Composer notes
Moolga Widyooroo Windoo Windoo (Tears Flowing Endlessly) is a work for an a-
cappella choir, which I composed in April 2020 for a powerful poem by Jenna Richards.
Ms Richards is a Barngarla woman from Galinyala (Port Lincoln) in South Australia who I
have known since late 2019. Moolga Widyooroo Windoo Windoo is my third work
inspired by her writing.
Ms Richards has been involved in the Barngarla Language Reclamation Project, with fellow
Barngarla community members and linguist, Professor Ghil’ad Zukermann from the
University of Adelaide, since 2015. The project uses 170-year-old documents and
workshops and other activities take place in Port Lincoln, Whyalla and Port Augusta
(South Australia).
While the isolation felt by many Australians in early 2020 due to COVID-19 may be a new
experience, it is not an unfamiliar feeling for many of Australia’s First Nations people.
With that idea, I approached Ms Richards and requested that she write a poem that
reflected her feelings of isolated now compared to the experiences of isolation of the
generation of her parents and grandparents. Ms Richards wrote a most powerful poem.
Her poetic but confronting words makes us think about the suffering of Stolen Generation
in the not too recent past.
I was greatly inspired by Ms Richards’s powerful words and composed a work that I hope
can contribute to the Barngarla language reclamation project and also meet demand for
Australian choral music in indigenous language.
Finally, I would like to thank Ms Richards, the Barngarla Language Advisory Committee
(BLAC) and the entire Barngarla community.
I acknowledge the traditional owners of country throughout Australia and recognise their
continuing connection to land, waters and culture. I pay my respects to their elders past,
present and emergin