Team Moorambilla has been back on the road visiting schools throughout the Warrumbungle region.

Artistic Director of the award-winning Moorambilla Voices multi-arts program, Michelle Leonard and her team are selecting primary and secondary students from Baradine to Bourke, and all towns in-between, to participate in the annual residency camps, video recordings and tours.

In August each year, over 300 students attend camp in Baradine, where they dance, sing, compose, create, play drums and learn about the cultural traditions and stories of their landscape. This is delivered in partnership with professional musicians, performers, composers, choreographers and visual artists.

Now in its eighteenth year, Michelle says the workshops form the backbone of the creative music program and allow every child to experience some Moorambilla magic.

“Connecting with schools and watching the children grow up is beautiful; you see them every year and you are watching them grow,” Michelle said. 

“Their voices and their lives are changing, but they know that I am going to come and cherish their skills and their joy and put them into an ensemble that will make them really happy.

“Over the years, Moorambilla’s skill development workshops have been delivered for free in schools across NSW to over 42,000 children. Now that’s a lot of love, laughter and singing.” 

Designed for students from years 3 to 12, the workshops focus on music literacy and support the development of confidence, self-esteem, resilience, teamwork and creativity.

ABOVE: Artistic Director of the award-winning Moorambilla Voices multi-arts program, Michelle Leonard

Michelle says that a spectacular cultural shift has been the biggest change she has seen over the years.

“We have really helped start conversations around inclusion and respect, not just for regional and remote children and communities to be respected and included in artistic conversations, but about how we connect to country, and how amazing and glorious the heritage and the worldview of this country is,” added Michelle. “What is more, we have done it all through the vehicle of arts. 

Positive

“A lot of studies say that communities and children that sing together have better mental health outcomes; they have this collective pursuit for a common goal that is positive and beneficial to emotional and physical health.  

“We sing when we want to express happiness, we sing and we dance; when we want to try and work through sadness We sing; it is a normal human thing that is believed to be pre-speech. 

“But to have the opportunity do it in the language from the area you grew up in and about what you know and to have that recognised and celebrated on stage to an audience is just wonderful. I wish I had had that when I was growing up in Coonamble.”

From Saturday 1 April forty-five members of the high school MaxedOUT company spent four days in Baradine to collaborate with world-class artists to create a multi artform digital music video exploring connection to Country and featuring the artwork of long-term collaborator and Gamileroi visual-artist Frank Wright.

Skills

“Participants honed their skills in taiko drumming, choral and contemporary dance,” Michelle said.  

“The distinctive sound of thunderous Taiko drumming resonates through the community as the energy and spirit of the Moorambilla MaxedOUT company is felt far and wide.

“This workshop featured long-term Moorambilla artists Anton Lock and Ryuji Hamada, dance with Wiradjuri choreographer and NAISDA graduate Neville Williams-Boney, choral performance and artist Frank Wright.  

“This Taiko intensive culminates in the filming of another fabulous video for the gala performance towards the end of the year.  We will be filming in some of the amazing landscapes in and around Baradine and the Pilliga Forest.

“Here’s to a year of energy, excellence and excitement as we work with the region's children and youth to create Riversong 2023.”