Page 80 - Metro

DOCUMENTARY

SONGLINES

ON SCREEN

Naina Sen’s The Song Keepers
and Aboriginal Histories

Song holds a special place among many
Aboriginal communities, for whom it em-
bodies a means of commemorating ties
SN BTKSTQD @MC BNTMSQX -NVGDQD HR SGHR
echoing of past voices into the present
more evident than in the work of the
Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s
Choir, whose story is chronicled in 2017
documentary The Song Keepers. With ref-
erence to Paul Williams’ contemporaneous
3GD #NBTLDMS@QX NE #Q & 8TMTOHMFT R +HED,
Felicity Ford examines the mastery and
L@FMHSTCD NE -@HM@ 2DM R jKL

( QDLDLADQ SGHMJHMF m VDKK @BST@KKX V@RM S SGHMJHMF ( EDKS
( EDKS ITRS RGDDQ INX MC ( EDKS SGHR VDHQC RDMR@SHNM NE ADVHK-
CDQLDMS SG@S MN NMD HM SGHR BNTMSQX JMDV @ANTS SGHR BGNHQ
'NV HR SGHR ONRRHAKD

,pP RQ WKH SKRQH ZLWK GRFXPHQWDU\ ĺOPPDNHU DQG YLGHR
LQVWDOODWLRQ SURMHFWLRQ DUWLVW 1DLQD 6HQ VKHpV UHFRXQW
LQJ WKH ĺUVW &HQWUDO $XVWUDOLDQ $ERULJLQDO :RPHQpV
Choir rehearsal that she attended, in a small church in
$OLFH 6SULQJV :KLOH VKH ZDV ERUQ LQ 1HZ 'HOKL 6HQ
has spent the last seven years working with Aboriginal
people and communities, and, in turn, has ‘had access
and privilege to hear some pretty extraordinary music’.
The choir comprises an exceptional group of women
from various remote communities in the desert region
DURXQG 1WDULD +HUPDQQVEXUJ t VLWXDWHG LQ WKH KLOOV RI
WKH 0DF'RQQHOO 5DQJHV NLORPHWUHV ZHVW RI $OLFH
6SULQJV t ZKR VLQJ FHQWXULHV ROG /XWKHUDQ K\PQV LQ WKHLU
own languages, namely Arrernte and Pitjantjatjara. They
DUH WKH VXEMHFWV RI 6HQpV IHDWXUH OHQJWK GRFXPHQWDU\
3GD 2NMF *DDODQR (2017), which traces the fascinat
ing history of the choral traditions of Central Australia’s

78 • Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM