New songbook captures 'living collection of our unofficial national anthems'

Banjo Paterson, The Presets and Yothu Yindi are among the first inductees enshrined in the National Songbook, a new initiative commemorating Australian music.

The National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NSFA) and APRA AMCOS have joined forces for the initiative, which celebrates and preserves the songs and songwriters that helped shape Australia's cultural identity.

Unveiled today, the first 10 inductees feature a range of genres and perspectives and more than a century of Australian history, spanning bush ballad Waltzing Matilda, penned by Andrew "Banjo" Paterson and Christina Macpherson and first recorded in 1927, through to 2007's My People, the banging call-to-arms from electronic duo The Presets.

There are also protest anthems, such as Midnight Oil's 1987 hit Beds Are Burning and Yothu Yindi's 1991 landmark Treaty, alongside Helen Reddy's famous 1971 feminist anthem I Am Woman, co-written with Ray Burton.

Personal storytelling and connection to place and country are represented by Ruby Hunter's Down City Streets, first recorded for Archie Roach's 1990 classic Charcoal Lane, and My Island Home, a signature song for Warumpi Band in 1987 then Christine Anu in 1995.

Friday On My Mind, a global hit in 1966 amid Beatlemania, has enshrined The Easybeats and influential songwriting and production duo Harry Vanda and George Young in the National Songbook.

Cult jazz trio The Necks and their eerie, improvised soundtrack to 1998 thriller The Boys rounds out the final 10 with composer Peter Sculthorpe's Earth Cry, which fuses European classical music with First Nations traditions to evoke Australia's vast, complex landscapes.

Who decided on the songs and why now?

Established in line with APRA AMCO's 100th anniversary and NSFA's 90th birthday, the National Songbook will induct more Australian works each year, chosen for their artistic and cultural significance.

"It's a living collection of our unofficial national anthems," says NFSA chief curator Meagan Loader.

She says the aim is not just to preserve the music but the "stories around a song and its impact for future generations as well".

"When it goes beyond a sound recording in a moment in time, and it becomes part of a national identity," she says.

"A song that speaks to who we are, where we've been or where we hoped we would be."

She says selecting the first 10 inductees was "really difficult".

"Because at first we were thinking of a definitive list," she says.

"But then we came back to the idea that this is an ongoing conversation. It will continue to evolve and tell the many stories of Australia."

This year's inaugural songs were selected by a panel of 10 experts, including music professionals, practitioners, APRA members, academics, journalists and shepherded by Jenny Morris, APRA AMCOS chair and recent ARIA Hall of Famer, and NFSA chair Annette Shun Wah.

"These works are not just a soundtrack of our times. They highlight our growth, our uniqueness and what we've shared together," says former triple j music director Richard Kingsmill, who was part of the panel, alongside triple j alumni Zan Rowe and Dom Alessio.

"A great song can capture a moment. The rare ones can capture a country.

"For future generations, as we continue to induct the defining music of our songwriters, this collection will act as a guide to who we become."

Despite sharing overlapping entrants, such as Ruby Hunter or Vanda and Young, the National Songbook differs from NFSA's Sounds of Australia collection, which focuses more on specific sound recordings.

Loader says the National Songbook is more concerned with composition and music "that reflects a community or a moment in time and that have really resonated across generations and speak to our history".

"The quality of the songwriting and how that sustains over different iterations and recordings for different audiences and generations."

Importance of Australian music

The initiative arrives amid hard conversations concerning the Australian music industry.

Alongside escalating festival cancellations, venue closures and declining live attendance, homegrown music is struggling to cut through on local charts and streaming services.

Australian music accounted for just 8.4 per cent of local streaming, according to a recent APRA AMCOS report.

"It's a really important touch point," says Loader, who hopes the National Songbook can help change attitudes.

"Anything any of us can do to remind people of the value of Australian music culture and how investing in the arts and artists is just as valuable and just as important for a nation and society to understand ourselves. To be able to express opinions and ideas of who we can be.

"I think no one music list can ever be definitive, but this is the start of what will be an ongoing annual process of looking at significant, culturally important songs to Australians that really tell our story and tell our history in all its depth, breadth and diversity.

"We're really thinking about the experience of being Australian and how songs become part of so many Australians' muscle memory and our collective cultural DNA."