The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir - Live on Stage

In an extraordinary meeting of cultures, the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir (CAAWC) performs German hymns and other sacred music in the traditional Western Arrarnta and Pitjantjatjara languages. Some of these songs were taught and translated into local language by German missionaries more than a century ago. Their signature works reveal a peerless Australian musical confluence of Baroque and Romantic era choral arrangements, centuries-old Sacred hymns, locked and carried through time in ancient Aboriginal languages. Their performances provide a rare insight into a vital but unknown aspect of Aboriginal culture in the Central Desert.

The story is one of the cultural robustness of women and represents an unheralded aspect of contemporary Australian Indigenous musicianship. It is a testament to the resilience of Indigenous women in the Central Desert as they preserve and strengthen their identity, languages and culture through song.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir contains 25 core members.  The women (and 4 men) come from six remote communities within a thousand-kilometre radius throughout central Australia - Hermannsburg, Areyonga, Titjikala, Mutitjulu, Docker River, and Alice Springs. The choir was formed as an amalgamation of various individual community choirs, including the renowned choirs from Ntaria (Hermannsburg), Areyonga and Ernabella. 

The Central Australian Women’s Choir is proudly featured in the ABC’s current brand campaign for the celebration of the broadcasters 90th year.  Focused on connecting Australians, the creative content showcases and highlights the different communities the ABC engages with across its services.  Four hundred individuals feature at the heart of the campaign.  Led by renowned Choir Director Morris Stuart AM, ninety choir singers including members of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir perform on Arrernte Country singing a stirring rendition of “I Am Australian” with lyrics in Pitjantjatjara language.  The words were translated by Caroline Windy and Robert Borgias, with 90 singers performing at Simpsons Gap on Arrernte Country, including singers from the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir.

This unique choral performance will inform and educate audiences, providing a rare insight into a vital but unknown aspect of Aboriginal culture in the Central Desert
 

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