BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
Not every child in Australia has access to music education.
This is particularly the case for children in regional and remote areas. TV shows like Don’t Stop The Music show the wider community this problem, and there have been a number of other initiatives working to combat the issue.
Notable is Music Australia, which has advocated for better accessibility since 2005 through its Music: Count Us In initiative. MCUI aims to foster music education in schools nationally, but particularly for regional and remote locations and special needs schools. Each year, the program culminates in a Celebration Day, where every student across the country sings the same song, on the same day, at the same time!
In 2020, the Celebration Day happened on 5 November. With the theme of Inclusion and Resilience, I can’t think of a better song they could have sung than You Won’t Bring Us Down. Thousands of kids across Australia came together through a live stream to share this powerful sentiment.
We chat with Melina Williams (pictured), who led the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children’s Thomas Pattison School Signing Choir in the Auslan translation of You Won’t Bring Us Down.
Hi Melina. Thanks for chatting to us today, and congratulations for RIDBC’s performance for Celebration Day 2020! Tell us what RIDBC’s Thomas Pattison School Signing Choir did for the event.
Celebration Day 2020 had the theme of Inclusion and Resilience, so there were three versions of the song people could perform – one was the version as written, led by Cairns schools, QLD; one was in Wajarri, which is an Indigenous language, led by schools in the Yamatji region, WA; and Thomas Pattison School led the Auslan translation of the song.
Having an Auslan translation of songs is so important. Thomas Pattison School has been providing Auslan translations for Celebration Day since 2011. Other than Celebration Day, what are some of the other music-related events and activities that Thomas Pattison School does?
We have been lucky enough to perform in a Combined Schools Choir performance several times at the Sydney Opera House, and the students have had the opportunity to perform alongside students from international choirs and orchestras. This means they had the opportunity to touch and feel instruments as they were being played, and be able to feel the vibrations. For some, they were able to access the sounds of the instruments while standing very close to them!
We always translate the Music Count Us In’s song every year into Auslan, and we usually get to perform it at different events. We perform at our organisation’s luncheons each year – such as the volunteers’ thank you luncheon, and Lantern Club luncheon.
We all know that music has a lot of benefits. Why did RIDBC decide to facilitate a signing choir?
The signing choir is a wonderful opportunity for students to be involved in a range of experiences including translating English songs to Auslan; experiencing movement, beat and rhythm; performing and filming. Performing is something they look forward to! There are also literary benefits in translating songs.
Students are involved in the process of translating the song lyrics into Auslan. Auslan is a visual language with its own grammar, which is very different to English, so it’s quite a process. Not only do we translate the lyrics, we need it also to look pleasing and fit nicely with the music. Sometimes, we choose a gesture or movement rather than an actual sign.
It has been a hugely satisfying process on a year-to-year basis to see our students bring this beautiful visual language to the broader community. We are always pleasantly surprised at how much appreciation we receive.
Music has been said to be a medium that is heavily reliant on one’s aural skills. How does the choir overcome this barrier with their children?
A student who is Deaf will experience music differently to a hearing person, but they have their own way of enjoying it. Some hear a lot or some of the beat, while some will only feel it. But it doesn’t stop them from moving, singing, or signing!
They can express themselves through their signs, facial expressions, and body movements. There are many Deaf children who do not hear the music but perform like they can. It’s amazing to watch.
Now, how has RIDBC continued to work with children during the past few months of the pandemic? Have you rehearsed online as a replacement for your usual in-person programs?
When schools were asked to ‘shut down’, RIDBC TPS did also. We moved to lessons via Zoom. Unfortunately, we did not rehearse as a group during that time, but students thankfully had access to videos via the school’s online communication platform, which they could watch and sign along to.
The students also love to look at previous years’ Auslan versions of the MCUI song on YouTube, and sign along to those! The students were noticeably excited to be able to reconvene our music program when we were able to return to school.
That sounds great, and thankfully TPS has been able to return to school and hold group rehearsals. What does a rehearsal session look like, then?
We will ‘warm up’ our bodies, focusing on fingers, hands, and arms through different movements – for example, starting from finger wiggling through to spreading arms out and up.
As we rehearse our songs, we make particular efforts to make sure that all students are using the same hands for each sign or movement, and moving in the same direction. We focus also on timing, making sure that the group follows my lead and does not move too quickly to the next sign or movement.
We have the music turned up quite loud for those who can and like to access the music. Some students don’t hear the music at all, but feel the beat; and some have good [aural] access to the music. So it really is very different for each child.
I think musical experiences are always very individualistic, and it would be so interesting to see how every child experiences the same piece of music. What is a myth about children who are Deaf you’d like to debunk?
That children with a hearing loss can’t enjoy music! You won’t find a Deaf child who doesn’t like banging on a drum or touching a trumpet as it’s being played!
A lot of Deaf children wear hearing devices, which may give them some access to musical sounds and they are able to enjoy it – especially a really strong beat.
I remember one student saying ‘this sounds like two birds talking to each other’ when we listened to a hearing children’s choir perform. It was a song using sounds and no actual words, and I knew exactly what he meant. It didn’t sound like birds to me, but that was how he experienced the song.
What do you think the music community can do to further facilitate diversity and inclusion?
Come and perform for us, and offer us a hands-on experience where the children can touch and feel instruments as they are being played, so they can feel the vibrations and movements that the instruments make.
Captioning videos so that the lyrics of songs can be accessed. Deaf children often don’t know what songs are about, as they don’t have good access to the lyrics.
Appreciate what’s involved in translating songs. Most people, I imagine, would think translating a song is an easy process – ‘just choose a sign for each word’. But it is a complex and lengthy process. A lot of work goes in to translating a song.
Lastly, what has the Thomas Pattison School Signing Choir been doing since Celebration Day?
We made a film of our Christmas song and Christmas messages, which appeared on social media and was shown at our annual Presentation Day, which families unfortunately had to watch online rather than actually being there in person.
We always eagerly await the new Music Count Us In song to translate, perform and film.
Visit the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children website to learn more.
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