INDIGENOUS STORYBOOK

Yaburgurt commemoration
learning of language. A lot of Aboriginal people have
lost their languages and learning language through
singing is an excellent way to learn because of the
repetition during practise. It’s very important to keep
culture alive through language and it’s empowering
for Aboriginal people to sing in language.
We will reach a milestone in 2016 - our 10th
anniversary! To honour this, we are currently working
on a very special project – the Noongar Songs in
Schools Project. In October 2015 the Kalamunda Zig
Zag Festival included a spectacular Noongar-infused
finale where 230 excited children sang Noongar
songs with Madjitil Moorna. Young up-and-coming
Noongar performers went into schools to teach
the students songs from our repertoire. After weeks
of practice at school, nine school choirs joined a
massed choir, singing with Madjitil Moorna at dusk in
the Festival Finale. This project is ongoing. We invite
schools interested in learning Noongar songs to make
contact and arrange a time for a workshop for the
school choir, for a particular class or even for the
whole school. The Madjitil Moorna Aboriginal Songs
Songbook and CD will help the process!
The importance of the choir for non-Aboriginal
people is that many of our singers were born in
Australia but don’t necessarily have a connection
to Aboriginal people or an understanding of the
ongoing culture. We live on Noongar Country
here in Perth and if we don’t know anything about
Noongar culture and its thousands of years of history,
then we are living in ignorance of our rich heritage.
That connection is vitally important because it paves
the way for deeper understanding, respect and
reconciliation. There is no better way to achieve
this than through creative expression in the form
of language, singing and performance. Singers and
audience members feel connected.
One dream for the future is to involve young people
in establishing new community choirs. We would
like to pass on our experience and if people are
interested, provide guidance and advice to emerging
choir groups. To date, we have succeeded in helping
to establish community choirs in Halls Creek and
Mandurah. Our long term aim is to keep spreading
language, continue to develop new ideas and most
importantly, hold onto the good people we already
have, both singers and musicians. We would also love
to be a part of the Perth International Arts Festival
so we need to keep working hard and continue to
improve our skill set in order to take Madjitil Moorna
to the next level. The future looks bright and we are
excited about expanding and seeing just how far we
can spread our wings.
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