When it comes to improving language skills there are plenty of different approaches. But not all of them are as much fun as putting words to music. One choir on the New South Wales mid-north coast is teaching a first nations language through the power of song.
Category
đș
TVTranscript
00:00This is Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For, Gumbangia-style, but Man Young's recent cover
00:12isn't the only place you can hear the Gumbangia language being sung.
00:17This eclectic choir on the New South Wales mid-north coast is raising a smile.
00:21They are cheeky.
00:23They're members of the Giowar Dagula Choir, and they're learning to sing both contemporary
00:28and traditional songs in the language of the Gumbangia people.
00:31They're all different ages.
00:32We've got a few young people, you know.
00:35We've got a mother with a child that comes.
00:37You know, we've got people with dogs that come.
00:39We've got elderly people that come.
00:41Wiradjuri woman and former singer Monique Hill travels an hour each way from Coffs Harbour
00:46to attend rehearsals.
00:48She says the choir has changed her life.
00:50And I saw the ad and I thought, yeah, that's a way for me to get back into singing again.
00:55I've got my first solo gig again after 24 years, so this experience has given me back
01:01my confidence.
01:03While Miklo teaches the language, Ruth Kennedy leads the group in song.
01:07Obviously there's a lot of challenges because you're singing a different language.
01:12Probably at least 80% of them have had no experience singing in a choir.
01:17With a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants, it also gives members a chance
01:22to learn about First Nations culture.
01:24I think it's a really respectful way to kind of, you know, have our own kind of personal
01:28reconciliation.
01:30Gumbaynggirr is one of around 120 Indigenous languages still actively used in Australia
01:35today.
01:36The vast majority of them are endangered.
01:38But initiatives like this one, in this hall, have seen the number of Gumbaynggirr speakers
01:42more than double in the past decade.
01:44With performances at the Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival and a citizenship ceremony
01:49in Coffs Harbour, these singers are showing how music and language can be powerful forces
01:54for unity.
01:55And hearing all the other voices and the different sounds that they make, that's the thing that
02:03I love.