Alive and kicking – childrens songs in first languages take culture into future

For many years I managed the Australian Government cultural program that supported the maintenance and revival of Indigenous languages – the languages unique to Australia. The community languages over-achievers I met in those years demonstrated that there has always been an inextricable connection between language and music and song. In the case of the many hundreds of community languages spoken in Australia before European settlement, this has always been true. There is a long history of music and song in First Nations cultures and communities and increasingly contemporary musicians have been performing and recording songs in First Nations languages. When music and song featuring First Nations languages is specifically by and for children, we start to see the face of the future. This is not a story only of relevance to First Nations communities. Why it is important to everyone is that it shows how focused community activity can be a major force for good and can underpin a broader, richer Australian culture.

Recording songs in First Nations languages has been an established practice for some time now. Who can forget hearing the words in one of the Yolngu languages in the ground-breaking song ‘Treaty for the first time? Whole albums by the great Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu were almost completely in language – Yolngu languages such as Gaalpu, Gumatj or Djambarrpuynu, a dialect related to Gumatj – with only a sprinkling of English.
 

Young Yolngu musicians practicing at Garma Festival, East Arnhem Land, 2008

 

Taken off
In recent years, though, it has really taken off, with many performers, such as Shellie Morris and the Borroloola Songwomen (featuring the Yanuwa, Garrawa, Mara and Guanji languages of the Borroloola region) releasing albums in their community language, part of a wider international trend. As a Sydney Morning Herald article points out other musicians to record songs in language include ARIA-nominated singer and songwriter Gumbaynggirr woman Emma Donovan, Emily Wurramara, Baker Boy, Budjerah, DRMNGNOW, Christine Anu and King Stingray, to name just a few. This has built on a long tradition of singing and music featuring First Nations languages.

First Nations performers have also taken and transformed songs originally written in English. Mitch Tambo’s performance of the much-loved unofficial national anthem ‘You’re the Voice’ in Gamilaraay at the Fire Fight Australia concert – alongside its original singer, Johnny Farnham, and Olivia Newton-John and Brian May of Queen no less – is a recent high profile example.

‘First Nations performers have also taken and transformed much-loved songs originally written in English. Mitch Tambo’s performance of much-loved hymn to democracy You’re the Voice in Gamilaraay at the Fire Fight Australia concert is a recent high profile example.’

It echoes another ground-breaking project in a different form of expression. The Noongar Shakespeare Project by the Western Australian theatre company, Yirra Yaakin is a long-running project to translate all of Shakesepare’s sonnets into the Noongar language of Western Australia. Instead of Indigenous culture being appropriated for English language creative works, the project uses the interaction of the most iconic traditional English writer with a language and culture from a people in a former English colony at the opposite end of the world to change contemporary culture – and in doing so to change Shakespeare. All the interesting stuff happens where cultures intersect.

 

Nursery rhymes
Now an album will be released internationally in August featuring an updated mix of classic nursery rhymes and original songs. Ampe-mape Alyelheme (Kids Sing) is in the Arrernte language of Central Australia.

‘If anything can claim to be the most popular means of expression, then it would have to be music and song. They way in which these ancient Australian languages are being revitalised in music and song, especially with a focus on children and the future, is definitely a a story worth telling.’

Produced by acclaimed First Nations organisation Childrens Ground, the album is part of a wave of community work to maintain and revive Australia’s own languages – the many community languages which exist nowhere else in the world. On a personal note, my former boss from the days when I managed the Australian Government program supporting this extensive languages activity, is a part-time Director with Childrens Ground.

Community languages activists
During the five years when I managed the languages program I was introduced to an impressive group of community activists, many involved with national organisation, First Languages Australia. For me they were the best good news story I had heard during my years on the sidelines of ‘Indigenous Affairs’. As I jokingly commented many years later, ‘during that time we were surrounded by dysfunctional organisations – and that was just the Government ones.’

 

'This is not a story only of relevance to First Nations communities. Why it is important to everyone is that it shows how focused community activity can be a major force for good and can underpin a broader, richer Australian culture.'

