ON top of the Sydney Opera House sail at dawn, the haunting sounds of the didjeridoo and bugle playing The Last Post echo across the harbour. 

Standing proud, Yamatji descendant Mark Atkins leads the call on his didge, followed by bugle player James Morrison, who echoes the mournful notes. 

Traditionally played on the bugle to mark the end of a day’s military activities, the song has been given a new arrangement by Mark as a way of “putting to rest the old people who died in action”. 

Made in the spirit of reconciliation, the new recording has been made available to freely download for use at community events, including Remembrance Day and Anzac Day ceremonies. 

Mark, a talented musician and didge virtuoso, said he remembers when he was growing up in the 1960s in a time when he was called racist names and regularly got into fights over it. 

“I remember the police hassling his family for something they weren’t allowed…