The legacy of the late Auntie June Barker; poetic story-teller, Yorta Yorta woman and fierce advocate for Aboriginal Rights, will echo around Coffs Harbour at the start of the Coffs Harbour Music Society Season this week.

Ms Barker, then Ms Ferguson, spent time on Brewarrina Mission and learned many things from the Yuwaalaraay people who had been forced to live there. She later married Roy Barker from Brewarrina.

Because of their wider knowledge and experience, the Barkers played an important role as custodians of Aboriginal culture and history at Lightning Ridge.

At their Goondee (Keeping Place) the Barkers had displays of artefacts and photographs used to educate visitors about traditional Aboriginal life and what happened to them as a result of colonisation.

Auntie June was reported to always have a smile and a laugh at the ready.

The dreamtime story of the origins of opal was passed to her and then repeated to future generations. And has been interpreted into music which travels, taking the story to new audiences.

Well known in music circles, The Acacia Quartet, have added to their repertoire of classics with a musical exploration of Auntie June Barker's dreamtime story of how opals were formed near Lightning Ridge.

Opening this Friday 19 May, the group's interpretation of "Pallah Pallah, Precious Colours" will be played alongside Schubert and Beethoven.

The musical piece was composed by Alice Chance during her time sharing musical skills at the annual Moorambilla camp at Baradine in 2014. The annual camp hosts over 300 students from around the western region, who are selected to co-create new multi art form works and learn performance skills.

IMAGE: Moorambilla Voices Ltd

Ms Chant's composition relates Auntie June's dreamtime story of a rainbow-colour-winged butterfly, Pallah Pallah, who flies too close to the top of the mountain and becomes trapped in the snow. When the snow melts it washes the colours from her wings, the hues flowing down into the riverbed below and solidify as stone, such that they last forever, though lost from Pallah Pallah’s wings.

The piece depicts the conversing of the couple.

When Pallah Pallah returned to her husband and family, everyone was sad to see that she was no longer a beautiful butterfly but a plain moth. The beautiful colours that disappeared from Pallah-Pallah’s wings went into the ground at the Morillah – now the name of Lightning Ridge's main street. The stone ridges and lakes formed the colours of the rainbow on the dazzling opal stones. That is how the opal came to be.

Stefan Duwe from the Acacia Quartet said they will also play Precious Colours at concerts in Coffs Harbour, Grafton and Byron Bay.

 "We took on the piece because it’s so beautiful and we always like to include an Australian piece in our programs," Mr Duwe said.

Acacia Quartet ready to take Joan Barker's opal origin story to a new audience. PHOTO: Coffs Harbour Music Society

Acacia is passionate about supporting Australian composers and working with young musicians, and sharing their love of music with audiences of all ages.

Through their work, the Dreaming stories of a local Western Plains woman will live on for future generations.