Across the breadth of Australia, young vocal chords have been warming up over recent months ahead of Indigenous Literacy Day.

They include sounds which have echoed over the Kimberleys since the early Yawuru people arrived in Australia's west.

The First Nations language will be heard the loudest out of Broome – known as Rubibi in the Yawuru tongue – on Wednesday morning, while also reverberating around the Sydney Opera House.

In raising funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation, the occasion is for a national initiative called Busking For Change.

The event, which is in its third year, was created by Indigenous Literacy Foundation ambassador and ARIA-award winning musician, Josh Pyke.

Pyke says the idea is simple but symbolically powerful, saying "music is a universal language".

Students – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – from more than 100 schools Australia-wide have been learning a song in the Indigenous language to fundraise and show support for remote First Nations communities to access and create books in traditional language.

Wednesday's event will see participating schools busk in front of an audience in the name of Indigenous Literacy Day.

This year's song – Country Tells Us When – which Pyke co-wrote with children's entertainer, Justine Clarke, and rapper DOBBY, has singer and actor, Tehya Makani, recording the tune.

First Nations educator, author and this year's co-ambassador, Shelley Ware, threw her support behind the cause.

"Busking For Change brings First Nations culture, language, and knowledge systems into classrooms through music and a whole lot of fun," she said.

Country Tells Us When is not just any song – it's a yarn about country, culture, and the six distinct Yawuru seasons in the North-West of Australia which guide life in the Kimberley region.

The song is based on an award-winning book of the same name, created by community from Broome's Cable Beach Primary School which the Indigenous Literacy Foundation published.

"Country Tells Us When began with humble beginnings – born from a teaching need identified right here in our school by four very talented staff members," Cable Beach Primary School principal, Guy Hayward said.

"To see it grow into an award-winning, internationally celebrated work is something that fills our entire school Community with pride.

"Having it transformed into a song for the Busking For Change initiative is incredibly powerful – it reinforces many of our students' sense of identity and it deepens their pride in seeing their cultural practices and language shared and celebrated across the nation."

The existence of not only the song, but the Yawuru language alone, is a remarkable story in itself.

By the turn of the century, the number of fluent speakers of the Yawuru dialect could be counted on one hand, despite the efforts of Japanese linguist Hosokawa Kōmei compiling the first recorded Yawuru dictionary a decade earlier.

However a number of younger Yawuru and Djugun people dedicated themselves to learning the language, which almost became extinct after being classified as endangered.

Yawuru has gone on to be taught in both schools and adult classes in Broome, with more than 150 Yawuru descendants listed as capable of speaking the language in 2021, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics census.

Up to 1500 students throughout Broome primary schools have access to the Yawuru language programs – around 10 per cent of the town's entire population – its website says.

This is at the heart of the Busking For Change campaign which also supports the United Nations' Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022–2032) campaign, which highlights the importance of language preservation.

Yawuru language teacher, Dalisa Pigram-Ross, cannot help but smile before launching into a Yawuru phrase where she exclaims: "Narli rangga liyan nganganngany".

"I have a great sense of pride," she translates.

"The small but passionate team of creators at the school I teach Yawuru language did have the imagination to become the 'change they wanted to see'.

"That is, they collaborated to create a book, in partnership with the Yawuru Community and the Indigenous Literacy Foundation to reflect the deep knowledge and understanding of Country for the current and next generations and their families because they didn't have a book like it to turn to.

"It's so exciting to have our book inspire a song that now others around the country will have an opportunity to learn and through learning the song, they will be learning about Yawuru language and culture.

"I think our Elders would feel so proud that we are helping to share our culture and to keep our language strong."

This year's goal is to fundraise more than $80,000 for the foundation's community publishing program and increase the volume of culturally relevant books accessible to remote First Nations communities around Australia.

This year's theme, Strength In Our Stories, recognises the power of storytelling to connect people across generations and shape the future.

The theme strikes a chord with Gregg Driese, a co-ambassador, prominent Indigenous author, artist, and entertaining performer.

"Culture is a person's strength," he said.

"I have great pride in our beautiful culture and many of my ancestors proudly battled to pass down this beauty.

"The beautiful warmth of our culture is something that I am truly proud of.

"For now, and future generations is a perfect reminder of whatever happens in life; through the good times and the bad; I strive to continue to pass down our beautiful culture every day that ensures that it continues into the future."

A livestream of the nationwide performance will commence with a 17-minute documentary film from 10:30am AEST on Wednesday via the Sydney Opera House Creative Learning platform.