Available Album: WHEN THE SKY FELL DOWN by Chris Robinson (WSFD).
Formerly known as 1788 The Great South Land (1988 - 1998)
The Album and the Song Book form the basis of an interactive education program, (Multimedia file with illustrated book files) which can be purchased by Email at
[email protected] with payment via PayPal. The educational resource files include licence to perform the show for profit as a fundraiser, etc (refer to the free text version of the Story and Songbook in the blogg from this page).
The rock-musical and educational resource files were written in collaboration with the NSW Aboriginal Educational Consultative Group, the Board of Studies and Curriculum Support Directorate, and endorsed by state and federal Ministers from both political extremes. The politics of 1997 - 2007 reduced progress in the Humanities, Arts, Integrated Education and "Reconciliation" so much, it could not be available, but it's now reproduced, rerecorded and remastered.
The album and book are free (to stream from imeem or myspace) for those who knew and loved it. There are some free downloads on ReverbNation, and the resource files are available for schools and community purchase.
International CD Distribution and more information at CdBaby
~ When the Sky Fell Down ~ CLICK HERE to buy the WSFD album from iTunes ~
Payments, purchase-orders, and all deposits are accepted via PayPal.
Song videos uploaded here are from the interactive file and are from the version in 1998 on the CentralCoast of NSW. Film quality is low - as the high quality footage was effectively stolen by those with racist political interests, who also effectively buried the project around the time of the Sydney Olympics year.
The following video was provided free to all public schools in New South Wales in 1997 to document how this work helped bring about Aboriginal Reconciliation not only in the subject matter learned, but in the staging of the Rock Musical for the community. The show scenes in the video are only re-enacted for the documentary. Church and private schools systems did not participate in the cost of the documentary and therefore did not get a free copy, despite their bleatings about "reconciliation" at the time of its release.. Some went as far as writing their own songs and books with the same title and cashing in on the "goodwill" which had been generated by this work - thereby undermining it at the time of the extremist conservative rule from 1997-2007. For this and other reasons (including the book by Kieth Wiley which i used as my main sourcebook) the name of the musical and project have now been changed. All text and music has been revised and edited by the original writer.
NSW Dept of School Education Nothings Going to Stop Our Dream
..
A TIME OF CHANGE : Song 21 from WHEN THE SKY FELL DOWN....
A Time of Change - Draft AV File for use in the INTERACTIVE V1
Add to My Profile | More Videos
EXTRACT from the Story and Songbook:...The women with their hand lines either fished from rocks, or more usually, from the bark canoes which they manoeuvred with great dexterity. Young children accompanied the women while fishing. It was common practice to have a small fire burning in the centre of the canoe, laid on seaweed, sand or a tablet of clay, so that fish could be cooked and eaten straight from the water. The women usually sang while fishing, some of the ditties being designed to persuade the fish to take their baited hooks'
(Collins 1798)
Song 8.
Kameraygal (Cammeraigal or Cammeray - sydney harbour north)
Add to My Profile | More Videos
The places referred to in this next song are the main language areas of the Sydney region.
EXTRACT fromt the Story and Songbook: The Bidjigal and Wanegal peoples are now regarded as being a part of the Darug area with links to Darkinjun.
A man from this region stands in history as a hero of his people, and was the first to conduct organised warfare against the invasion of Australia.
His name is Pemulwuy.
Pemulwuy fought from 1790 until his death in 1802 and his son, Tedbury, continued to lead the fight for several years afterwards. The Governor had placed a reward on his head and he was killed by two settlers in an ambush. After Pemulwuy’s death, Governor King wrote of him:
'...Altho' a terrible pest to the colony, he was a brave and independent character....'
Pemulwuy was said to be at the head of every party that attacked the maize grounds. Aboriginal people believed Pemulwuy to be a Clever Man, which means having special powers. Collins mentioned the mystery that surrounded him:
'...they entertained an opinion, that, from his having been frequently wounded, he could not be killed by our fire arms.'
Until recently, Pemulwuy's name has been omitted from most Australian history books. His name means Earth: Man of the Earth.
Song 10.
10 WSFD BIDJIGAL MAN - KARAOKE with vocals - draft 1a
Add to My Profile | More Videos
Please enjoy and share this music.. comments welcome.
Your purchase or contribution is greatly appreciated and contributes to keeping it alive and supporting the artist's efforts, which APRA have been unable to do when it comes to the internet and MySpace, as they would if this was a radio broadcast. Thankyou for reading about this work. I hope you enjoy my free samples from the project. CJR
