October 26 - November 1, 2014: Issue 186
Western Sydney Children's Choir Documentary Road to the Sydney Conservatorium
Documentary being made about Indigenous Choir’s Sydney Conservatorium of Music performance
Mt Druitt, Oct 21, 2014
Over a period of 10 weeks, a film crew will follow the Mt Druitt Indigenous Choir members and families in the lead-up to a performance at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music on December 13, 2014.
“It’s a privilege to be asked to perform at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music because it is one of the oldest and most prestigious music schools in Australia,” said David Armstrong, Director of the Choir.
“Mt Druitt Indigenous Choir members are aged from 3-15 years and we would like to thank our sponsors and friends in Sydney who have supported the Choir at more than 100 performances from Dee Why to our home-grown Mt Druitt festivals, from Cape York to Central Queensland and to Canberra,” he said. “We are truly excited and honoured to be invited to perform at Sydney’s premier musical education centre.”
The film, entitled ‘One Good Day’, will follow the Choir’s journey – from an appearance at their favourite beach in Dee Why, through to practice sessions in Blacktown, until they walk up on stage at the Conservatorium on December 13 to proudly celebrate their identity and sing in a combination of English and in the Dharug language. Some major filming will take place around their performance at the Aboriginal Family Workers Festival on November 29, a booking that was made one year in advance.
The documentary will show how ‘One good day can lead to another’ with some surprising outcomes from family empowerment policies. It will feature interviews with many of the elders and parents of the children as well as financial supporters of the One Good Day programs which have been developed to celebrate the uplifting power of singing one positive song.
Kevin Hunt from the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, said: “It's inspiring to listen and watch children of Western Sydney, singing in the Dharug language. Thank you Mt Druitt Indigenous Choir.”
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About Us
One Good Day is taking positive action towards disadvantaged Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islanders.We are a non profit organisation that is the outreach arm of Nulawala Incorporated, and our team of workers are all voluntary.
Our prime goal is to take the kids out so they can have at the very least “one good day", with lots of fun and laughter in refreshing locations.We are committed to empowering Indigenous families to implement their desired community goals. This includes strengthening the communities level of activity to reach excellence in health and well being.
Our ultimate goal is to have the community reach their own goals rather than have an organisations self developed program pushed on them.
We have several facets to our outreach and one special activity has been the formation of the Mt Druitt Indigenous Choir which sang at forty venues in 2012, and to many thousands of people at the Dee Why Carols.
We also provide food for around fifty families each week which is a tremendous encouragement for the families basic needs and the ongoing health and development of the kids.
We are presently looking at the formation of a One Good Day Resource Centre which we are hoping to see staffed and eventually self sustained by the local community. We already have two different organisations who are donating books to help in the kids education.We are always having extensive communication with the elders and parents of the communities to ensure that they are happy with all our plans and activities.
Our teams view is that we are simply here to lend a helping hand to get the community started on good healthy programs and to be proud to take ownership of the programs in the future
For information about One Good Day or to give a donation, visit www.onegoodday.org.au
One Good Day - Dee Why Beach Introduction
20 December 2013 by Barry Collins