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:

'The Word' or, alternatively, 'The Day before Valentine's'

'The Word'

(Listen to a work in progress version of the song here - QuickTime)

(chorus)
Sorry is the word they came to hear.
It brought tears to my eyes.
Strangers and friends embracing,
Gone are all those lies.

I saw it unfold before my eyes.
He spoke, his heartfelt words.
Sacred stories in his message,
The words we waited for.

Chorus

Smoke, leaves and dancers,
Elders leading the way,
Spirits of our ancestors,
Their presence blessed this day.

Chorus

The past is not forgotten,
Stories still to be told.
Lets journey together,
The old, the young and the bold.

Chorus x 2

(created as part of the Stories and Songs of the Inala Yarning Place' project Saturday, 16th Feb, 2008)

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.

My Town - lyrics & movie - English version

'My Town'

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

(created by participants in the Stories and Songs of Inala Yarning Place Project - 2008)


Here's a short movie of the workshop working version.

First Song in the Stories and Song from the Inala Yarning Place project

We're under way in earnest.

After some planning and yarning and writing a Creative Sparks Grant Application we had our first workshop at the Inala Elders Centre on Tuesday 13th November.


Planning session at the Inala Elders Centre - 18/9/2007
Getano Bann, Aunty Vi McDermott, Daryll Bellingham, Terrie Kavanagh, Aunty Edna Bond.

We created our first song and here's the draft. It will be interesting to see if it changes over the next five workshops or not.

After a cuppa and some bun loaf, I suggested we tell stories about unusual or special events that had happened recently. Aunty Edna Bond told us all a story about how she had planned to fly up to Yarrabah to visit her sister but the plane got held up on the tarmac because there had been fumes coming into the cabin. When they saw the pilot and copilot leaving the plane, Aunty Edna got a good look at the pilot's face and what she read there didn't look good so she cancelled her flight.

Terrie Kavanagh who's been leading the Inala Yarning Place Singers
with the Elders for several years.

Then Aunty Vi McDermott just had to share a story about when she and Aunty Edna and Terrie had all travelled up to Cairns with an ICT (Inala Community Theatre) play about domestic violence. They had some pretty scary and interesting times.

Well Getano got to work and we all helped put the two stories together into the one song.

You can hear the song here (2 MB, QuickTime - better with broadband) and the lyrics are below.

'He was gonna make us famous
We were doing our play in Cairns
He said he worked on the radio
But he was just a gamin man.

We had to get to Cooktown
Theresa said, 'Get out of Bed!'
But when we saw the Sunbird
We we all mighty scared.

We loaded up the hire van
But it was the wrong one
The driver spoke of crocodiles baking in the sun
But when we crossed the river, mmmmmm, we didn't see one.

They say I'm a sticky beak
But observer is a better word
I can read a pilot's face
And that is not absurd
I found a long lost sister
between our brother's words

chorus

No more worries, no more strife
We can be strong, it's our journey of life
Whatever mishaps, we'll take it in our stride

Whatever mishaps, make it side by side.'

The most fun was singing our new song.

Aunty Vi McDermott and Barry Malezer

(Any thoughts about a good Inala song topic?)

Daryll