The musical composition putting words of reconciliation into action

Published 19 November 2020

Combining European and Indigenous knowledges and traditions, UNE music lecturer and composer Dr Paul Smith and oral historian and multimedia artist Dr Lorina Barker are developing the creative work, commissioned by UNE, which will tell both a personal and universal story critical to understanding Australia’s divisive history and need for reconciliation.

“At UNE, our reconciliation vision is to be working side-by-side with Aboriginal students, staff and community in everything we do, with sensitivity and understanding,” says UNE’s CEO and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brigid Heywood, of the commission.

“A musical composition that reminds us all of our responsibility to each other as a human race will be able to form a critical part of what we do together as a community in our ceremonies and occasions.

“UNE has commissioned a piece for an Indigenous and non-Indigenous member of staff to develop that expresses the themes set out in our  Reconciliation Action Plan and that will help deepen the University’s understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, knowledges and cultures.”

Choosing to base the new work on a poem Lorina has written about her grandmother – who was displaced from her Country and trucked across NSW – the words are finding new expression through classical music composed on a grand piano for a small chamber orchestra.

“This is the kind of story we would share around the campfire, but here it’s being captured in classical music and packaged for a whole new audience,” Lorina says.

“It’s a story of removal and return to Country given universality through a new form. It’s no longer a story about me and my community; people will be able to understand the story and history because they’re being put into that place through the music – they will be able to walk in the steps of our grandparents.

“If you can feel it, you get a much deeper understanding and can prevent things like this ever happening again.”

Over a couple of workshops, Paul is working with Lorina and some community Elders from Bourke to ensure the composition evokes the essence and emotion of the story the poem tells.

“It’s a new way of composing,” Paul says. “It’s easy to get caught up in the craft of composing, but this is more about ensuring the right emotional integrity. It’s a different kind of musical collaboration, and it’s humbling, important and affecting.

“The power of music is that it communicates the emotional core of a story in a very unique way. Music and art more broadly help people connect on a different level with most stories. Here, we’re trying to capture the sound of Country and the personal strength and resilience expressed in the poem.”

Lorina says having community Elders on board from the start who can share feedback and their own stories is a critical part of the process.

“We’re not working in a vacuum and creating something sterile. Having community advising and approving the work means they own it from the start, ensuring we have permission to tell their stories in the way they want them to be told.”

She says the project is an effective demonstration of UNE’s commitment to its reconciliation agenda.

“This project is a way for the University to work with and engage the community and for the University to give back to the community that this story belongs to. It’s a credit to our University and proves that the RAP is not a box-ticking exercise.”

For Lorina, Paul, and the Elders, the process itself has proven to be an important act of reconciliation.

“This is about my mother’s struggles and experiences in life and what she remembered as a child being removed from Country to a strange environment,” says Lorina’s mother and workshop participant Aunty Gwen Barker.

“Hearing her story might make people realise how hard it was back then.”

“Stories of removal get swept under the carpet, but it’s important they get told,” adds Lorina’s uncle, and workshop participant Rick Elwood. “I’m glad I’m a part of it; it’s something my sister and I can take back to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren.”

“The collaboration has been really amazing and there have been moments where it’s been quite emotional,” Lorina says.

“This is reconciliation in action. A RAP can be dynamic, but you have to engage with the community to bring it alive and ensure people participate in it.”

For Paul, the project has taken him on an unexpected journey towards new understanding, which he looks forward to sharing with others.

“Though it’s early days on the project, I’ve gained an enormous amount of knowledge and learnt so much about things I never would have read about. It has me asking, how can I offer this kind of opportunity and experience to my students?”

Once the composition is drafted in December, it will be workshopped via Zoom with Elders, then rehearsed by a chamber ensemble at a workshop in Armidale for feedback and community approval. The piece will be recorded in February 2021.

“This is a living work, an artistic outcome of the RAP we’ll be able to give back to the community through performing it and having it available for performance,” Paul says.

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