Renowned Palawa singer-songwriter Dewayne Everettsmith has embarked on an unprecedented musical collaboration with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra (TSO), recording a full-length album entirely in palawa kani—the revived language of Tasmanian Aboriginal people. Titled Songs of Ceremony: Reawakening Palawa Kani, the project represents both a landmark moment in the state’s cultural history and a personal response to intergenerational trauma. As Everettsmith prepares to premiere the orchestral arrangements next year on palawa kani country, the endeavour underlines a powerful commitment to linguistic revival, cultural resilience and community healing.
Historical Context of Tasmanian Aboriginal Languages
Prior to British colonisation in 1803, the island now known as Lutruwita (Tasmania) was home to at least a dozen distinct Aboriginal languages, each tied to its local nation. Within decades, colonial violence, forced removals and disease drove these tongues to the brink of extinction. By the early 20th century, only fragments—recorded by early ethnographers on wax cylinders—remained. Fanny Cochrane Smith, one of the last fluent speakers, preserved brief song fragments in 1899 and 1903, now treasured in the UNESCO Australian Memory of the World Register.
The Palawa Kani Revival
Starting in the 1990s, Tasmanian Aboriginal leaders and linguists pooled archival word lists, place names and Smith’s wax-cylinder recordings to create palawa kani—a composite, reconstructed language uniting surviving lexical items into a living tongue. Since its formal launch in 2005, palawa kani has been taught in schools, used in public signage and woven into ceremonies, yet few contemporary musical works fully showcase its expressive potential. Everettsmith’s new album aims to fill that gap, harnessing orchestral grandeur to bring palawa kani to wider audiences.
Everettsmith’s Personal Journey
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As he sat awake with his firstborn son in 2010, Everettsmith recalls a yearning that set this project in motion: “I wished I could sing to him in language,” he says. Neither he nor his parents had retained fluency. Born to a Warlpiri mother and Irish father—his mother later admitted she could not care for him due to her struggles—Everettsmith was raised by an extended Aboriginal family connected to Smith’s lineage. Despite this cultural embrace, he grew up without palawa kani songs to lull him, a gap he has long sought to close for his children and community.
His own career has bridged Indigenous and mainstream audiences. In 2012, his song “It’s Like Love” featured in Tourism Australia’s global ad campaign; in 2014, he released the first commercially available palawa kani single. Yet Songs of Ceremony represents his most ambitious artistic and cultural statement to date.
The Collaboration with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra
Established in 1948, the TSO has played a central role in Lutruwita’s musical life—but never before on this scale with an Indigenous language. TSO Chief Executive Caroline Sharpen calls the project “one of the most important in our 77-year history,” noting its potential to reshape how orchestral music engages with First Nations culture. The sessions, held at Hobart’s Federation Concert Hall, bring together Everettsmith’s band, a 60-piece orchestra under conductor Erkki Veltheim, and producer Michael Hohnen of Skinnyfish Music.
Sharpen emphasises the TSO’s commitment to partnership: “We’re not merely accompanying; we’re co-creating a repertoire that honours palawa kani and its people.” Rehearsals involve linguists ensuring accurate pronunciation, while arrangers weave traditional rhythms into symphonic textures.
Songs of Ceremony: Album Details
Songs of Ceremony will feature around a dozen tracks spanning devotional “cry” songs, ancestral laments and contemporary odes. Highlights include:
- “ningi-mana” (My Mother): A tender tribute set to sweeping string melodies, acknowledging the sacrifices of Elders and the tears of past generations.
- “Fanny’s Lament”: Inspired by Smith’s wax-cylinder recording, Erkki Veltheim expands her 19th-century melody into an orchestral aria, bridging past and present.
- “Lutruwita”: An island anthem with driving brass fanfares, poised to become a rallying cry for resilience and recognition in Tasmania and beyond.
Everettsmith has crafted lyrics that blend archival vocabulary with new palawa kani neologisms, translating concepts of land, water and kinship into evocative song cycles.
Reawakening Ancient Melodies
The project’s coalescence around archival fragments marks a watershed in language revitalisation. Linguist Claire Bowern, an advisor on the album, notes that oral art forms accelerate vocabulary learning and normalize palawa kani in everyday life. “When people sing these songs, they internalise lexicon, grammar and worldview in ways that text alone cannot convey,” she explains.
Moreover, the orchestral dimension expands palawa kani’s reach into concert halls, radio broadcasts and digital platforms, aligning traditional custodianship with contemporary media.
Community and Educational Outreach
Following the album’s release later this year, Songs of Ceremony will debut in a series of “on country” concerts next spring, beginning with performances staged at sacred sites for Tasmanian Aboriginal communities. Public and school tours across the state will follow in 2027, featuring workshops where students learn palawa kani chants and dance movements.
Sharpen anticipates that school concerts will foster cross-cultural understanding: “Through music, we can unite. Students—Indigenous and non-Indigenous—will sing together, learn each other’s stories and carry palawa kani forward.” Local education departments plan to integrate the songs into language curricula, giving children firsthand experience with a living Aboriginal language.
Future Performances and Expansion
While rooted in Lutruwita, the project’s ambitions extend globally. Everettsmith envisions taking Songs of Ceremony to international festivals—performing at London’s Southbank Centre or New York’s Carnegie Hall—declaring across former colonial capitals, “We’re still here.” Plans are also under discussion for a collaborative album blending palawa kani with other revived Indigenous languages, fostering pan-Australian solidarity.
Cultural Significance and Healing
For Everettsmith, the album is both a cultural celebration and a balm for intergenerational trauma. His own story—abandoned as an infant, raised away from biological parents, yet steeped in Aboriginal kinship—mirrors collective experiences of dispossession. By singing in palawa kani and recounting ancestral narratives alongside the TSO’s grand sonorities, he restores a sense of agency and pride.
“This is not about competition,” he emphasises. “It’s about contribution. We offer our songs as gifts of connection—no one will lose, and we all will gain.”
Elders and community leaders have welcomed the project as a milestone in self-determination. In a statement, Tasmanian Aboriginal Centre chair Rodney Dillon praised the “courage and creativity” of melding classical orchestration with revived language. “We’ve reclaimed what was lost,” he said. “Now we sing our history forward.”
Conclusion
By fusing orchestral might with the resilience of palawa kani, Dewayne Everettsmith and the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra have opened a new chapter in Australia’s musical and cultural landscape. Songs of Ceremony stands as a testament to the power of language revival, the healing capacity of music and the enduring spirit of Lutruwita’s First Peoples. As the album reaches audiences—both on palawa kani country and beyond—it invites all listeners to join in a shared song of survival, sovereignty and solidarity.