 
Writing about the experience I commented, ‘I was deeply impressed by the Indigenous languages activists I encountered, labouring away day after day, determined to succeed, with their dictionaries and wordlists and grammars, rushing to interview Elders who may be the last living speakers of a language, before it is too late. They are digging language out of the ground, rescuing histories from thin air. If Earth was ever threatened by an alien invasion from another planet, with its languages at risk, these are the people I’d want in my corner.’ 

Surge of activity

This surge of activity has been recognised and supported by Australian Government programs for many years. A recent program, the Indigenous Contemporary Music Program, has been operating since early 2020, providing funding to a range of organisations, to help them support support First Nations musicians. The program offers training, skills and opportunities to support ongoing income and employment in the music industry.

 

It in turn built upon earlier initiatives, such as the comprehensive Indigenous Contemporary Music Action Plan jointly announced by the Australian Government and States and Territory Governments in 2008. One component of this, the Breakthrough program, played a crucial role in supporting emerging First Nations musicians.

Funding has also been delivered by the main national arts funding agency, the Australian Government agency the Australia Council (now renamed Creative Australia as part of Revive, the new national cultural policy of the Albanese Government. There are also a range of State-based programs and projects supporting contemporary First Nations music.

If anything can claim to be the most popular means of expression, then it would have to be music and song. They way in which these ancient Australian languages are being revitalised in music and song, especially with a focus on children and the future, is definitely a a story worth telling.

© Stephen Cassidy 2023

 

See also

 

When one door closes, a window opens – moving on from another failed referendum
‘Looking forward from the failed referendum on The Voice to Parliament, everyone seems to be talking about how to find some positives after the result. It’s definitely time for a lot of thinking and rethinking. As I digest the result, I’m thinking about what it all means. There's quite a bit to say and it’s definitely time for thoughtful length rather than the slogans and catch phrases we’ve endured over the last few months. Despite the setback, lots of change is still happening. From my personal experience working alongside the community languages activists for some 15 years as they laboured to revive and maintain their First Nations languages there are many specific examples of positive changes. I can't see a failed referendum stopping their work. Their positive and practical spirit had a deep impact on me. These were people building an Australia for the future, drawing on the best parts of the past and overcoming the worst. They were some of the most impressive people I have ever met. I still remain close to many of them and I will remember them to my dying day’, When one door closes, a window opens – moving on from another failed referendum.

 

The Asian Century was underway long before the British arrived
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Saving the farm – recognising Indigenous languages part of salvaging community
‘The end of the year – after a bumper 24 months of disasters – is a time of closure. Many things have changed and many more will change – hopefully mainly for the better. In particular people who have made major contributions to Australia creativity and culture are moving on from their roles to take up new interests or interests they have been too busy to pursue. This is particularly the case in the arena of First Nations languages, where the recognition amongst Australians generally of the importance of languages and culture is part and parcel of salvaging community – for everyone’, Saving the farm – recognising Indigenous languages part of salvaging community.

 

Always was, always will be – a welcome long view in NAIDOC week
‘Being involved with Australian culture means being involved in one way or another with First Nations arts, culture and languages – it’s such a central and dynamic part of the cultural landscape. First Nations culture has significance for First Nations communities, but it also has powerful implications for Australian culture generally. NAIDOC Week is a central part of that cultural landscape’, Always was, always will be – a welcome long view in NAIDOC week. 

 

Growing up across many worlds – the daily life of ‘In My Blood it Runs’

‘An important new film about Dujuan, a young Aboriginal boy living in Alice Springs in the centre of Australia, is both engaging and challenging, raising major issues about growing up Aboriginal in modern Australia. ‘In my blood it runs’ is a film for our troubled times, that tackles the challenges of a culturally divided country, but also finds the hope that this cultural diversity can offer us all for our overlapping futures’, Growing up across many worlds – the daily life of ‘In My Blood it Runs’.
 

