80 • Metro Magazine 195 | © ATOM
desert communities and follows the choir on their tour
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Perhaps ‘return’ is the wrong word, because it sug
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Hermannsburg during the early mission days in the late
1800s. These songs are markedly changed and unmistak
ably the choir’s own: not simply in terms of the language
used to sing them, but also in the timbre and texture of
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anced relationship between mission history and Indigenous
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dress the choir’s relative obscurity and to make these sto
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in authorship: ‘These hymns now represent cultural sur
vival, they represent hope, they represent severe strength,
and inspiration.’ This is not to say the hymns erase their
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describes as a ‘simultaneous contradiction’: they are both
marked by their origins and textured by the experiences of
the women and the songlines of their communities.
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allow for journeys to be mapped and navigated. They extend
out across many language groups and incorporate a rich
diversity of cultures, traditions and knowledge systems.
The focus is less on the songlines’ actual words than on
their rhythms and melodies. In 2HMFHMFSGD"N@RS, Margaret
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