Local songwriter competing with Australia’s best

A GEELONG musician is in the running for a song award that her in the same circles as some of Australia’s most popular acts.

Shannon Curry – known by her stage name of SheisArjuna – is one of 22 finalists for the Environmental Music Prize.

The $20,000 award was launched during the United Nations Climate Summit in 2021, and aims to recognise and reward artists who create exceptional music videos that celebrate the beauty of nature and our connection to it.

SheisArjuna’s shortlisting has her in company with some of Australian music’s biggest names, including Midnight Oil, Tash Sultana, Flume, Xavier Rudd, King Stingray and Ziggy Alberts.

SheisArjuna’s entry is a song called Vessel, which she says she composed in the aftermath of the Black Summer bushfires as climate change problems took centre stage in Australia.

She says her music aims to give further mainstream attention to the important issues.

Ms Curry, who is a conservation and wildlife biology graduate by day, says environmentalism has always inspired her creative work.

“The Earth is our mothership and I want people to feel the connection to the land, that literally if we don’t protect it we won’t exist, the future generations will not have a planet to survive on.

“The earth may recover like it does and it has throughout history. But we as a species, kind of owe it to ourselves to look at the land around us and try to protect it, and we can also protect ourselves.

“It just seems logical to me. It kind of breaks my heart that we do treat it as poorly as we do in so many ways, with fast fashion, mining and everything.

The music video for her competition entry was shot primarily at Barwon Estuary and other Surf Coast landmarks, which SheisArjuna said highlighted her affection for the local landscape.

“I grew up camping and being very interested and curious about nature and biodiversity.”

“So when we were going to shoot there, I really just wanted it to be set in a natural landscape where people could hone in on exactly that – just the nature that’s around.

“When you’re on the Surf Coast, you don’t really need that bells and whistles in a film clip when you’ve got that in your back yard.”

The winner of this year’s Environmental Music Prize will be decide by a public vote, that closes tomorrow (Sunday, June 4).

To submit an entry or for more information about the competition, visit https://environmentalmusicprize.com/

For more about SheisArjuna and her work, find her on Instagram @sheisarjuna