00:00This is Billie Eilish's What Was I Made For, Gumbangia-style, but Man Young's recent cover
00:12isn't the only place you can hear the Gumbangia language being sung.
00:17This eclectic choir on the New South Wales mid-north coast is raising a smile.
00:21They are cheeky.
00:23They're members of the Giowar Dagula Choir, and they're learning to sing both contemporary
00:28and traditional songs in the language of the Gumbangia people.
00:31They're all different ages.
00:32We've got a few young people, you know.
00:35We've got a mother with a child that comes.
00:37You know, we've got people with dogs that come.
00:39We've got elderly people that come.
00:41Wiradjuri woman and former singer Monique Hill travels an hour each way from Coffs Harbour
00:46to attend rehearsals.
00:48She says the choir has changed her life.
00:50And I saw the ad and I thought, yeah, that's a way for me to get back into singing again.
00:55I've got my first solo gig again after 24 years, so this experience has given me back
01:01my confidence.
01:03While Miklo teaches the language, Ruth Kennedy leads the group in song.
01:07Obviously there's a lot of challenges because you're singing a different language.
01:12Probably at least 80% of them have had no experience singing in a choir.
01:17With a mix of Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants, it also gives members a chance
01:22to learn about First Nations culture.
01:24I think it's a really respectful way to kind of, you know, have our own kind of personal
01:28reconciliation.
01:30Gumbaynggirr is one of around 120 Indigenous languages still actively used in Australia
01:35today.
01:36The vast majority of them are endangered.
01:38But initiatives like this one, in this hall, have seen the number of Gumbaynggirr speakers
01:42more than double in the past decade.
01:44With performances at the Dorrigo Folk and Bluegrass Festival and a citizenship ceremony
01:49in Coffs Harbour, these singers are showing how music and language can be powerful forces
01:54for unity.
01:55And hearing all the other voices and the different sounds that they make, that's the thing that
02:03I love.
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