BY JESSIE WANG, LEAD WRITER (COMMUNITY AND SOCIAL AWARENESS)
What are children’s songs normally about? Some kid called Mary who had a little lamb? Some wheels on a bus that, predictably, go round and round? What about rowing a boat down a stream?
One thing we know for sure is that children’s songs are all pretty playful. And it’s okay to consider them ‘happy’ pieces of music – after all, we all know music can be a great force of positivity in the lives of kids (and for us grown-ups, too).
But musicians Anjana Gajan and Gajan Maheson, and their daughter Nikita, believed children should have access to heavier and necessary topics, shared through music.
From within Australia’s early learning centres, libraries, and primary schools, these artists are educating kids to be better leaders of the future. And this means sharing music about same-sex marriage, multiculturalism, and being kind to others.
Want another twist? Their music is in the style of hip-hop! It’s a genre we’ve never explored on CutCommon – but as for Australian composers spreading positivity through music and education, we reckon theirs is a story you’ll want to know about.
In this interview, we chat to Ajana about her family’s unique project – The Cuddly Koalas.
Hello! So, to start things off, who are The Cuddly Koalas and how did this group launch?
The group started as a result of Gajan’s love for hip hop music, my love for poetry, and Nikita’s interest in songs and dance. As parents, we thought hip hop music and poetry pretty much go hand-in-hand and we’ve seen Nikita enjoy it. That led us to think, why don’t we use this as a tool to convey positive community messages for kids?
Who The Cuddly Koalas’ audiences?
Our music and workshops are targeted towards children from 0-8 years old – early childhood and primary.
Why did you decide to target this age group?
As parents, we listen to children’s music most of the time and found very few [pieces of music] – or close to nothing – that educates children about being kind, or helps develop them to be positive future leaders. We believe prevention is better than cure and, as parents, we thought the younger they are exposed to positive messages, the better.
With my background in early childhood education, and degree in community development, this age group fits in perfect!
What does a session look like when you present at schools?
We sing and dance along to our songs, and have an interactive session getting the kids involved. We also have an art session after the workshop that relates to what we are trying to convey.
In the end, we emphasise the importance of what they learnt by telling our take-home messages in a fun way. So they are actually learning, but don’t realise it because it’s a lot of fun.
Many existing compositions are targeted at engaging children with music. What makes your compositions different?
Our [music] has a take-home message; it is educational and very much different to the regular silly kids’ songs they listen to. Our songs are about making kids kinder and future-ready.
Now, I’m curious: do you have a compositional process? How do you come up with the themes and ideas for your music?
We look in to the everyday life of a child. What do they do? Where do they spend most of their time? Who or what are their most influential factors? Our daughter Nikita mostly paves the way to our themes.
What are some of your favourite moments in the past year? And what are you most looking forward to from here?
Our most favourite moments are the different workshops we conducted with the kids, and watching them smile and enjoy our music.
We are looking forward to making more songs, of course. The biggest thing we are looking forward to is the release of our book to our song Jamerah and her Dads for Father’s Day this year.
Finally, as composers and musicians, what do you think we can do to better promote inclusion and diversity at schools?
Have us come perform our beautiful songs. We have noticed not many are receptive to the idea, or have budget constraints, which we understand. But we also do know that our songs are all about inclusion and diversity, which we think schools need to hear more of these days.
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Thanks for supporting Jessie as she volunteers her time for Australian arts journalism. No amount too much or little 🙂
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Images supplied. Credit: Shokstix Photography.
