
And it's a portrait
to do with influential Australian people, basically.
Susan: Gurrumul and Michael,
their story how they been along together.
- Yeah. - Yo. Ma.
- Yeah, well, that's alright. - Yeah? Okay.
Susan: If they tell the world
and the picture comes out,
it's a big picture about...
Yeah, you too. Good luck with the painting.
Nice to meet you. Thank you so much.
- If you win one tonight... - Mmm?
What are you going to say?
Are you going to say anything to anyone?
Yeah, yeah.
No, no.
Yeah, yeah, but in yolgnu matha, yaka english.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
It's fantastic because they'll all be listening.
They'll all be waiting.
And, you know, if they know you're talking to them...
And everyone in the northern territory
would be really proud.
And this year's Aria award for best independent release
goes to...
Gurrumul yunupingu.
Announcer: Formerly from yothu yindi
and also a part of the saltwater band,
gurrumul's also nominated tonight
for best male artist and album of the year.
Yo.
Sydney. Yo, thank you.
Yeah, amazing, to look at gurrumul up there now.
I can't...
Radio announcer: I'll just read a little quote
from the Sydney morning herald -
"surrender to the greatest voice
"this continent has ever heard."
The first time I heard gurrumul's cd,
which is simply called gurrumul,
I was in... lying in bed with headphones on.
It was a full moon
and I've got a dormer window in the bedroom
so I was getting shadows from the moon
on a breezy night with shadows of the trees
dancing on the ceiling,
listening to gurrumul"s music.
And I don't know where that music took my head
or the rest of me followed it, but I don't know where it was.
It was places that I've never ever been -
in fact some were places I didn't even know existed.
Susan: When he sings yothu djarimirri,
he's singing about himself,
how he was brought to the world
and he's covered with rainbow.
Djari is a rainbow,
and he is a child with a beauty all around him,
and all the colours of the rainbow is around him.
He's in the middle. He's inside of a rainbow.
And inside that rainbow is a special child
and that special child is called gurrumul yunupingu.
I'm happy long time now, yo.
See my son.
Susan: I remember my sister who was pregnant with him
and we both didn't know.
We just know it
when he was falling around,
bumping onto something.
And that gave us a shock, you know, because we were not...
The family were not expecting him to be blind.
It gave us family a heartbreak,
hurt, sorrow
when we found out that gurrumul was born blind.
Song: ♪ I was born blind
♪ and I don't know why
♪ god knows why
♪ because he love me so... ♪
Susan: We used to take him to the church every Sunday
and this is where he got the Harmony.
Daisy: He was very, very happy, smiling all the time.
Every time he heard ceremonies somewhere,
gurrumul went there.
He was learning from dancing
and he was learning from manakay
and he started singing.
"When you grow up, be you..."
I said to him, and he was just laughing to me.
Susan: It's an old language
that is spoken through the songs.
When they sing song of this world,
the nature, the environment,
it's giving them a strength.
They're pulling that strength of their understanding
to themselves.
Understand the world, understand the environment,
understand the songline.
Because it's old
he's making it easier for the world to understand
and he's making it new.
He's presenting that message to the world
through songs.
See ya.
If you want to say hello to gurrumul,
you say, "namirr, gurrumul.”
Audience: Namirr, gurrumul.
- Manymuk! - Michael: That means go away.
No!
"On paper, Geoffrey gurrumul yunupingu
"sounds like a preposterous pop star.
"He never gives interviews
"but plays his guitar upside down
"and honestly believes
"that he is closely related to the saltwater crocodile
"and descended from rainbow pythons."
Does he identify with that animal?
He is that animal.
He is? What does that mean?
That's what he, he...
In aboriginal society there are many fathers.
There's the blood father
but then uncle, uncle, uncle - they are all father.
His mother is that rainbow serpent
and he's the child of that.
It's again a kind of spiritual connection.
Maybe.
Yeah.
Geoffrey garrumul.
This year's Archibald prize with his portrait
of blind aboriginal singer Geoffrey yunigumi.
Hello, my name is garrumul.
Reporter: Guy maestri is now the toast of the art world,
taking out this year's prize
with his depiction of singer Geoffrey gurrumul yunupingu.
