What started as a journey of self-discovery for Australian singer-songwriter Jessie Lloyd has ballooned into a growing collection of once-forgotten Indigenous history in the Mission Songs Project.
The Mission Songs Project is the result of Jessie’s search to recover and restore the songs and stories that recount the experiences of Indigenous people living on Christian missions and reserves in the first half of the 20th century.“I feel like I’m just scratching the surface of what I consider a new genre of Australian music,” Jessie says.
“There’s probably 50-60 years’ worth of songs that people were singing that they don’t sing anymore but they did, all around Australia.
“I’m never going to be able to find all of these songs but the purpose of what I’m doing is trying to create awareness of these songs that were sung and encourage people to look in their own areas, and if they do come across something, it is of value and relevant to their own local history.”
Jessie is on tour with Mission Songs Project soon with shows stretching from February to June. As Jessie discovers more and more songs, her live performances of Mission Songs Project have helped both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians reconnect with a dark part of our history.
“It’s been really touching,” Jessie says when asked how audiences have reacted to the piece.
“For Indigenous audiences, all I need to do is sing a couple of songs and most blackfellas know what I’m talking about. They think of their parents’ and grandparents’ stories, everyone’s quite familiar with this and can relate, and they end up telling their own yarns that connect the dots to a lot of things.
“For non-Indigenous audiences, it’s an eye opener; it shines a light in a corner of Australia’s history that people have never had access to before.
“A lot of people come up to me and say, ‘we went to school with the mission kids and we never thought about what happened to them after school, or where they went to’. It’s not in a good or a bad way, it’s making people aware of their community around them and beyond their own street, I suppose.”
Jessie goes on to say that although Mission Songs Project was started as a personal search for self-identity, it has also acquired a grander, historical undertaking. “For me there’s also a bigger picture,” she explains.
“The bigger picture here is that not only are these elders’ voices finally being heard, because they lived in a time when their voices weren’t to be heard, it’s also an opportunity for Australians to connect and engage. Let’s address our past and music is a really beautiful way of doing that.
“I tell everybody, every show I do that I have an agenda with the project and that is I’d like at least one of these songs from the Mission Songs Project to be a part of the Australian national songbook.
"Because there isn’t really any Indigenous content in the national Australian songbook and it means that all Australians have to take ownership for the songs and the stories and the history, which I think will be very progressive.”
Mission Songs Project 2020 Tour Dates
Thu 20 Feb - Middleback Theatre (Whyalla, SA)22-23 Feb - Yarta Purtli (Port Augusta, SA)
Tue 10 Mar - Redland Performing Arts Centre (Brisbane)
Thu 12 Mar - Mackay Entertainment & Convention Centre
Sat 14 Mar - Tanks Arts Centre (Cairns)
17-18 Apr - Theatre Royal (Hobart)
Tue 21 Apr - Darebin Arts Centre (Melbourne)
Wed 22 Apr - Cardinia Cultural Centre (Melbourne)
Fri 24 Apr - Bathurst MEC
Sat 2 May - Moncrieff Entertainment Centre (Bundaberg)
Wed 6 May - Pilbeam Theatre (Rockhampton)
Fri 8 May - Margaret River HEART (WA)
Sun 10 May - Moora Performing Arts Centre (WA)
Thu 14 May - Goldfields Arts Centre (Kalgoorlie)
Sun 17 May - Mandurah Performing Arts Centre
21-23 May - Hothouse Theatre (Albury-Wodonga)
Tue 26 May - Riverlinks Westside (Shepparton)
Thu 28 May - La Trobe Performing Arts Centre (Traralgon)
Sat 30 May - Geelong Performing Arts Centre
Sun 31 May - Riverside Theatres (Sydney)
Wed 3 Jun - The Art House (Central Coast)
