Just to north of Darwin is the country of the Tiwi people, spread over Bathurst and Melville Islands. These two new books give voice to Tiwi oral traditions and to the power and resonance within that tradition of orality that encompasses song, narrative, and the ways in which they sustain family and relationships to ancestors and to kin.

The Old Songs Are Always New: Singing traditions of the Tiwi Islands explores the world of Indigenous song composition and maintenance among the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands. For many years in the sphere of anthropology and ethnomusicology, Indigenous music was considered arcane; in the world of linguistics song and music, it was rarely explored. In academic terms, this book is a rich and delightful repository of the knowledge of song held by the Tiwi women and men who worked with Genevieve Campbell, a professional musician who is currently a research affiliate at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Tiwi Story: Turning history downside up is related to the first new release in regard to its deep exploration of orality and how communities value such traditions. In a world where the calls for truth telling become more urgent, in an Australia where the debate rages about a Voice to parliament, here are books that speak to the truths as experienced by Tiwi men and women of Bathurst and Melville Island, and speak also to a wide range of events that are held within the oral traditions of the Tiwi people.