Gurrumul couldn't be present at the ceremony
but maestri read a statement on his behalf.
"I would like to congratulate guy for his painting
"and for the recognition he deserves
"in winning the Archibald.
"I would also like to tell everyone
"that I didn't win this money
"so please don't call me asking for some of it."
Come on, take your shirt off.
Yeah!
Don't know what's that... Gurrumul comes.
Gurrumul.
- Who's that bloke? - Gurrumul.
Gurrumul? Who's he?
He's from north - arnhem land.
- Oh, yo? - And I love his music.
I found the secret of touring with him
and that is have an open access phone account
at all times so he can talk to family and then he's laughing.
Michael: I think homesickness is a big thing
for yolngu touring, and it's come out really well,
the fact that he can ring home
and talk to everyone on a daily basis.
This is what being a musician is all about.
It's being on the road, it's the best time -
having fun, jamming together, sharing a musical experience.
It takes you out of normal life
and puts you in almost like a fantasy life.
But as soon as we leave the room, he won't say a thing
and I suppose that's how I've become his public voice.
Michael: When most of us are born,
we're not born with much of an identity
or knowledge about ourselves.
We're born with a name and a birth weight
and hopefully some parents.
When gurrumul's born, he's born with an identity,
a skin name, and
he's connected to lots of different parts of the earth
and the animals, including the baru, the saltwater crocodile.
And this is all about him -
this is all about the saltwater crocodile.
It's called:
They've been trying to get gurrumul on taratata,
which is one of the big French music shows.
The song they've asked us to do is every breath you take,
which is a bit of a weird choice
because gurrumul doesn't sing about that sort of stuff
and the sentiments are not very yolngu either,
so they're also hard to translate
unless you do them literally.
So gurrumul will sing the chorus in english with sting
and the verses in his own tongue.
No way he can do that.
That's where we're at now and it's the night before.
So I don't know what's going to happen.
Man: How'd brother get there so quickly?
Man: Maybe because he left 45 minutes before us.
Thank you.
Ready to go, guys.
Michael: I was separated from gurrumul.
He was out there by himself in the middle of the room
when suddenly he's plunged into a rehearsal
where he has no words, no lyrics, no translations.
He hasn't got a context
of what's supposed to be happening.
So his comfort zone in that situation is just silence
and I just sat side of stage, helpless.
- Not happy at all. - No, furious.
I think we'll lose it, to be honest.
Michael: I think they were threatening
to drop the whole segment from the show.
"He doesn't know the song. Why doesn't he know the song?"
And I'm saying, "he doesn't even know who sting is."
I've had, "why did you agree to this?" And all that stuff.
Gurrumul keeps saying to me, "is sting a big name?"
Like...
I said, "yep, he is." Now I'm going to cry.
His uncle sent this through today
so he wants to listen to it now.
Dijunga: Every breath you take.
It's going to be hard work.
Michael: Once he'd done that rehearsal, everything changed.
He had a context.
He knew that sting was good.
He knew the band was incredible
and there was an expectation that he would kill it,
he would nail it.
A lot depended on this - he could feel it.
Yo!
Man: Michael, stage in five.
Man: ♪ every bond you break every step you take
♪ I'll be watching you. ♪
♪ Oh, can't you see ♪
♪ You belong to me
♪ how my poor heart aches
♪ with every step you take
♪ every single day
♪ every word you say
♪ every game you play
♪ every night you stay
♪ I'll be watching you
Sting: ♪ I'll be watching every breath you take
♪ every move you make
♪ every bond you break
♪ every step you take
♪ every single day
♪ every word you say
♪ every breath
♪ I'll be watching you. ♪
Welcome.
- Hey, Geoffrey, it's sting. - Thank you.
My brother, that was so delightful to sing with you.
You are a truly wonderful artist.
It's a big honour for me, thank you.
How did you feel? Did you enjoy it?
- Yep. - Good. You sang great.
We should do more of this.
Should do more.
Except it's very strange
for me to sing, "oh, can't you see" in that song.
There's a strange irony there.
You have a sense of humour, I know that.
So listen, good luck on your travels.
- I'll see you again, I hope. - Yep.
Okay, bye-bye. See you later.
Michael: Thank you.
