An Indigenous Christmas Story: Christmas Songbook
Image sourced from Living Archive of Aboriginal Language
Many of us love Christmas carols! Often throughout the Christmas season we will find ourselves singing along so some of our favourites. On the Living Archive of Aboriginal Language you will find song books featuring some much loved Christmas songs. Today we have decided to share with you snippets of two songbooks you can access on the LAAL website.
The first book is Burarra Manakay (Burarra Songs). Written in Maningrida in the Burarra language, this songbook contains many wonderful nursery rhymes and songs that are perfect for young children with growing minds. However this book is not limited to songs for learning but includes a couple of Christmas carols in there too such as Silent Night which we have included below.
Silent Night
Silent night, holy night:
All is calm , all is bright
Round yon virgin mother and child.
Holy infant so tender and mild.
Sleep in heavenly peace Sleep in heavenly peace.
Humming, humming.
Ana-munya gu-ni, gun-mola gu-ni,
Gu-ngotjinga, gujayanayana,
Gatiya nipa a-bambungguna,
Waykin wenga ana-bupiyana,
Bamawa a-yuna, Bamawa a-yuna.
Humming, humming
You can view the full version of the songbook here.
The second book, is the Yuendumu CEC Christmas Songbook “Kurdu-Kurduku Yuparninjaku.” This songbook is mostly written in English however there is one song Wurulypa Munga written in Warlpiri language which we have included below. 
Wurulypa Munga
Wurulypa munga, Wurulypa munga,
Wapirraku munga, Wapirraku munga,
Wapirra-kurlangu palka-jarrija,
Kurdu-pardu Wapirra-kurlangu
Wapirrarlu yilyajarni
Kurdu-pardu palka-jarrija.
Jakumanu-patu, Jakumanu-patu,
Nyinajalpalu, Nyinajalpalu
Ngulalu yanjilypiri nyangu
Nyanjakulu parnkaja ngurra-kurra
Ngulalu nyangu kurdulku
Jardalpa ngunaja kurdu.
You can access the full version of the book and all the other christmas songs within here.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land and sea. We pay our respect to all Elders, past, present and emerging.