Shellie Morris Music Workshops: Home
Welcome to the Shellie Morris Music & Literacy Workshop Homepage.
Shellie Morris is an indigenous Australian and has been working in remote Aboriginal communities for nine years helping children to write, perform and record their own stories and songs. She has worked in over 50 indigenous communities in Australia and is dedicated to raising the self esteem, creativity and literacy of Aboriginal people. A well known singer songwriter in Australia, Shellie is also an ambassador for the Fred Hollows foundation an international development organisation, focusing on blindness prevention and Australian Indigenous health.
During Shellie's workshops children are taught literacy by participating and communicating their ideas and beliefs in creative groups. Children write their own songs and stories and then sing and record these on Protools (a professional music program). After the songs have been mastered the children often perform these in concerts in their communities and schools. Children are also provided with a CD of their song and depending on the time frame a full CD is produced complete with artwork provided by the children.
While Shellie mainly works with age groups from transition through to High school, many projects and recordings have also been completed for young adults, bands & choirs. Shellie loves working on remote aboriginal communities and has built up many strong friendships and relationships with the people she has met during the past nine years. Her own aboriginal family being from the Northern Territory and Kakadu. "I am very proud of all the songs featured on this website. They have been written by the children about their lives in their communities. Some tracks also feature individuals with disabilities or victims of domestic violence. it is very inspiring and humbling to work with these amazing people and we hope you enjoy the songs." (Shellie Morris)
ABOUT SHELLIE MORRIS The Australian newspaper described her as ‘an aboriginal chanteuse of rare seriousness and grace’. She has performed everywhere from rural outback Australia to London Festival Hall and the Sydney Opera House with great reviews. Shellie is currently a featured artist with the Black Arm Band. (a collaboration of Australia’s top indigenous artists and jazz musicians) Her song Swept Away was orchestrated and performed in 2008 with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. A documentary film on Shellie’s life and music was commissioned and broadcast nationally in 2009 as well as her concert at the Sydney Opera house with Gurrumul Yunupingu. She has released two albums to date and is currently writing the music for her third CD. In addition to this Shellie performed and co-wrote the music Liberty Songs a collaboration between refugees from Liberia and indigenous Australian women. In 2009 she performed at Womad UK and in 2010 Shellie performed at the opening for the Vancouver Winter Olympics. She has performed with artists such as John Butler, Yothu Yindi, Paul Kelly, Jimmy Barnes, Jimmy Little, Chris Bailey and Lou Bennett.
TESTAMONIAL
Dr Inge Kral Literacy Researcher, CAEPR, ANU
"Makin' it rhyme!" "Shellie's love for music and love for the kids is a potent mix! She uses her heavenly voice, her fabulous musicality and her natural teaching ability to inspire remote community kids to listen to the beat and create poetry. She has those kids in the palm of her hand: writing those rhyming texts, creating the sound, communicating the message and working together with a keyboard and laptop to record original songs. And after only a few hours they all proudly go home with a CD of their original songs. What an inspired approach to literacy!"
Dr Jimmy Little AO Jimmy Little Foundation
"Inspiring" Shellie's work with the Jimmy Little Foundation is nothing short of inspiring. Shellie has a totally unique way of engaging with children and getting them to contribute as a group rather than a bunch of individuals. The results of her involvement in the Uncle Jimmy Thumbs up program are exceptional in both the lyrical content that she guides the children to write for themselves and her catchy melodies that make the songs come alive and so become very memorable to the children. We are privileged to have her on board with our program.
People of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent should be aware that the indigenousworkshop website may contain images and names of people who are deceased or images of places that could cause sorrow.