Songlines – an ancient culture for a contemporary world

‘What interests me in exhibitions about Aboriginal Australia is what they mean for Australians generally, even if most Australians won’t ever see them. After a mere 220 years, in many ways we are still only part way through making our home here. We haven’t yet figured out how to navigate this land properly. When I was at school we learned about so many doomed explorers misinterpreting the country, unable to find their way. Burke and Wills were the perfect examples, undone because they were unable to learn simple lessons offered by the local people on how to make edible the vast supplies of food surrounding them. They starved to death in a field of plenty. It made me realise that we can gain a much richer grasp of Australia through recognising that First Nations culture and heritage is part and parcel of our own Australian heritage’, Songlines – an ancient culture for a contemporary world.

History all around us – the long term practical impact of cultural research
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The language of success ­– recognising a great unsung community movement

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Unfinished histories – encountering ‘Encounters’
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Literature and languages – inaugural Indigenous literary festival sign of things to come
‘The inaugural Victorian Indigenous literary festival Blak & Bright in February 2016 was a a very important event for Australian cultural life. It aimed to promote and celebrate a diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices. It raised important questions about how the movement to revive and maintain Indigenous languages – surely one of the great positive unsung community movements in Australian history – is related to ‘Australian literature’. Australian culture as a whole is also inconceivable without the central role of Indigenous culture – how would Australian literature look seen in the same light?’, Literature and languages – inaugural Indigenous literary festival sign of things to come.

When universes collide – ‘Encounters’ exhibition at National Museum of Australia
‘The Encounters exhibition at the National Museum of Australia, a once in a lifetime event, makes you realise that astoundingly all this earth-shattering history happened only a few generations ago, so much so that descendants of the Gweagal, those first people Cook encountered, still talk about that encounter in 1770 as though it was yesterday. Despite the continuing concerns about the vast holdings of mostly looted cultural artefacts, the return of these objects, however briefly, will serve to emphasise how recently the British came to Australia, how much more we need to do to be fully at home in this country and how much part of a living, contemporary tradition Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures are’, When universes collide – Encounters exhibition at National Museum of Australia.

The Magna Carta – still a work in progress
‘You don’t have to be part of ‘Indigenous affairs’ in Australia to find yourself involved. You can’t even begin to think of being part of support for Australian arts and culture without encountering and interacting with Indigenous culture and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and individuals who make it and live it.’ The Magna Carta – still a work in progress.

Black diggers - telling war stories
‘If you are convinced you have heard all of Australia’s great stories, think again. If you consider you know something about Indigenous Australia you probably need to start from scratch. Black Diggers, “the untold story of WW1’s black diggers remembered” is a great Australian story. Why over a thousand Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians left their communities in remote Australia or our regional cities or the big state capitals to travel overseas to fight and die in the European trenches far from home is part of a larger Australian story. Why they would bother when they were not even recognised as Australian citizens in their own land is a story all their own – but a story relevant to every Australian’, Black diggers - telling war stories.

The hidden universe of Australia's own languages

‘I’ve travelled around much of Australia, by foot, by plane, by train and by bus, but mostly by car. As I travelled across all those kilometres and many decades, I never realised that, without ever knowing, I would be silently crossing from one country into another, while underneath the surface of the landscape flashing past, languages were changing like the colour and shape of the grasses or the trees. The parallel universe of Indigenous languages is unfortunately an unexpected world little-known to most Australians.’ The hidden universe of Australia's own languages.

Real jobs in an unreal worl
'Subsidised Indigenous arts and cultural jobs are real jobs with career paths that deliver genuine skills and employment capability.' Real jobs in an unreal world.

Like a long-lost masterpiece
‘Many decades ago when I was much younger and a student I used to march in National Aboriginal Day Observance Committee marches. They were shorthanded to NADOC marches, back in the days when Islanders hadn’t yet been included and there was no ‘I’ in the name. I realised a while back that I must have been marching under the new Aboriginal flag at its birth. I had a poster from those years which I used to cart around with me from city to city until one day when I was about to move yet again I decided to donate it to the National Library of Australia’, Like a long-lost masterpiece.