This is a snapshot of the current state of play for my work in progress Biyanga (working title)

I am currently half way through my shooting schedule with fathers, and by the end of August aim to have completed all filming for the project.

THE FATHERS

Dean

Lyrical Excerpt - Save Your

Take me for what I am

Im not your strength

Im not your heart

Im not your soul

Im not your touch

Take you for what you are

You are the rock

You are the stone

You are the ground

On which you build your home        

Power can still be found

Lifting through your feet upon the ground

Earthing hope and earthing fight

Shaking you with all its might

You will be your saviour

When your lost from me

When your lost from sight

And black is all you see

You will be your saviour

When you lose belief

When  love has left your side

And black is all you see

So Save yourself oh wont you save yourself

(Partial lyric)

Sam

Dylan and Charlie

Blood I Bleed Lyrics

The blood that you bleed

Is not yours and not mine

Its frozen in time

A past left behind

So stay close beside me

Listen as I speak

Curtains of history

Draped over us now

Your skin and my skin

White washed and flushed in

Paler shades of ancestors past

But through you and through me

All of our history

Is all you and all me

Passed on and on

Hues and shades what makes us

Or are we stories of family past?

Scrape away the white

Black beneath the plight

Underneath is fight

Theirs and now ours

Brett & Moon - Love & Masculinity

Brett & Dylan - Beginnings

Context - This video would be placed in ACT I - Role Models & Beginnings. This short clip, with placeholder music (not original), is illustrative to show how I intend to blend the fathers narratives together.

Here you see the fathers sharing similar experiences of the way their culture informed their upbringing. I imagine in the show, that clips like these will pre-cede musical responses to the story presented.

Peter & Jess

Self Reflection

Lullaby Lyrics (Unsure of use within piece - Draft)

Ever since you came our way

Newborn cries morning light on your face

Let it shine, for all of time

All of me within you

Let's plant the seeds

So they may grow

Into the morning falling

Your bright star glows

Place your hand

Next to mine

Calling me to you

Cmin 7 - Eb - Bb / A Gmin. B dim

Stand up tall in the morning sun

I'll be here when the darkness comes If you fall in the pouring rain

Your strength outlives the pain

Stand up tall in the morning sun

I'll be here when the darkness comes If you fall in the pouring rain

Your strength outlives the pain

And if I go

I'll make a stand

Take another star to were I land

I will go

I will be

Shining, here for you

Alex from Gippsland - What a Lion Does

Whilst at the playground with my son, I had a conversation with a father who was in Canberra for the first time attending the Freedom Rally at Parliament House. After going to his car to retrieve something, he returned to continue our discussion whilst his children and my son played on the swing together. Whilst he was gone I set up voice memo to record and capture Alex’s perspective.

I intend to write a song based on some of our conversation, and if ethically sound, use his voice in the presentation of the song.