Connection with country so deep

But in his early 20s, a desire to connect with country took him to the outback, where he embarked on a music career with The Warumpi Band and as a solo artist.

“I wanted to belong in a deeper way. I came to the conclusion that the best way to do that was to connect with Aboriginal people,” he said.

“I had it in my head that they were all up north, so that’s where I went.”

He travelled with a guitar – music had been part of his life since childhood.

“My grandfather was a keen amateur singer and used to get us all to sing at family get-togethers. I latched on to The Beatles when they came to Australia, and taught myself to play my older sister’s nylon-stringed guitar.

“I then got an electric guitar, and blew up my parents’ stereo with it.

“I learned to write songs in the mid-’70s: relationships with the opposite gender tend to bring poetry out of you.”

It was when he was driving the store truck in the remote settlement of Papunya in the Northern Territory’s central desert region that he met the musicians with whom he ultimately formed The Warumpi Band.

“I’d been there a couple of weeks when a young man called Sammy Butcher knocked on my door asking if I played guitar,” he said. “We talked and I soon realised he could play really well. There were a few other players around and we started jamming.”

With a starting line-up of Neil, Sammy and Gordon Butcher, the final element they needed arrived a few months later in the form of the late George Rrurrambu.

“He could sing,” Neil said. “The day we met, we had our first jam.”

The band toured the NT and the Kimberley and wrote much of their material on the road.

They released Jailanguru Pakarnu (Out From Jail), the first rock song in an Aboriginal language, in 1983, and in 1984 released their debut album, Big Name No Blankets.

Their next album, Go Bush, was recorded in 1986 and included the Indigenous anthem My Island Home, which was heard around the world when Christine Anu performed it at the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony.

Today, Neil reflects on a “very fulfilling journey” over four decades.

“It shaped my life immeasurably.

“I’m still hopeful of full reconciliation with Indigenous Australians in my lifetime. I don’t know whether I’ll see it but we’re closer now than 25 or 30 years ago.

“I’m still enthused by the wonderful potential of this country, but I think there are far too many humans on the planet and resources are being wasted.

“Hunter-gatherer societies, indigenous people in general, live with low environmental impact. I try to live that way myself.”

“I’m very humbled to receive the Port Fairy award and I’m looking forward to playing there for the first time in 10 years.”