The Song Keepers tells the inspiring story of an Aboriginal women's choir and their historic tour of Germany. In the churches of remote Central Australia, a 140-year musical legacy of ancient Aboriginal languages, German sacred hymns and baroque music is being preserved by four generations of song women that make up the Central Australian Aboriginal Women's Choir.
German Lutheran missionaries arrived in Hermannsburg in 1877, and unlike cruel others and the murderous, marauding British colonists, the Lutherans showed great respect for the traditional owners and their cultures. These missionaries were outstanding in protecting their flock from physical threats, as well as preserving the languages and safeguarding the children such that they were not separated from their mothers in that area.
The mission wasestablished at a sacred site associated with the Aranda ratapa dreaming. It was conceived as an Aboriginal mission by Hermann Kemp and Wilhelm F. Schwarz of the German Hermannsburg Mission who had travelled overland from the Barossa Valley to live among the Aranda people. Pastor Carl Strehlow and his wife, Frieda took over in 1894. They continued documenting the Aranda language and were involved with local people in Bible translation and hymn writing. They soon constructed a school house, which was also used as a chapel and it was at this time that Hermannsburg's most famous son, painter Albert Namatjira, was born into the small community of about 100.
The Aboriginal people reciprocated by embracing the Christian stories and music alongside their own and many were baptised. Particular pleasure was derived from channeling a love of singing through the Lutheran hymns, often translated into the indigenous languages. A new tradition of church choirs spread widely at the time, but was threatened with extinction by the arrival of Country and Western music from the US.
With the ten year long collaboration of charismatic musical director Morris Stuart, the reformed present day choir is shown embarking on a tour of Germany, singing the baroque Lutheran hymns in their own Western Arrarnta and Pitjantjatjara languages. Thirty remarkable women take their vocal harmonising back to the gingerbread world of Bavaria with stories of cultural survival. They are a colourful choir for all Australians to be proud of. Most of the scenes are from rehearsals in Central Australia and performances in Germany, but there are also many still images from the Mission's history and some archival film from Hermannsburg over the past century. Full of great characters and interwoven stories, The Song Keepers is a finely-crafted documentary, recommended for people with an interest in Indigenous culture or choral and a cappella singing, not to mention ethnomusicologists.
German Lutheran missionaries arrived in Hermannsburg in 1877, and unlike cruel others and the murderous, marauding British colonists, the Lutherans showed great respect for the traditional owners and their cultures. These missionaries were outstanding in protecting their flock from physical threats, as well as preserving the languages and safeguarding the children such that they were not separated from their mothers in that area.
The mission wasestablished at a sacred site associated with the Aranda ratapa dreaming. It was conceived as an Aboriginal mission by Hermann Kemp and Wilhelm F. Schwarz of the German Hermannsburg Mission who had travelled overland from the Barossa Valley to live among the Aranda people. Pastor Carl Strehlow and his wife, Frieda took over in 1894. They continued documenting the Aranda language and were involved with local people in Bible translation and hymn writing. They soon constructed a school house, which was also used as a chapel and it was at this time that Hermannsburg's most famous son, painter Albert Namatjira, was born into the small community of about 100.
The Aboriginal people reciprocated by embracing the Christian stories and music alongside their own and many were baptised. Particular pleasure was derived from channeling a love of singing through the Lutheran hymns, often translated into the indigenous languages. A new tradition of church choirs spread widely at the time, but was threatened with extinction by the arrival of Country and Western music from the US.
With the ten year long collaboration of charismatic musical director Morris Stuart, the reformed present day choir is shown embarking on a tour of Germany, singing the baroque Lutheran hymns in their own Western Arrarnta and Pitjantjatjara languages. Thirty remarkable women take their vocal harmonising back to the gingerbread world of Bavaria with stories of cultural survival. They are a colourful choir for all Australians to be proud of. Most of the scenes are from rehearsals in Central Australia and performances in Germany, but there are also many still images from the Mission's history and some archival film from Hermannsburg over the past century. Full of great characters and interwoven stories, The Song Keepers is a finely-crafted documentary, recommended for people with an interest in Indigenous culture or choral and a cappella singing, not to mention ethnomusicologists.
