The daughter of one of Australia's best-known Indigenous musicians is making her festival debut at the National Folk Festival as a solo artist.
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Dhapanbal Yunupingu, 35, is the third of six daughters of Dr M Yunupingu, the lead singer of Yothu Yindi.
"I'm going to play some of my original songs including my single Mari Wurrapa [Grandmother Whale]," she said. She will also sing some Yothu Yindi numbers arranged for her voice.
Her father began writing that song with Baninaylil Bukulatjpi in 2010 but it was not completed before he died in 2013. Last year, Bukulatjpi visited her and sang the song to her.
"He said, 'I've got a song for you I want you to finish."'
They worked together to complete it - Yunupingu wrote the English lyrics and Bukulatjpi wrote the portion in the Yolngu Matha language - and she recorded it with songman Djakapurra Munyarryun at the Art Centre in Yirrakala in Arnhem Land, where she lives.
It became one of the songs on her first solo album, New Day.
Yunupingu said, "Music has always been part of my life since I was a little girl."
She was influenced by her father and his band and she would also sing along to whatever songs she heard on the radio as a child.
But she didn't pursue music for a long time - life got in the way. When she finished school, she married at 17 and had three sons - Jordan, now 18, Denzel, now 15, and Wayan, now 12 - and worked in an office job at at Yirrakala Business Enterprises.
In recent years, while still working, she was able to focus more on music. She acquired professional management, and mentorship from Yothu Yindi's Stu Kelly and also from singer-songwriter Shellie Morris, who will be supporting her with backing vocals at the festival this long weekend.
After Canberra, she was going to Brisbane as one of the performers in "DEBE LE NEUR" Women of Strength and Dignity Women of the World Festival and was then going to be part of a Yothu Yindi Treaty Project perfomance marking the 25th anniversary of the release of the hit song Treaty.
Yunupingu said her three sons were "really pretty proud" of her - and all three showed musical talents of their own.
"A family band in the future!" she said.
Dhapanbal Yunupinju will be performing at the National Folk Festival on Friday at the Flute 'n' Fiddle at 7pm, Saturday at the Majestic at 10am and Sunday at the Fitzroy at 2pm. The National Folk Festival is on at Exhibition Park in Canberra until Monday, April 2. folkfestival.org.au.
