Music & Dance
Wadawurrung people used possum skin percussion, clap sticks, bull roarers, boomerangs and other instruments to produce music. The human voice was the primary musical instrument whereas song cycles were a record of the whole history of the people as well as musical entertainments. George Augustus Robinson, an Aboriginal Protector, noted a wide array of instruments including the instance of a child casually stripping some of the bark from a green stick and whirling it by the thin end and producing music, much like the ‘Aeolian Harp’.
Queenscliff Primary sing in Wadawurrung language
Queenscliff Primary School teacher Kelly Caldwell and the Wadawurrung have written songs to teach the language of the Wadawurrung people. By singing these songs, you will help to keep one of the world’s most ancient languages alive in the voices of both First Nations and non-First Nations people.