As Yothu Yindi enter the Hall of Fame sunset, East Journey represent a new dawn for Arnhem Land's songlines.

MANDAWUY Yunupingu had his secession plan worked out 15 years ago. In the lobby of a Perth hotel, even as he talked up Yothu Yindi's progressive new single, Superhighway, he was clear his position was finite.

Younger members were being groomed to take over, to continue with the music and the message, said the lifelong educator and one-time Australian of the Year. His vision for Yothu Yindi - literally ''child and mother'' - was about future generations.

Treaty, co-written with Paul Kelly, was the first song in an Aboriginal language to reach the music charts and the first top-40 hit by an Aboriginal band.

It hit number six on the US Billboard club chart too, and put a procession of Arnhem Land musicians on the international touring circuit for a decade.

The recent success of Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, from nearby Elcho Island, has not so much eclipsed as built on that legacy.

East Journey's debut album, Guwak, was released in April.

Such cultural and career foundations are obviously strong, though Maymuru is keenly aware that the next step involves a song as clear and powerful as Treaty.

He has not written it yet, he says, but he thinks he knows the title: Unity. ''Maybe it's the bloodline that runs from our great-great-great grandfather right up here that we are all musicians in this family in our own rights,'' he says. ''Because in a tribal way, we know we are strong people that can carry our culture. And we can sing.''

13/09/12 - "It's fertile territory, out there in the northeast reaches of Arnhem Land. It spawned two of Australia's best-known musical artists, Yothu Yindi and Gurrumul, and the musical traditions run deep.

Even so, Rrawun Maymuru, the charismatic lead singer of Yirrkala nine-piece East Journey, felt a surge when he first saw Gurrumul's face staring out from the cover of Rolling Stone last year."