A joint project with the Indigenous Literary Foundation, Murli la is a beautifully designed gift book that celebrates the culture of the Tiwi Islands through song. The songs presented in this book hold cultural, genealogical, geographical and spiritual knowledge that has been passed down through thousands of years of Tiwi storytelling, ceremony and in the songlines that circle the islands. As custodians of the songs, the Ngarukuruwala Women's Group in partnership with Dr Genevieve Campbell have recorded over 40 songs in language for the first time - each with an introduction and English translation. A one-of-a-kind map of the islands, with areas marked in language, gives further intimate knowledge into Tiwi culture. Dr Campbell shares beautiful insights into the Tiwi Islands and her words are accompanied by intimate photographs from the time she has spent with the women. Murli la is the essential introduction to the wonderfully rich Tiwi culture and a glimpse into many lifetimes of sung knowledge.

Approximately 1300 ethnographic field recordings of Tiwi songs, made between 1912 and 1981, are archived at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (AIATSIS) in Canberra. In November 2009, Genevieve Campbell and eleven Tiwi colleagues travelled to Canberra to reclaim these archived songs and song texts. The Old Songs are Always New explores their return home to the Tiwi Islands and reveals that the fundamentally contemporary, topical and current nature of the Tiwi song culture has resulted in the preservation of a rich social, cultural and historical oral record. Campbell describes the melody, rhythm, vocal technique, language, performance context and function of the twelve Tiwi song types, and gives an overview of the language and poetic devices used in song composition.