Transcriber: Phuong Thao Le Reviewer: David DeRuwe
(Choir) (Peek Whurrong) Nuunbee tuumba, nuunbee tuumba
Nuunbee tuumba, nuunbee tuumba
(Soloist) (English) Hold onto your breath. Hold onto your tears.
Let out your emotion. Let go of your fear.
See it through our eyes.
See it in our hearts.
Doesn’t matter who you are.
Welcome with open arms.
(Choir) Oh - Oh - Oh
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our day.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our time.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it This is our family.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it.
This is our moment to shine.
(Soloist) Rise on your wheels. Rise in you shoes.
Throw your hands in the air
This is our gift to you.
(Choir) Oh - Oh - Oh
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our day.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our time.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our family.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it.
This is our moment to shine.
(Musical interlude)
(Choir) Oh - Oh - Oh
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our day
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our time.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it. This is our family.
Can you feel it. Can you feel it.
This is our moment to shine
(Soloist) (Peek Whurrong) Gnaatu’hnat wallawar kakoo
(Choir) (English) Our moment to glow
(Soloist) (Peek Whurrong) Gnaatu’hnat wallawar kakoo
(Choir) (English) Our moment to glow
(Soloist) (Peek Whurrong) Gnaatu’hnat wallawar kakoo
(Choir) (English) Our moment to glow
(Soloist) (Peek Whurrong) Gnaatu’hnat wallawar kakoo
(Choir) (English) Our moment to glow
(Applause)
Tom Richardson: All right. We’re going to try something together here.
I’m going to play a rhythm using my hands and my body,
and I'd like you to repeat it back to me.
(TR: Clapping)
(Audience: Clapping)
(TR: Clapping)
(Audience: Clapping)
OK.
Current vulnerability levels maybe around a six out of ten.
I’m going to sing something now,
and I’d really like for you to sing it back to me.
TR: Heyyo
(Audience) Heyyo
TR: Heyyo
(Audience) Heyyo
TR: Heyyo
(Audience) Heyyo
TR: Vulnerability levels maybe dropped to about a two.
(Laughter)
That was a little bit more scary, wasn’t it?
Kylie, how are you feeling?
Kylie Thulborn: Tom, I’m not going to lie. A little bit nervous. It’s TEDx.
But I am fully pumped,
and how could you not be pumped
after being in the heart of a performance like that?
We all need to find our voice.
Some of us have lost it along the way; others unsure if they ever had one.
Whether you’re in the car, in the shower, in a group, or on stage,
singing feels good.
It’s been said that speaking comes from the mind,
but singing, singing comes from the soul,
and there are few choirs in the world
with as much soul as the Find Your Voice Choir.
TR: So the performance that you just experienced
was an original song, an original piece of music
called “Moment,”
written entirely by Find Your Voice Choir members,
many of whom identify with a disability,
but solidifying all the reasons
why a choir of this nature deserves to be performing
on a global platform such as TEDx.
The song also featured lyric translations
in Peek Whurrong - a Maar nation aboriginal language
from what is now known as southwest Victoria in Australia,
arguably one of the oldest indigenous languages on the planet.
Now, during the performance, you may have felt this ...
overwhelming sense of emotion
but were unable to pinpoint exactly why that was.
The Find Your Voice Choir asked two very important questions:
the first, “How do I truly view myself?”
and the second, “How is it that I truly view others?”
An audience member, perhaps,
most recently articulated that a choir of this unapologetic nature
then allows audience members
to examine and question their own vulnerability.
What we found, that by embracing
each member exactly who and exactly how they are,
then exposes their true nature, their true passions,
and also instills a real deep sense of belonging.
Since the beginning of time, music has helped define who we are.
As humans, we’re the only species on the planet
that can spontaneously join together in coordinated songs,
regardless of having ever met before.
And whether it was your grade five music teacher
suggesting, “Probably best that you just mime in the school play”
(Laughter)
or some greater misguided cultural belief,
most of us are ... we’re afraid to express ourselves creatively,
even though we know how good it feels.
KT: In 2017, Tom and I traveled around the southwest of Victoria,
singing around tables of five or six people at one time.
No audition, just an open invitation to anyone who wished to share in music.
The Find Your Voice Choir now welcomes over 250 members
of all ages, abilities, sexual preferences, races, religions,
and backgrounds,
uniting over a dozen communities across southwest Victoria and beyond.
On stage earlier, you saw First Nations people, fathers, daughters,
friends, creators, musicians, community,
all side by side.
This choir is a distilled representation of what belonging feels like.
Disability pride runs deep through our choir culture.
Let’s just be honest, society hasn’t held the bar high for people
with the lived experience of disability or those left isolated by something
as innate as race or sexuality.
This choir is a melting pot of all these traits.
TR: Regardless of perceived ability,
what we found is that when you set the expectation at a professional level,
each unique member of our choir family can then rise to their interpretation
of where that bar is for them.
KT: We’re not just here to share a joyful community built on music;
we are here to embed a narrative of belonging -
one that can be seen, one that can be heard.
Everything we do is supported by a true model of inclusion,
one embedded in human rights.
Our greater vision is not only for this choir in this moment;
it is the ripple effect -
creating an empowered narrative that transcends outdated attitudes
and offers an experience
that just might change the way you interact with the world.
TR: All right, so.
I’m going to sing something again,
and I’d love for you to really sing it back to me.
Heyyo,
(Audience) Heyyo
Heyyo
(Audience) Heyyo
Nice. Where is your vulnerability level at now?
So you’ve heard the power of one voice, of two voices.
You’ve seen and you’ve heard and you’ve felt the power of 200 voices.
Are you ready to add your voice
to this global narrative of not just acceptance,
but celebration?
KT: Are you ready to really interact with world?
TR: And is the world ready for you?
Thank you.
(Applause)