Elders pass on songs in race to save languages (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

Elders pass on songs in race to save languages

[photo inset - Sharing language through song: elder Denis Atkinson will
help the newly formed Aboriginal Children's Choir, which nine-year-old
Tara Atkinson hopes to join. Photo: Wayne Taylor]

By Orietta Guerrera
December 7, 2005
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/elders-pass-on-songs-in-race-to-save-languages/2005/12/06/1133829596116.html#

WHEN the Queen's baton relay travels through the Yarra Ranges in
February next year, more than just the Commonwealth Games baton will
pass hands.

Through song, traditional Aboriginal languages — many close to
extinction — will be transmitted from elders to a new generation.

The Aboriginal Children's Choir was launched in Healesville yesterday,
in the hope that languages such as the Wurundjeri people's Woiwurrung
will not be lost forever.

Aboriginal children, from prep to year 12, are being encouraged to join,
with the choir's first performance scheduled for February 20, when the
baton relay arrives in Healesville.

But with local languages rarely spoken now, even among elders, the huge
challenge of getting the song words on paper lies ahead.

Wurundjeri elder Joy Murphy will work with the choir, writing songs in
Woiwurrung for the children, while the Aboriginal Community Elders
Services Choir also offered to help.

Elders choir member Denis Atkinson said music had always been a way of
sharing language, tradition and stories through the generations.

"I think it's a great idea because we're able to keep a part of our
language, even if it's only a little bit," he said. "Once you learn it
by song, you've got it all the time."

Tara Atkinson, nine, granddaughter of Yorta Yorta elders' spokesman
Henry Atkinson, will be one of the first to join.

Her mother, Colleen Atkinson, said she was thrilled that her daughter,
who sings at home, could learn the traditional language, an opportunity
she never had. "When my kids went to school and had the opportunity to
learn a different language, I was really upset, because I thought, 'why
aren't they learning their own language? Why are they learning Chinese
or Japanese'?" she said. "I think it's great — maybe she'll be able to
teach me too."

Ms Atkinson said her father was slowly remembering fragments of the
language, which was often forbidden in colonial times. "I can remember
Dad telling me stories about when his brother was at school, and
whenever his brother spoke the language he'd get belted for it," she
said.

The choir, which will perform at several Games events, received a
start-up grant from the Yarra Ranges Shire.

Its acting musical director, Belinda Gillam, said Aborigines would be
trained later for roles such as musical director and accompanist,
"whether the accompanist will be a pianist as it is in traditional
choirs, or someone playing didgeridoos or clapping sticks".