This three-choir, orchestra and film event was spectacular. The Marliya Choir are the young Indigenous female singers from Far North Queensland and the Torres Strait. They sing in both English and First Nations languages, primarily Yindjibarndi. Conducted by Lyn Williams, they sang, jived, swayed and entertained for a full 90 minutes.
The Marliya Choir was formed from members of the Gondwana Indigenous Children’s Choir to perform SPINIFEX GUM by Felix Riebl. The group was joined by hundreds of children’s voices from Gondwana Voices, Ascham School, Newtown High School of Performing Arts, SCEGGS Darlinghurst and the Sydney Symphony conducted by Aaron Wyatt.
They sang stories of the Yindjibarndi people in the Pilbara, of the Tiwi Islanders (My Island Home), the deaths in custody, the campaign for The Voice, the incarcerations and the displacements. They sang the joys of sisterhood, dreaming, strength of family and ghost whispering. It was part protest, part advocacy, part celebration and ALL great entertainment. The standing ovation and wild clapping at the end was a ‘congratulations’ to the hundreds of children and the other creatives involved.
Above the massed assemblage of performers, images were projected on a screen with well-designed and coordinated stories. There was Lang Handcock looking out a plane window at the vast iron ore landscape below, seeing the potential but not the people living there. There was the long iron ore train (once the longest in the world) scouring the landscape.
There were images of words written in the orange sand, the waterfalls in the rainforest on the other side of the country, the placard carrying protesters and, there was icon Archie Roach. There are happy images of children teasing one another, of a grandmother ringing home and of the choir on tour. Filmmaker Dominic Allen’s concept of integrating the images with the stories being performed was truly beautiful.
Felix Riebl is the creator and composer of this massive work. Deborah Brown is the choreographer. Michael Woodley created the Yindjibarndi texts and the translations. The first album of Spinifex Gum came out in 2017 and can be found in various versions on various audio platforms.
So what is spinifex? It’s a kind of grass. And what is spinifex gum? It’s a sticky resin on the stems of some varieties of spinifex. And what is Spinifex Gum? A most amazing event with wonderful choirs, orchestra and film. The memory of this spectacular will stick with Sydney’s audience for a long long time.
www.sydneysymphony.com/concerts/spinifex-gum-sydney-symphony
