[MUSIC] I've reconnected with culture after being displaced. My father was killed when he was 25. I was four years old and the eldest of three kids. And my grandfather was killed on the Burma Railway. He was a Japanese prisoner of war. So I didn't really have any men close to me to teach me anything. And one day I went into the Melbourne Museum, and here's my family all over the walls. And I walk up to this beautiful picture that was of an aboriginal woman holding her child who was about five in a possum skin cloak. The child in the possum skin cloak was my great grandmother. And the woman holding her was my great great grandmother, and then I knew I didn't know enough about my family history. And because it affected me so much, I had to find out more. So everything that I've found out, I found in the last three years by reconnecting with community. >> Well, I probably started coming to choir when it first started. And I've always been very keen to singing. I've been in lots of community choirs and stuff. There was something different about coming here and being part of my community. >> Five years ago, when I came here I reentered the community, Mullum Mullum adopted me. >> A couple of the aunts got together and what we wanted to do was just have a singalongs group for the elder's group every fortnight. That blossomed into this self-growing is the only words. It's an incredible choir that filled the niche in the community as well, and in our hearts. >> So I came to join the community some time ago to find out I had a spiritual problem all my life. Because I got a white skin, I thought of myself as a white fellow. Even though I knew I had aboriginal heritage. But I knew there was something different. Always something different. And it was more spiritual. I went to church first, and then I came here. And when I came here I started talking to the people. I felt relaxed. And I found that they were all like me. It's the first time I've ever stood in a group and found that when I started talking about spirituality, they understood what I was talking about. Every time we introduce a song, the song has to be culturally connected. It doesn't have to be written by us. Some of the songs are written by us. We try to do language songs, and language and English mix. Amazing Grace is one of our favourites. >> [MUSIC] >> So one of the big aspects of the choir is culture, aboriginal culture, and exploring that. And it's quite a complex thing actually because all the aboriginal choir members come all over the place, all different parts of Australian. So you can't sort of say there's one aboriginal culture. So it's just exploring all the different aspects. And some of the ways are try and find songs in different languages. So we started doing that, and we're continually looking for more songs in different languages. But also exploring things like having the didgeridoo, or which song might be for the women who play the clapsticks. Yeah, it's just how culture fits in. >> [MUSIC] >> There's a whole lot of reason why I come that has lot to do with identity and belonging for me. I've always known that my mother is aboriginal. But her father died in the war when she was only two years old. So we haven't had much of connection to culture. And my family had been a bit sort of, well, I'd grown up in a time when it was a real shame to say you're aboriginal. So, we were always told to say that we were from Mauritius, or Spain, or whatever was the thing to say at the time. >> I think with my cultural identity singing in the choir every week, performing as we did last year, 26 performances, incredible amount of performances. We come into it, and we're singing with indigenous and non-indigenous people, but we actually become family. We simply do. Culturally with the language songs, you feel the tug of the heart strings. You feel your soul just jump out there. It's incredible. You get right into the moment, sometimes you don't want to come out of that moment. [LAUGH] It's just incredible >> [MUSIC] >> The reason I wrote the song is because it's part of me and part of my family, part of my clan, and part of our wider group, which we used to call tribe. But now we're calling ourselves a nation, which doesn't make too much difference to me. And it's all about culture. This is the best way for us to understand each other, and to get to know each other on a more harmonious level so that we can all get along much better. >> [MUSIC] >> It's been very empowering for the choir members to sing songs in aboriginal language, and also to perform them and to hear other people sing, hear those languages. Because a lot of them have been forgotten or almost wiped out. So, to be able to perform in lots of languages is very empowering for people. >> For me, coming here and being part of the choir is really very much about belonging to the community and being a part of something. And what was it? Probably about 18 months ago or so my nephew and his partner were murdered. And so just having the choir and that sense of family and belonging, and I think most people in the choir would sort of say the same thing. When there’s been a difficult time, they're just there. >> Quite often I even have to practice. The aunts, other Aunts, all the young ones, it's hugs and it's holding hands, walking out the door together. And you don't want to let that go. Mondays are so special. That practice, what we call practice, yes, we're learning songs, we're preparing for performances, but how it affects me personally, culturally, is it's like glue. It's- >> I wouldn't liked to have been around 200 years ago when my ancestors were shot. Today, everybody wants to know about indigenous history and indigenous culture. And I'm lucky enough to be in an atmosphere where it's okay. And I'm most grateful to all the migrants that have come over because I think they're changing it. They've come from war torn lands, they understand our story.
