172. Songs for Freedom
Patrick Churnside on new album, national tour & changing our stories
The north-west shelf of Western Australia is said to be where the Songlines of this continent began. No surprise then, that the people here would be showcasing and reconnecting their convergent and resurgent cultures in spectacular ways – via the media, projects and enterprises we talked about in the previous episode - and with the Songs for Freedom project.
Patrick Churnside performing Songs for Freedom in Perth / Boorloo, March 2023 (pic: Linda Dunjey).
“And it was a reckoning for them to be able to, in a small space of the private ceremony that we did before the actual event, they got to heal that country. But also heal themselves by being on country. A sense of freedom in that speaks for itself. ”
Join us back in Roebourne / Ieramugadu with Patrick Churnside, a Traditional Custodian from the Ngarluma and Yindjibarndi language groups, who is at the heart of Songs for Freedom, and so much else. Earlier this year, with a leading arts and social change organisation in Australia called Big hART, and a host of star performers from around Australia, Patrick and the community here launched the Songs for Freedom album, at the start of its ongoing national tour.
The mission and message is for us to come together to change the drastic over-incarceration of Indigenous youth and children in Australia. What's been dubbed The Freedom Collective seeks to change this story nationally, and they’re changing the story for themselves locally too. The New Roebourne project, with the support of elders, has seen many years now of strong community involvement creating music, theatre, performance and digital content.
Head here for automatic cues to chapter markers (also available on the embedded player above), and a transcript of this conversation (please note the transcript is AI generated and imperfect, but hopefully serves to provide greater access to these conversations for those who need or like to read).
This conversation was recorded at the Big hART Digital Lab on 6 June 2023.
Click on the photos below to zoom in, and hover over them to see captions. All photos by Anthony James unless noted.
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Find more:
Songs for Freedom project including new album and national tour dates culminating in September.
New Roebourne Project – which leads to the dedicated project website, where you can watch one of the best 2 minute videos we’ve seen.
Hear a candid 10 minute off-the-record yarn after we ended this conversation.
And if you’re interested, apply for this position at the Digital Lab.
Join us at the upcoming Regenerative Agriculture Conference in Margaret River in September 2023.
Music:
Sunrise Tjaabi & Sunset Tjaabi, performed live by Patrick Churnside from the Songs for Freedom album.
Regeneration, composed by Amelia Barden, from the soundtrack to the film Regenerating Australia.