SCEGGS students perform song for Indigenous Literacy Day

By LINA NAFIE

52 year 4 students at SCEGGS Darlinghurst Primary school put on a performance to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day in front of an audience of parents and guests. Students performed a song sung in both english and Kriol, an English-based creole aboriginal language that is still spoken by over 10 000 people across Australia. 

Australian singers and Indigenous Literacy Foundation (ILF) ambassadors Josh Pyke and Justine Clarke took the opportunity to collaborate with SCEGGS to re-launch a fundraising initiative for the ILF, Busking for Change. SCEGGS school selected the year 4 class for the event, as the students had just wrapped up two terms of study on Australia’s First Nations peoples. 

Pyke first started the ILF charity event in 2009, and subsequently raised over $50,000.

“I always thought it could be more than just a pub gig” Pyke said. 

“When my own kids started school I saw an amazing opportunity to raise awareness and funds for the ILF by turning BFC into an annual event where kids would learn a song and collect sponsorship in return for their efforts.” 

Pyke and Clarke, with the help of Deborah Cheetham and the kids at the Gawura school, wrote the song performed by the SCEGGS students,’Words make the world go around’. 

Clarke said it was “incredible” to hear SCEGGS students perform the cultural song.

“It’s a real connection for our young people made through language and music” she said.

Later performances coming to Sydney Opera House next week

Indigenous Literacy Day will take place September 7, where students from several Sydney schools will gather at the Sydney Opera House for a performance hosted by the ILF. 

Attending the Opera House event will be ILF Ambassador and celebrity Jessica Mauboy. 

“Stories have been an important part of my life. Growing up they were told through music and song and others in books or through works of art” Mauboy said.

ILF co-patron and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission June Oscar AO also recognised the importance of Indigenous language education. 

“Languages are entwined with cultures and the work that the ILF does to support the publishing of stories in First Languages helps keep our culture alive” Oscar said.

Busking for Change will be officially launched at Sydney Opera House, with kids from five Sydney School performing on Wednesday September 7 to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day.