Youth choirs find common ground

A new music project aims to strengthen ties between Ugandan and Indigenous Australian communities.

Youth choirs find common groundYouth choirs find common ground

Youth choirs find common ground

Music is providing a link between two cultures, with children from the Indigenous Dhungala Choral Connection and African Children's choir meeting to perform in Melbourne.

 

The project is hoped to strengthen ties between Ugandan and Indigenous communities.

 

It seems no matter where you go, music speaks a universal language.

 

So says Lillie Walker, from the Dhungala Choral Connection, and Angel Namayanja from the African Children's Choir.

 

"You can sing and I like performing with other people, and that you can be yourself."

 

"I have been in the Children's choir for 1 year and 11 months. It's very nice, singing and dancing."

 

Children from the Dhungala Choral Connection and the African Children's Choir have united to stage a performance in Melbourne.

 

The idea came after music director Jonathon Welch visited Uganda and saw the impact the African Children's Choir was having in local communities.

 

"You can see in Uganda that the people have nothing, but they have their voices and their bodies, and they can move and you can see the joy that that brings them, taking them out of their everyday situations, which is often very very difficult."

 

Despite the distance betweem them, the two choirs have already found common ground, says African Children's Choir leader Abraham Kiyingi.

 

"Australia is so far away from Africa but from the little I've seen, we're so alike with Indigenous people and how they value mother earth and even in our songs and dances we see some similarities."

 

Organisers say they hope the event will provide a unique opportunity for children from both choirs to meet and learn about their cultures.

 

Deborah Cheetham is the Director of Dhungala Choral Connection.

 

"I think that music is an incredibly powerful force in the world for good, it is for Aboriginal people, the way that we have passed on knowledge for more than a thousand generations and I know that that's also true for the African nations."

 

But for the children, it's about doing what they love most.

 

 


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