Perth Voice Interactive

A SERVICE will be held for Aboriginal soldiers this week, with the local Aboriginal-language choir Madjitil Moorna choir composing a song in their honour.

The choir started back in 2006 as a community arts project in Kalamunda, and soon proved pretty popular with people wanting to learn the language.

Coordinator Jo Randell says there was plenty of interest from non-Aboriginal people but they always made sure to have indigenous leadership. About half the songs have Noongar in them, others might be other Aboriginal languages or Kriol.

Senior Aboriginal member Karl Mourach says people seem to learn the language more easily when singing it, not even realising they’re memorising the words. They usually sing at schools and festivals, but for Naidoc Week they’ll perform at the St Georges Cathedral as part of the service for Aboriginal soldiers.

At the outbreak of WWI Aboriginal people weren’t allowed to sign up so people like choir member Kobi Arthur Morrison’s great-great-grandfather concealed their ancestry to volunteer. The subterfuge required makes it hard to get an accurate account of how many Aboriginal people served.

“People wanted to prove themselves worthy of citizenship and worthy of respect,” Ms Randell says.

Later in the war as the need for more cannon-fodder grew, the rules changed. In 1917 the Army started admitting Aboriginal people who could prove they had one white parent, but those who made it home were never offered the parcel of land their white comrades were, and they still lacked the most rudimentary of civil rights.

“When they came back they couldn’t even go to the hotel with their Army buddies,” Ms Mourach says.

It seems that in the trenches at least, soldiers were colour-blind: “I’ve only heard stories of close bonding,” singer Sharyn Egan says.

St Georges Cathedral will lay a new memorial to WA’s Aboriginal soldiers for the event, the granite taken from a sacred site. The Naidoc Week service and Battle of Hamel commemoration is on Sunday July 6 at St Georges Cathedral.

by DAVID BELL