The story of Treaty by Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO begins in the last moments before colonisation.
It begins with clapsticks, then the yidaki, before the sound of cannon fire bellows, its sound lingering and announcing the arrival of invaders.
The orchestral piece is the second movement in Ms Cheetham Fraillon’s yidaki concerto, a follow up to the first in 2022, entitled “Baparripna - the Dawn”.
Ms Cheetham Fraillon, an award-winning soprano and composer, said her most recent orchestral work “captures the journey from the final moments of self determination and sovereignty, to the present day.”
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s commissioning of the piece came at a time of landmark decisions and processes.
In Ms Cheetham Fraillon’s home-state, the Yoorrook Justice Commission was going through the first truth-telling inquiry and Victoria became Australia’s first jurisdiction to move forward with a treaty process with First Nations people.
“I wanted to capture this moment in history musically, but not just this moment, to actually outline what the steps have been -- the march, the very long, slow march towards this process,” Ms Cheetham Fraillon said.
"Because in Australia only Victoria is on track to deliver any kind of treaty ... all other states have abandoned their process, and I felt that this piece of music really needed to speak to the current state of affairs."
Treaty premiered on Friday 22 August at the Edinburgh International Festival as part of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra’s European and UK tour, with Kalkadunga man, composer and multi-instrumentalist William Barton as yidaki soloist.
Ms Cheetham Fraillon, a Yorta Yorta woman, told NITV she is always delighted to write for Mr Barton, particularly on such an important and timely piece.
“William is an absolute master of his instrument, and more than that, brings a cultural authority to the process,” Ms Cheetham Fraillon said.
“He has a strong sense of the narrative that we’re telling and this is absolutely essential.”
After Edinburgh, the piece will be performed in Hamburg, Germany at the Elbphilharmonie, but will not feature in the MSO’s performances in Santander, Südtirol Festival or the renowned BBC Proms which was watched by 10.6 million people on TV in 2024, with an additional 4.6 million streams on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
Under new leadership since 2024, the MSO also made the decision not to include the musical Acknowledgement of Country for any of the performances on this tour.
The acknowledgement was composed by Ms Cheetham Fraillon for the MSO in 2020 and had featured in every concert since.
Although disappointed by the decision not to represent the complete identity of the orchestra from Naarm on the world stage, Ms Cheetham Fraillon said she was looking forward to the world premiere of Treaty in Edinburgh and its European premiere in Hamburg, the latter of which is sold out - a testament to the appetite for Indigenous perspectives and authentic storytelling.
“European audiences are hungry for authentic Australian music practice and compositional voice and in Treaty they have exactly that,” Ms Cheetham Fraillon said.
Ms Cheetham Fraillon hopes European audiences walk away from the performance with a new perspective of not only Australia’s history, but also its future.
“I hope this is a piece that will move the audience and spark their curiosity…to look more deeply at the situation in Australia and try to understand our history and also understand contemporary Australia in this process of treaty - why is it necessary and how will it come about?
“I think music has the power to move people and to inform them and to uplift and I hope that Treaty will do all these things.”