Sting!
Mark: We've stressed ourselves sometimes
about getting him to deliver but he's always done it.
It seems that he has an ability to do that.
He has an ability to go, "it'll be alright.
"Things will work out."
If you imagine, right, we have two minutes on the TV.
Next week if we confirm "what not what' show
which we think Robbie Williams might be on
but we're not too sure...
The booker was here tonight - fell in love with him.
If we ain't staring at a hit record,
I don't know what is a hit record.
This is confidential.
Confidential? Say it to the camera.
We appointed dramatico our us partners today.
Big day.
This deal is going to break us in the us.
So we're going to have a glass of orange juice in a moment.
Thank you very much. Yo.
Zurich, Switzerland.
And goodnight.
You're a good audience.
Michael: If he chooses to do this, then his life's set.
He's at the level that very few people get to
in terms of originality, performance, musicianship,
expression, the albums - everything's in place.
Mark: There's an incredible future for him
if he wants to embrace music and touring.
The possibilities for him are limitless
but whether he wants to do that or not,
that's the question.
There's going to be more media, yeah?
Then you have to do it all over again.
- It's going to be... - The wall?
No, not the wall. You have to talk to the media.
It's going to be pretty busy all over again, yeah?
If you win, you get up from your seat
and you go for photos and then you go for...
Susan: It hurts me but somehow it pleases me.
I feel happy about him being blind.
Gurrumul, it is an honour and privilege
to meet you here on the red carpet at the arias.
I hear you have a very special performance in line?
- Yeah. - Yeah?
Are you looking forward to anything in particular?
- Yes. - Yeah?
How did you dress yourself tonight? Much effort?
Okay. Thank you very much, guys.
Thanks.
Because I don't want him to learn
all sorts of things of this world,
so he can focus only on the songline.
Michael: I might take him back now.
He just doesn't want to be here.
They were very happy. Yeah, your mum was crying.
Gurrumul: Ahh. Huh?
- Your mum was crying. - Ah.
Michael: The tour that we're about to do into America
is like an artist's dream.
He knows that America is the key to his musical life.
We've got primo venues and festivals,
his cds are in every store in America
and we're just basically on the brink
of making the biggest go for it we can.
Susan: We have a different two worlds here.
Our world is run and occupied by two different worlds.
The one world is balanda
and the other world is yolngu.
When you're carrying the two world on your back,
what do you feel?
How do you feel?
How do you classify that one
with two world on your back?
The world pulling you down
or is it...
Making you standing up?
Michael: We're about to go on an American tour
and gurrumul has not turned up.
We don't know what's going on or where he is,
or actually what to do.
That's a fairly interesting stage...
The night before,
the day of the tour starting throughout America
to launch a massive album in America
and the artist can't go.
Has he done this before?
- No, never. - No, never done that.
If... Andrew, if he had done this before,
we wouldn't have committed
to saying yes, he will come on a tour.
Because...
And I can't ever commit for him to come on a tour again.
Look, I think it's past being homesick.
I don't think he cares about that.
He's got me there, who...
I'm, you know... He's really close to.
He's got a sold-out gig in New York on Tuesday.
Yeah.
And it is sold out.
Yeah.
That's your immediate worry.
He can't blow out the 15th, you know?
- Yeah, I know. - That's an important date.
That's when that letterman guys are coming to see it.
- That has to be on. - Yep.
Yeah.
Hello?
Yeah, I'm here.
Sorry, someone just arrived outside
and we thought it was gurrumul.
Can he remember when his grandfather was alive
or his great-grandfather -
that's how many generations it's going to take
before any other yolngu gets this opportunity.
Yeah, I know.
It will be 100 years or more.
Maybe 200, maybe 500 years, maybe more.
I don't want to see you guys get into the shit.
I don't want to see that either.
And I know how awful these promoters can be, honestly.
They are the worst. They haven't got a...
They haven't got a bloody piece of emotion in them,
- any of them. - Yeah.
I've never met one that does, anyway.
Yep.
What about their insurance? Haven't they got insurance?
Mark: The saddest thing for me
is the possibility that the relationship is gone.
If that relationship was lost,
that's the saddest thing about it all.
Woman: If you need to talk about anything again...
