sea symphony

In 2008 I was working with NPY Women’s Council as a youth worker, traveling out to the APY Lands in northern South Australia. Based in Alice Springs, the communities and young people I was supporting were sometimes a five hour drive away, sometimes more than 8 hours. A lot of my time was spent on the Stuart Highway from Alice Springs to Kulgera and then the red dirt roads that branched off in not so straight and direct lines. What I remember from these drives was a sense of me unfurling into the red roads, opening to the expansive clear skies, and shaken to the bones by the corrugated bumps that left me feeling like I needed to reassemble my bones back together again.

It was on one of these drives south of Alice Springs that I silenced my iPod and started humming a tune. Somewhere along the roads this hum shaped into a melody and some words stuck to it. It was the beginning of the song Sea Symphony. Friends that I played music with at the time introduced the lovely F minor chord at the end of the chorus. What a difference this chord makes to give shape to the song, to create a moment of dischord or suspense, before it resolves to the harmonious C major chord again.

I’m not the only person of Islander blood that’s found themselves working in remote desert communities, it’s amazing how many other pacific islanders I’ve crossed paths with in these remote corners. This song is perhaps a calling to my Tolai origins of Rabaul, PNG. It was also perhaps a calling to a place of sanctuary in my mind or spirit, a place that I needed to keep alive in order to do the hard remote work I was doing at the time.

Sea Symphony is a sea shanty of sorts, a celebration of the adventures we go on with loved ones when all you need is your dress, a boat, and a kite.  

Sea Symphony

do you remember the time we sailed?

you and I across the sea

in Tommy’s little red boat

with his yellow kite

across the sea, just you and I

and all I had was the dress upon my back

and all I ever need is the open sea

come sail with me

we were sailing eight days

seven starry nights

across the sea flying the yellow kite

when we arrived to an island we found

we called it Symphony

we let it sing to us

and all I had was the soundtrack in my head

and all I ever need is a symphony

come sing with me

now that we’re home

to our beds we return

there’s no need to explain to me

for I know you better than you’ll ever know

‘cause we sailed the seas, yeah you and me

and all I have is the ground on which I stand

and all I ever need is the symphony of

the open sea

oh, won’t you sail with me?

come sail with me