Dr Shellie Morris has made a life-time commitment to developing First Nations music and, through her musical involvement, has contributed to community development at a regional
and national level. Since graduating from Northern Territory University (now CDU) with a Certificate 3 in Contemporary Music, she has developed an extensive personal musical career and worked in seventy remote communities, writing songs in twenty Aboriginal languages with people on communities. Her community work
has focussed on empowering First Nations people to tell their stories through song. Some highlights have been the 'Ngambala Wiji Li -wunungu Together we are strong' project and the development of music and narrative with prisoners at the Berrimah Gaol, culminating in a film and a theatrical play performed at the Darwin Festival. ‘Prison Songs’ was nominated for the Walkley award and won a Human Rights award.
Moving between the local and the global, Shellie has played in major performances such as the opening of the Winter Olympics in 2010, the Sydney Opera House and with Gurrumul Yunnipingu in 2011 as well as at Northern Territory festivals such as Garrma, Mayali and Barrunga. Her music has been orchestrated and performed by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and featured in films and documentaries.
Dr Morris’s work has been recognised with an Honorary Doctorate from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music in 2021, alongside numerous musical and social development awards including NAIDOC Artist of the Year (2014), NT Australian of the Year (2014), Deadly Award - Cultural Advancement (2013), National Indigenous Music Award (NIMA) Song of the Year - Saltwater People Song (2013) and the National Music In Communities Award winner from the Music Council of Australia (2012).