Wominjika:
The Thank You Workshop
In Brief
The Workshop: ‘Wominjika’ means ‘welcome’ in the Wurundjeri and Dja dja Wurrung languages of the Melbourne area and central Victoria.
In the WOMINJIKA: THE THANK YOU WORKSHOP Jan teaches students to sing a song called Thank You for the Welcome, to be used as a meaningful and dignified musical response to Indigenous Welcome to Country, school concerts and other occasions.
As students learn the song Jan tells them the black-white history stories embedded in the song.
(For detailed workshop description see below.)
Format: It takes a two-hour session for Jan to teach the song and tell the stories within it. After that a music teacher can take over the process, or Jan can return to see the process through to performance.
Suitable for groups up to 50 students.
Curriculum: In particular this workshop teachers the history of colonisation, it’s impact on Indigenous communities and the on-going relationship between black and white Australians.
This workshop also relates to Music and English.
Primary: VELS 3-6, NAT 4 (First Contact)
Secondary: VELS 7-12 (plus VCE)
Cost: $450 per two-hour workshop/ 10% discount for extra workshops on same day.
A travel/accom. Loading may apply in some locations.
Recommendations
“The whole school community was moved by the students singing your ‘Thank You For The Welcome’ song in Reconciliation Week.
The workshop sessions were invaluable, providing a context for students to understand the thousands of years of complex story within the song.
On behalf of the teachers who had the privilege to sit in on your workshops, we thank you for engaging the students in such rich sessions of storytelling – inspiring dignity, awareness, understanding and appreciation as well as lots of laughs!”
Thais Sansom, Castlemaine South PS
Detailed workshop description
Wominjika means welcome in the Wurundjeri language of Port Phillip, and in Wominjika: The Thank You Workshop, Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky teaches students a song to be sung as a dignified response to Indigenous Welcome to Country ceremonies, as well as other occasions such as school concerts.
Written by Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky, the song is called Thank You For The Welcome. As students learn the song they will gain, through Jan’s personal and historical stories, an understanding of black-white relations in Australia, including:
- Aborigines and First Fleet soldiers dancing together
- The Woiwurrung welcome for John Batman when he came in 1835 to ‘purchase’ the land that is now Melbourne
- Jan personal experiences with Aboriginal people’s hospitality and welcome
- How Indigenous ceremonies compare with our customs of welcome and laws of visas and passports.
Thank You For The Welcome was a finalist in the 2005 Port Fairy Folk Festival Songwriting Award, and has been used in the Opening Ceremony of the 2009 Castlemaine State Festival, the 155th Eureka Stockade commemorations, and by choirs at various festivals across Australia.
Listen to song (to come)
Castlemaine PS performance (to come)
Castlemaine State Festival Wominjika Ceremony (to come)
Recommendations
Dear Jan,
The whole school community was moved by the students singing your ‘Thank You For The Welcome’ song in Reconciliation Week.
Parents commented on how the 3-6 students were so focused on the singing, really enjoying it, with such integrity, as they sang it for the Jarra elders.
The two workshop sessions were invaluable, providing a context for students to understand the thousands of years of complex story within the song. On behalf of the teachers who had the privilege to sit in on your workshops, we thank you for engaging the students in such rich sessions of storytelling – inspiring dignity, awareness, understanding and appreciation as well as lots of laughs!
Thais Sansom
Performing Arts Teacher, Castlemaine South Primary School
Dear Jan,
I want to express my thanks for your role in the 2009 Castlemaine State Festival. Your idea to dedicate a work of thanks in response to the Jarra Welcome to Country was thoughtful and progressive. The occasion was moving and profound. As the Minister for Arts Lynne Kosky announced, it was the best Welcome to Country she has ever experienced.
Again my thanks to all involved.
Martin Paten
Festival Director, Castlemaine State Festival
Dear Jan,
I am happy to provide a recommendation to Jan Wositzky’s ‘Wominjika: The Thank You Workshop’.
I’m a Wamba Wamba man (Swan Hill, Victoria) living near Castlemaine in central Victoria, on Jarra Country. Acknowledging Country is part of my protocol as an Aboriginal person, when I am performing on another person’s land.
The Castlemaine State Festival opening incorporated a Welcome to Country by Jarra traditional owner, Uncle Brien Nelson; myself giving an Indigenous acknowledgment of Uncle’s Welcome; and Jan’s song ‘Thank You for the Welcome’ – a non Indigenous thank you and acknowledgment of Country.
As I said during that ceremony, “It takes someone special to write a song like this one”, and Jan has done something special here. I believe Jan’s proposal to run workshops in schools which aim to teach this song and it’s message of thank you and acknowledgment of Country, should be taken up by all schools. It provides an important way, through music, that we can better understand our place in this land.
Ron Murray - Wamba Wamba
Thank You for the Welcome
Words & music: Jan ‘Yarn’ Wositzky
Verse 1
Thank you for the welcome to your country
Thank you for the welcome to your land
Can we two walk as one underneath this sun
Thank you for the welcome to your land.
Verse 2
Thank you for the welcome to your country
Thank you for the welcome to your land
Can we two walk in peace by your shining creeks
Thank you for the welcome to your land.
Middle 8
Some of us came in chains, some with a Bible or a gun
Some to make our fortune some came for the sun
Some of us sought refuge to start our lives anew
In this in this old land
In this in this old land.
Chorus
Wominjika, wominjika, wominjika (Wurundjeri & Jarra version)
Bin barre barne, Bin barre barne, Bin barre barne (Wathaurong version)
Middle 8
Some of you shed your blood when the whale boats hit the sand
Some of you danced with us, dancing hand in hand
Some of you were stolen from your home when you were young
In this in this old land
In this in this old land.
Verse 3
Thank you for the welcome to your country
Thank you for the welcome to your land
Can we sit down as one underneath this sun
Thank you for the welcome …
Chorus
Wominjika, wominjika, wominjika
Bin barre barne, Bin barre barne, Bin barre barne
Thank you for the welcome to your land.
Notes
Wominjika means welcome in the language of the Wurundjeri people of the Melbourne area and the Jarra people of central Victoria. Bin barre barne means welcome in the Wathaurong language of the Geelong area.
When sung in country of other Aboriginal languages, the local word for welcome can be included. Please consult with local Indigenous people.
The dancing referred to in stanza three took place 3 days after the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in 1788. The white colonists were mapping the harbour, and a group of black Australians cheerfully called them ashore. A painting by Luit. Bradley records what then happened: under the trees by the beach, they all – black and white – held hands and danced.
