Our Music Performing Place, Listening to Sydney

Our Music Performing Place, Listening to Sydney
Wednesday 22 August 2012

Our Music, Performing Place, Listening to Sydney, was hosted on the 30 June 2012. This premier event of Aboriginal storytelling and musical exploration was hosted by the Sydney Conservatorium, The University of Sydney and The Australia National University.

The day-long event was an opportunity for both established and emerging Aboriginal musicians who call Sydney home to come together to perform and discuss their works at the Sydney Conservatorium; and was the first time the Sydney Conservatorium has allocated a day specifically to Aboriginal artists.

Organisers, musician and PhD candidate Kevin Hunt and PhD History candidate Julia Torpey explained the day provided a time and place for musicians to share and discover the motivations and inspiration that informs Aboriginal artist’s music making. It was also a chance for audiences to sample a small selection of local Sydney talent as it is emerging from schools and homes.

The special day was jointly sponsored by the Sydney Conservatorium and the innovative history research project Deepening Histories of Place: Exploring Landscapes of National and International Significance, led by Professor Ann McGrath Director of the Australian Centre for Indigenous History at The Australian National University, with Professor Peter Read of The University of Sydney.

For Julia, co-organiser of the event and doctoral researcher with the project Our Music  was ‘ a day of exploration, connecting people, place, and Aboriginal history through music and story as the performances shifted between contemporary, historical and traditional, linking past and present and expressing personal, cultural and social identities with place.’

As well as performing their own original compositions, contemporary Aboriginal musicians and Sydney Songmen joined Kevin Hunt to perform three historic chants dating back to 1793, offering their own take on historic manuscripts transcribed by European explorers. 

The historic compositions include: Barrabul-la A Song of the Natives of New South Wales; Chant, songs collected by the French Baudin and Péron scientific expedition to Australia in Sydney during 1802 and set to music by Pierree-Francis Bernier (1799-1803); and Harry’s Song published in the Journal of excursion across the Blue Mountains  (1822), originally performed by Bennelong’s brother in-law, Harry, to Barron Field. Bennelong’s letter of 1796 was also set to music.  

As Kevin Hunt explained, ‘Aboriginal cultures have developed and survived in the Sydney region for at least 25 000 years. So much is achieved in understanding culture and history by listening. Music plays a vital role in this communication.’

Artists performing on the day included Songmen Matt Doyle, Richard Green and Clarance Slockee; Eora College and the Conservatorium Jazz Ensemble; Matt Fergo; Menindee School; the Stuart & Son’s ‘Painted Piano’; Karen Smith; Jacinta Tobin; Devina Captain; Chris Sainsbury; Peter McKenzie; Charles Trindall; Marlene Cummins; Sandra Spalding; Jimmi Hand’s Yellomundi Band and Kevin Hunt.

 

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Updated:  22 August 2012/Responsible Officer:  Head of School/Page Contact:  CASS Marketing & Communications