Guria

Guria means earthquake in kuanua. Based on the poem Guria in Me, which won the 2026 NT Writers’ Centre Poetry Award, I wrote this song about my maternal grandfather. John Vuia was a proud Tolai who lived his whole life on the volcanic island of Rabaul, East New Britain, Papua New Guinea.

This song is a granddaughter’s recollection of a warm, kind-hearted grandfather and it is also the story of a young child leaving their birthplace to make a new home, across the seas, on foreign soil.

Guria was recorded in Dave Crowe’s Sing Hum studio, with Emma Trenorden on vocals and ukelele, Dave Crowe on keyboard, and Gleny Rae on piano accordion.