- Yeah, great. - Just give him a call.
- Thank you very much, Robin. - Okay. Thanks, Mark.
Bye-bye. Okay, bye.
Mark: I don't know how he feels about both of us.
I don't know how he feels.
Mark: What you saw was a clash of culture.
It was a clash of a worldview
that we don't fully understand, I think.
We just have a different understanding of time.
We have a different understanding of now
and a different understanding of tomorrow.
We worry about the future endlessly.
They worry about now.
They don't worry about tomorrow.
We have to learn to live with that
more than he has to learn to live with us.
Susan: Today you thinking about the past...
And you look your head...
Turn your head to that future.
It's like a shadow.
It's just a shadow because you never...
You haven't seen it.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, next day.
But today we don't know it.
Gurrumul: Michael.
Michael: Sounds really sweet.
Ya-hoo! Exactly right.
Michael: Do you want to try some vocals?
Yeah.
I'll give you some vocal lines
and you can do it a couple of lines at a time.
- Yeah? - We'll get you to open up
to the really sort of loud, full voice
but really sweet, like what you're doing now.
So let's listen to more of that Keith talking.
Susan: A few people knows forgiveness.
Few people knows forgiving.
Only few people knows how to give...
How to take.
Michael: Yeah, you nailed it.
Mark: We always knew this business was a risk
but it was a risk worth taking.
On the us tour four years ago, we lost,
but all we lost was money.
We didn't lose the relationship with gurrumul.
Susan: Michael and gurrumul is like...
And what does this means?
Do we have same mother or different mother?
How can these two brothers call themselves wawa??
When I see them, I see them two coming together to be one
and you are giving me a picture,
a great picture of a person being one.
Two but one.
It's a very amazing thing to happen in your life.
Gurrumul: Where you going?
Where you going?
Children: Cool! Coo!
Michael: He and I have talked for years
about what song we want at each other's funeral.
We talk about lots of really in-your-face stuff
to do with death
and he and I have spoken about...
Looking after the other one's kids
if something ever happens to us.
We were only laughing the other day -
Charlie, my son, was talking about...
When you die, some people give their organs over
or give parts of their body for research
or to other people who need them.
And he said, "tell bapa I will give him my eyes if I die."
And, you know, so I told gurrumul this week
and we laugh about things like that.
Gurrumul: Yo.
Susan: I know it's too painful to say this.
It's hurtful, painful
but life is life.
We have one life, one death.
Mark: I haven't lived here for a few years
and coming here almost makes me cry.
These people here in this community get to you.
They get really deep inside you.
Having that connection with gurrumul and the people here
is just... It's like coming home.
And it's a funny thing to say for a whitefella,
to say that it feels like coming home
into an aboriginal community, but that's truly how it feels.
It's a sad occasion but yolngu do funerals really well.
They grieve really well.
They present the final act in someone's life
in an amazing way.
It's an honour to be a part of that.
And to say farewell to that old lady,
you know, give my condolences to the families,
is a great privilege to be able to do that.
Susan: We have one life, one death.
And where is the finishing line
and where is the starting line?
We just don't know it.
Gurrumul is djungi for his mother tribe.
Djungi has a responsibility, a role,
to carry out what's been given to him
from his mother clan.
Like today, when we look at gurrumul now,
his responsibility in djungi are growing up as well.
When his songs are growing up, he is the right person
to present that message to the world.
Susan: I am thinking about gurrumul.
His life book is closing.
The last pages is open.
This is the last page that we're going to read it
and then close it.
Susan: Gurrumul has a responsibility to sing,
to harmonise his mother.
And he has every right
to present that message to the world
because he is called djungi.
Michael: Gurrumul's been talking about
going deeper into his roots, into traditional music,
his language and where he comes from.
And so we're going to try to match
yolngu chants and yolngu songs
with minimalist classical repetitive music -
elements of both of our cultures' music together,
to his world and to our world.
Michael: Yeah, okay.
Erkki? Yeah.
Erkki, can you come and listen to the yidaki part
and just check that it is matching?
Erkki: I've done really careful listening
of the yidaki parts.
And then I've notated them into western notation.
Trying to find a western notation
for the oral culture is a real challenge.
