Songwriting Workshops

Tom Smith is a musician and a songwriter who has worked in Mental Health, Education, Youth Drug and Alcohol Services and in Aboriginal Communities. He has used songwriting in all these contexts to help people identify their strengths and passions. In conjuction with other supports and interventions he has found songwriting a very useful tool to help self esteem, a sense of connection and as a building block for positive goal setting.

Writing about the challenges or difficulties in your life helps you separate yourself from them; it helps you understand they are just something you experience and they are not you. Your life is a story which changes all the time and which you have control over.

Tom gives workshops in any of the above contexts as well as in hospitals, prisons or nursing homes. He can work in groups or one on one. Projects can vary from just the writing of a single song through to group performances and full band recordings. Participants need no writing experience or musical ability, just a story to tell.

Music and creativity engage the emotions and free the spirit. It is only through making a mark that no one else can make that you express the individual spark of your own humanity.

About this song

In 2002 I worked as a Teacher Aide and Writer in Residence at Wulungurra Community School in a remote part of the Kimberley in Western Australia. initially i found it very challenging trying to make connections with kids in a cultural and physical environment that were totally new to me. On top of this the two main languages spoken are Walmajarri and Kimberley Kriol which made communication very challenging. As i got to know the kids, we started writing songs and i got to learn about country and culture which was a great honour. We wrote 10 songs, recorded six of them and released 4 of them on a CD.

About the CD

"Afternoon time we wrote songs. Soon we had so many it was enough for an album. We photocopied the words and everybody sang along when Jinalij (Tom Smith) played guitar.

Sue thought we’d be good enough and bought the school band equipment. It was exciting. None of us had played in a band before. We practiced up those songs everyday after school on Sue’s verandah.

One day when we were in Broome for camp we went to Goolarri and made this CD."

The band thanks Principal Sue, Teachers Cammie and Nicci, Kids for the artwork and photos, Goolari Sound Engineer Lorrae, School Chairperson Yangkana Laurel, Band Leader Jinalij (Tom Smith) for helping us write and rehearse the songs and everyone for putting up with the noise.

The Band: Tristan Laurel (drums), Bevan Laurel (bass), Kelwin Laurel (guitar).

Singers: Desley Laurel, Shereena Pye, Leryan Costaine, Jamin Bent.