Sing-a-Long a rousing new anthem for Aboriginal leaders

At South Yarra's Sing Sing studios, the football star turned indigenous leader made his singing debut in esteemed company, recording a song he co-wrote with longtime friend Chris Aitken. Lending support were more than average session musos: Archie Roach, former Goanna frontman Shane Howard and, on backing vocals, Vika and Linda Bull. "I'm not much of a singer," the 1993 Norm Smith medallist assured The Age, shortly before entering the studio. "I really don't rate my voice much at all."

 

Moments later Long stepped to the microphone and, as sound engineers began setting recording levels, delivered a note-perfect version of his song from start to finish, soaring above Aitken's guitar. It was like booting a 60-metre torpedo goal during the warm-up. The song, Come Walk With Me, tells the story of Long's protest walk from Melbourne to Canberra in 2004 and will be performed next Saturday night at Federation Square before Long leads his annual "Long Walk" to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, where his old team Essendon is taking on Richmond in the reconciliation-themed Dreamtime at the G match.

 

"I think there's a real good message in the song, it's about working together," he says. "It tells the story of my journey to Canberra and talks about the hope that we can work together."

 

Long is hoping several thousand supporters will walk with him, including busloads of indigenous people, coming from around the state. "It's a big year this year with the anniversary of the (1967) referendum," he says. "That was 40 years ago but this is still real now. What's happening in our backyard is a national disaster when you talk about mortality rates, health and education. We are in 2007 now and we need to fix this."

 

The Long Walk organisation aims to promote leadership, issuing fellowships to young leaders in indigenous communities. Long hopes to release the song, which has an anthemic, catchy feel, donating proceeds to his cause. He says he'd like to identify and develop a core of 300 black leaders and take them to Canberra. "We'd talk to both parties, offer to work with them, get some different ideas . . . Change has got to come from the people, it's got to come from us and we've got to own it. There is real goodwill out there but we've got to do something with it."

He's excited about the new generation of indigenous speedsters at Essendon, young men such as Leroy Jetta and Alwyn Davey, and proud of his old club's leadership role in the Aboriginal community: "I put a lot of that down to Sheedy."