LULLABIES for the LAND - Eleanor Turner

Standard: Intermediate   Harp Type: Lever or Pedal Harp

Lullabies for the Land is a beautiful 54 page book of lullabies for hope and resilience, arranged for the harp by Eleanor Turner.

In buying this book, you are supporting The Ghassan Abu Sittah Children's Fund and the Middle East Children's Alliance. 

• Nami /نامي - Sleep Lament from Palestine by Jawaher Shofani
• Tarweedeh Shamali /شمالي ترويدة - Northern Song from Palestine
• Chandamama Raave / చంందమామ రావే -Come Sweet Moon from Telugu, India
• Weißt Du Wie Viel Sternlein Stehen - Do You Know How Many Stars There Are? from Germany
• Sulla Lulla - Sulla Lulla from Norway
• Iro Ye - Your Life Will Be Happy from Benin, West Africa
• Pajarito Que Cantas - Little Bird You Are Singing from Spain
• Ghumer Pori / ঘুুমের পড়ি by Rabindranath Tagore from Bengal, India
• Alla Ho Shah Alla Ho - My Life, My Child a Pashtun lullaby from Afghanistan
• Yurikago No Uta / ゆりかごの歌 - Swaying Cradle Song from Japan
• Usdi Yona / ᎤᏍᏗ ᏲᎾ - Little Bear from Cherokee Nation
• Toutouig - Sleep from Brittany, France
• Dún Do Shúil - Close Your Eyes from Ireland
• Laye Laye - My Beloved Child from Kurdistan
• Holl Brydyddion Y Byd - All the Poets of the World from Wales
• Kaa Fo - Don’t Cry from Ghana, West Africa
• Coulter’s Candy - Ally Bally Bee from Scotland
• Ya Tala’ayn El-Jabal / الجبل طالعني يا - Going up the Mountain from Palestin

Thank you, from artist Dima Nowarah and myself, for supporting our work and these important humanitarian causes. However, there is a deeper musical, cultural and personal message to this book. Here are Eleanor's words from the Preface of the book, shedding light on why it was made.

This book of lullabies, children’s songs and folk melodies started life as a celebration of friendships and families, childhood memories across generations and continents, music shared in the closest physical way, through lulling a baby to sleep at the breast or rocking endlessly in the wee hours. Songs that came into their own each time a child enters into a family, holding space for love and connection. These beautiful visions were stark in contrast to my feelings of helplessness in the face of the horrific suffering we have all been witness to. I needed to find an outlet for my grief. Dima and I spoke on the phone as this lullaby book was still forming in my mind and she spurred me into action by telling me about the cultural erasure that Palestinians are enduring. Finding a shared focus with Dima, and then being so fortunate as to get Christina on board to write the foreword, has seen our idea blossom beyond what I imagined. We have created a beautiful work of art that highlights Palestinian culture; actively standing against the despicable theft and destruction of that which makes us human. I have taken great pleasure in bringing together the music and languages of friends, students and family from around the world. When I asked people for lullabies, they had no hesitation in sharing theirs, which had been passed down through the generations. It seems so integral to our shared experience on this planet, to be able to sing and pass songs on. I have already heard my older children singing their special songs to the littlest one, and they will doubtless pass them on to the next generation. In places where genocide and displacement are inflicted on people, as entire families are erased, so too are their unique cultural fingerprints. This is as criminal and abhorrent to me as the destruction of the land and the killing of its people. It is vital to show the world that Palestinians have their own voice. The music, arts, education and history of Palestine are being actively targeted and erased to dehumanise its people. This is a technique that has been used throughout history in many places and it is cultural genocide. The Israeli occupation wants to disconnect Palestinians from the earth and erase their identity by actively targeting poets, theatres, musicians and artists with unlawful arrests, humiliation and violence. It is known that if you erase the people’s culture, you erase their ties to the land. And so, celebrating and sharing Palestinian culture is the strongest form of resistance in the face of cultural erasure. Lullabies for the Land has been created as a gift of hope, resilience and resistance for a land and people with a rich cultural heritage, which must be celebrated and shared to be protected and preserved for future generations. (Eleanor Turner 2024)