full program
Here is a list of our songs, all original music except for one (click on each title or scroll down for more information and lyrics):- Acknowledgement of Country
- Christmas Music 1914
- A Recipe for Peace
- We're Dreaming of a Green Christmas
- What Christmas Means to Me
- Christmas Music 2024
Soloists:
Jenny Sawer - soprano
Maartje Sevenster - mezzo
Instrumentalists:
John Smiles - flute
Rowan Harvey-Martin - violin
Zachary Connor - cello
Meg Rigby - guitar
Musical Direction:
Johanna McBride
Flyer:
Janet Salisbury and Chorus team
The Chorus today:
Adele Stevens, Barbara Moore, Barbara Sutherland, Elizabeth Cusack, Gill King, Helen Pilkinton, Honey Nelson, Chris Watson, Jackie Stepanas, Jennifer Hanks, Jenny Sawer, Jin Teng, Johanna McBride, Kate Champion, Kirsten Anker, Maartje Sevenster, Meg Rigby, Merilyn Jenkins, Ruth Oldfield, Sarah Stitt, Sue Hoffmann, Tanya Mark, Wilma Davidson
Our thanks to the soloists and instrumentalists who have generously supported us in rehearsing the program and joining us today.
Thanks also to the ever-helpful Engagement and Public Programs team from Parliament House.
Acknowledgement of Country
A sung acknowledgement of country, with beautiful words by local poet Hazel Hall. Music by Glenda Cloughley.
This land is the song of Indigenous people
All those who walked here and all their descendants
Song of the creatures and spirits of dreaming
Song of the children and culture they lost
This land holds the lines of its earliest owners
Custodians who respected the Earth
Lines of their knowledge and wisdom of Elders
We ask to walk with you in concord and peace.
Christmas Music 1914
At Christmas in 1914, there was a little-known but remarkable exchange of letters between German/Austrian and British women. These women, whose menfolk were fighting each other, were able to reach out with love and compassion to women from the other side of the war.
But communication between warring countries was illegal. Not deterred by this, German activists sent two letters to British women via the Suffrage Alliance in America, which was at that time a neutral nation. The letters were published in the journal of the Suffrage Alliance, Jus Suffragii.
In response to the German letters Emily Hobhouse organised the writing and signing of a letter from British women. She saw in the German letters an opportunity for maintaining vital international relations among women during the war. 101 women signed Emily's letter.
The Christmas Music 1914 starts with the words of the prominent Australian suffragist and peace activist Vida Goldstein, after whom the Victorian electorate of Goldstein is named. Her words were also published in Jus Suffragii.
Glenda Cloughley set these words of peace to music as part of her big community oratorio A Passion for Peace. At the core of this work is the story of the International Congress of Women in The Hague, the only peace conference during World War I, held in April 1915 at the same time as the Gallipoli landing (see our Highlights page).
THE AUSTRALIAN CHORUS
(words by Australian peace activist Vida Goldstein)
Enemies and friends alike who know that life is sacred,
Let us all refuse to give our children for this slaughter!
Two thousand years of the gospel of peace
And men have again rushed to war.
We women must lead,
We must show the way to harmony and peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
THE GERMAN CHORUS
(words by German peace activists Klara Zetkin,
Dr. Anita Augspurg and Lida Gustava Heymann)
We send warm and hearty greetings
To the women of all nations
in these wretched bloody times
Knowing well that
True humanity does not know
national hatred or national contempt.
War does not separate women joined in striving for peace and freedom
And the stream of blood must not divide what need and hope unite.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth ...
THE BRITISH CHORUS
(words by British peace activist Emily Hobhouse)
Solemnly we greet the enemy
and sing for peace and good-will among nations.
Ah, dear women of Germany and Austria
Anguish unites us this sad Christmas tide.
We will let no bitterness taint the sorrow of our lament
Neither will we mar with hate the sacred lifeblood of our men.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth ...
A Recipe for Peace
A reminder that what we have in common is far greater than the differences we fight about, through the example of the making and sharing of bread, a practice common to many cultures. This simple and profound song compares the humble process of making bread with the making of peace. Written by Glenda Cloughley in 2006 at the time of the war between Israel and Hezbollah.
Make by kneading to leaven with air.
Bake in fire, break and share
Partake with your neighbour the blessing of bread.
Refrain
May you never be hungry
May you never be thirsty
I wish you health and a happy home.
My companion, may peace be with you.
2. Remember the making of bread like this.
Imagine the making of peace like this.
Harmony with friends - and neighbours
And with strangers
Bridging the borders of discord and fear.
Refrain
May you never be hungry ...
3. Humble this cooking of bread and peace
Human the circle from hearth to heart.
In longing, in hope, from hand to hand
I give you the song of my dream and my prayer.
Refrain
May you never be hungry ...
A light-hearted take on an old favourite, about our hopes for a simpler, more sustainable Christmas which focuses on human connection, rather than ‘stuff’.
Music: I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas, by Irving Berlin; lyrics: Sue Hoffmann.
1. We're dreaming of a green Christmas
free of the need for yet more stuff.
Where humble treasures and simple pleasures
are found to really be enough.
We're dreaming of a green Christmas
with all the people we hold dear,
Keeping earth's gifts and rhythms in mind
may our Christmas legacy be kind.
2. We're dreaming of a green Christmas
unlike the ones we've come to know.
Where love of nature and children's future
are guides to wise ways we can go.
We're dreaming of a green Christmas
one where the air and water's clean.
And we've learned to live within our means (sustainably)
so that future Christmases stay green.
A solo song about the noise of the Christmas season and the quiet longing for personal meaning. Written and sung by Johanna McBride.
1. Here we go again, this time of the year:
Grinning Santas and reindeer.
Shops and other places drowing in cheer.
I should write some cards,
I should get a few gifts,
Well, at least lets get a tree!
That's what Christmas wants from me.
2. I asked my son: 'What is it all about
this time of the year?'
He thought quietly and then he said:
'A light in the dark,
The chance for something better,
A hope for something new.
That's what Christmas means to me.
3. And then I listened deep inside,
And then there came the tears.
Memories of Christmas trees,
of 'Silent nights, holy nights'
sung with loved ones gone.
Sharing stories with my loved ones here,
dreaming new beginnings together.
That's what Christmas wants from me.
That's what Christmas means to me.
Using the music of the 1914 Christmas Letters (above) we wrote new lyrics expressing our longing for peace on Earth and peace with the Earth today. We unite in our anguish at this Christmas time at the current suffering in war and the threats to Mother Earth.
As Christmas draws nigh with its message of peace
While war's waged on people and Mother Earth
We must play our part, we must find our way
to harmony and peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace with Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
To all the people caught in war:
Your endless suffering tears at our hearts!
Ah, dear people,
the fabric of our world is torn.
Anguish unites us this sad Christmas tide.
The threats to Mother Earth are dire!
We won't let our sense of dread shake the strength of our resolve.
We affirm our solemn vow to uphold the sacredness of all life.
For harmony, for humanity
with all those in warring countries
We reach beyond war to that higher law
that bids us live in peace.
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
We're dreaming of peace with Earth
We're dreaming of peace on Earth
