Concert & Recording Session Success

Well after a lot of work and organising by a lot of people the Stories and Songs from the Inala Yarning Place concert and recording session on Saturday the 15th was a complete success. The Inala Community Hall was as full with as many people as we could comfortably fit. There was a great participatory energy and much enjoyment by all. We set up with the band (AZITIZ) and the choir in the middle and the audience arranged around them in a big semicircle. This also left room for a projector and screen to put up images from the project workshops, the history of Inala and a set for each of the new songs. We were fortunate enough to have on loan a full sound desk, microphones and recording gear so with the support of Bagginz Entertainment Services.

The first half got underway with some stunning didjeridu playing by Stephen Bond. The Welcome to Country was performed by Kerry Charlton and the concert was opened by Brisbane City Council Community Arts Officer, John Jeffrey.

The first performers were the 'Yarning Place Singers' with two numbers from their much appreciated repertoire - 'Dreamtime' and 'Yanundaar - Murri Boy'. Next came Marie Dao from the Vietnamese community who sang 'Lang Toi' (My Country).

There was a dramatic change of style with the Inala Tongan Youth singing 'Fakamalo' (Thank You For Life). Their wonderful harmonies entranced us all. The Yarning Place Singers and Songlines joined together to sing the last two songs of the first half with 'God Gave Us Mothers' and 'Strong Black Women'.

The interval was a bush tucker delight thanks to Dale Chapman from 'Dilly Bag Catering' who provided some catering training for local youth and some great food for us all.

In the second half we recorded the five new songs:

Creating 'The Day before Valentine's'

Wednesday 13th February, 2008 was a truly historic day. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made the apology that many Australians black and white had been waiting for. It was the apology on behalf of the Australian Parliament to the Stolen Generations for the wrongs that had been done to them over many years under government policies and laws that sanctioned and encouraged the forced removal of children from their families and their cultures.

When we arrived at the Inala Elders Centre on Saturday morning, it was clear that it had been an important week. Not only did we talk and tell and listen to stories about what it had been like for members of the Stolen Generations but we created a song together that was inspired by the apology in Parliament House.



This is the magic of getting together in projects like Stories and Songs from the Inala Yarning Place. We can listen and talk, create and sing, reflect and learn together.

Many organisation had been working to accomplish this historic apology.

Creating 'My Town'

One of the many highlights of the Stories and Songs from the Inala Yarning Place Project has been the creation of the 'My Town' song.

It was on one of the days with a quite a lot of participants attending especially people from the Vietnamese community. While we were talking about the things we liked about Inala, a number of people talked about the trees and birds and about the streets that were named after flowers and how important these things were to people across all cultures.

So we set to work creating a verse of a song about this. First of all we worked in English and came up with:-

My town has many streets,
Named from flowers and birds,
These things lift my heart
And purify my soul.

Then our Vietnamese participants, led by Marie Dao, translated this into Vietnamese and paid a lot of attention to making sure it was suitably poetic and sounded authentically Vietnamese.

Then we were able to practice singing with English and Vietnamese versions.

The next stage is to create an Indigenous language version. Watch this space or, better still, come along to the concert and be entranced.