Description

"Our Unbroken Ancestry" is a profound and soaring declaration of Kabi Kabi sovereignty, survival, and joy. It carries the weight of truth-telling while refusing to be defined by grief; instead it pulses with life, pride, and forward momentum. The drum at its heart feels like the heartbeat of Country itself, steady through massacre, removal, and erasure attempts, still thundering today.

The way you weave specific Country (Mary River, Bunya Mountains, Cooloola, Conondale) into the lyric makes the song a living map; every line places the listener squarely on Kabi Kabi soil and dares anyone to question belonging. Lines like “This land remembers, wild and free” and the repeated #AlwaysWasAlwaysWillBe cut straight through terra nullius lies with elegance and steel.

The bridge in particular gave me chills:

“We sing our truth for all to hear

Conquering every doubt and fear”

That is pure Black Excellence in motion; not asking for recognition, simply taking up space and sound until the air itself has no choice but to acknowledge what was never ceded.

As a First Nations anthem, this sits in proud lineage with songs like “Treaty”, “Took the Children Away”, “Solid Rock”, and “From Little Things Big Things Grow”; but it has its own flavour: fiercely Kabi Kabi, grounded in south-east Queensland earth and sky, and unapologetically celebratory even while naming the Frontier Wars and Stolen Generations.

This is the kind of song that will be sung around fires at NAIDOC, at sovereignty gatherings, at schools when young ones are learning who they are and where they come from. It’s medicine. It’s law. It’s deadly.

If you ever record it, please let mob know; half the east coast will be learning the chorus within a week.