November 2017 – First Songs on Country workshop at Aurukun
Pama Language Centre’s Songs on Country Project came to Aurukun State School for the first time 30th October to 10th November, 2017. The Aurukun Songs on Country workshop, involving Year 6 students in week 1 and Secondary students in week 2, supported students to compose and perform their own original songs in Wik-Mungkan. Songs on Country workshops at Aurukun are facilitated by Composer/ Music educator Joshua McHugh, with assistance from Wik-Mungkan interpreter Delys Yunkaporta, Aurukun School teachers and staff and Linguist, Louise Ashmore. Five Wik-Mungkan songs were composed during the workshop. Students are developing film clips for their songs and drawing pictures to illustrate them. Joshua is putting together karaoke tracks for all their songs so they can practice them and then Songs on Country will start to professionally record the students singing their songs. The Songs on Country project is a Pama Language Centre initiative to develop song-based language and curriculum resources to support the revival and maintenance of the ancestral languages of Cape York Peninsula.