Michael: No, it's not the same as what you're singing.
- Erkki? - Yep?
Maybe play the whole track again
and come and listen to what he sings, 'cause it's different.
Erkki: Sure.
Michael: This is Australia's only music.
And once you discover it, you work out
that that's a language that no-one here knows.
None of the players here today know that language.
Erkki: I wouldn't mind doing that section
just one more time.
Erkki: Okay, let's do that again, yep.
Yeah, sorry. Yep, that's cool, cool.
Do you mind doing that just one more time?
That was great. Alright, sorry, sorry.
Woman: I'm sorry.
That happened right at the beginning.
Erkki: Yeah, great, cool. Alright, take five seconds.
We all need a break, I know.
Michael: We found the best way
to understand gurrumul's language
was to change the way we were listening to it.
Well, if they play the track again, can you play me...
Just clap what the belma does?
Yeah. Great.
- Erkki: That kind of thing? - Yeah.
That's the right thing?
Something heavy underneath it.
- Yeah, like a bass drum. - Yeah.
And erkki, flags.
Erkki: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah.
- Like dancing, you know? - Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- I think that would be great. - Yeah.
Michael: It's great.
Michael: The more and more we all share ideas,
because he realises that I'm inside his head
and that he's inside mine.
I feel... I feel lucky being able to work with him.
Michael: Yeah, it's beautiful.
Great ending.
- Erkki: Did that feel good? - Yeah, amazing.
Erkki: Beautiful.
Michael: We're going back to the United States
to try again.
This time it's going on a musical journey
rather than a big promotional exercise.
What gurrumul sees of success
is when his family recognise what he's doing
is most representative of them,
their culture and their music.
What I see it as is being recognised
not just in Australia but internationally
as something that's really significant.
So we're going with slightly different agendas
but I get this really strong feeling
that gurrumul's trying to do something for us this time.
Michael: The anxiety has kind of diminished for me a lot
because I know that he feels like
he's completed a lot of things that he never would have
without this journey that we've been on.
Never would have gone near it.
Mark: In everything that we do in this business,
every project that we do with artists,
we treat it as though
it's the last thing we're ever going to do with them,
because you can't be certain, for lots of different reasons,
that there is a future for anyone.
And so we've had to basically operate
with a fatalistic view that everything that we do -
the next album we do, the next concert we do -
is the last one.
But where's it going to end? Could end tomorrow.
Michael: Gurrumul lost his father this week.
So this is a dedication to him. It's called bapa.
Susan: From the oldest son,
the father passes his responsibility
to carry on whatever is in this world,
including the cultural thing.
That's the real role
for a person that can stand in the middle...
And do his part
as an eldest son usually do.
Susan: The end of the book...
That book soon will be closing,
but to me,
that book will be open to me and my children.
That book will be still open
and know his life will be open to us in future.
And that's what his life is all about,
his yolngu life.
And what's the stories about his life
and what everything that he sings and compose song -
it's about life, life here on this earth.
And all those...
Those pain that we had in the past -
seeing him, that he was born blind, you know -
that pain is gone.
That pain and that sorrow and that hard, hard head is gone.
You know? It's very amazing.
I can say it's amazing, you know.
Man: Wak means he's a crow.
Crows leads us to our promised land.
Mark: There are songs in aboriginal Australia
that go back 10, 20,000 years.
So they tell the history of the country.
They give an explanation for the world and how it is.
So, culturally, this is amazing content.
But we don't, as a country...
We don't take it very seriously
or we don't treat it with the respect
it should be treated with.
And I always look at the opera house and think, you know,
if every day one tile fell off the opera house
and no-one did anything about it,
there would be an absolute outrage.
That's what's happening in aboriginal Australia.
These things are national treasures.
The songs, the stories,
the language, the experience of aboriginal Australia
are national treasures.
Every day a tile falls off. Every day a word gets lost.
Every day a song gets lost. Every day something gets lost.
And no-one does anything about it.
Man: Did you enjoy the playing the first time in a pub?
Yeah.
You should do it more often. You just change your name.
You just come in as g-unit.
Yeah, g-unit.
- Not gurrumul, g-unit. - Yeah, not gurrumul, g-unit.