David Rastrick

Perhaps you’re about to meet someone significant in your life, who you’ve never met before? What will you tell them about yourself?

 This is “A Little Bit About Me”- a song written by Rachael Colmer, based on a letter she wrote to her birth mother when they were soon to meet for the first time, and played by BilyaBeats.

"We met up in the Kwel-Sheoak forest. Sitting on some big rocks, we joked and shared stories, while tiny birds in the surrounding branches may have been doing the same."

Djarilmari means forest in Menang Noongar language.

We'd like to thank Uncle Larry Blight and Uncle Kim Scott for some feedback on Menang lyrics used in this song. Thank you Uncle Larry for saying you could hear the spirit of the forest in the song.

Yakamia Djarlimari is a small urban Sheaok forest in Kinjarling-Albany, Western Australia, that had been earmarked for a housing development and a road.

"Rachael wrote down notes from a cultural walk-through of the forest with Uncle Larry, which formed the basis of our lyric writing. Rachel and I met in Yakamia Forest one sunny day and began teasing out phrases and rhymes from these notes, whilst brainstorming further lyrics based on the beautiful trees, plants and animals around us."

We'd like to acknowledge the Menang people in whose country we are blessed to reside and work, and thank the ancestors for looking after Country so well. Respects to elders past, present and emerging. We are honoured to share this beautiful place and will do or best to look after it.

Let's save Yakamia Forest!