This workshop will invite participants to examine WATER in its many forms ... How its used and abuse ... as a commodity/personal and domestic use/industrial conservation/ how floods/precipitation/storms etc ... affect our environment

Australia is such a dry country, yet did you know our country is one of the biggest consumers of water on the planet? Each Australian uses on average per year half an olympic pool of water.

The wars of the next century may well be fought over water.  Apart from air, water is the the earth's and the people's most essential commodity.  In some parts of the earth people have to walk long distances to collect daily water, which is rationed ... our bodies are seventy percent water.

When I went looking for the songs and stories on this theme I was amazed at the incredible  wealth of material around.

Here are some songs:

Ever  heard of Joice Nankervill-Loch, the most decorated Australian woman who rescued thousands of victims of wars in Europe last century,   Eliza Hamilton Dunlop who recognized the literary worth of Aborigines … Georgiana Molloy - early settler, wife, mother and botanist .. one of the first botanical collectors in the colony;  Jessie Street, Shirley Smith, Jane Franklin, Glenys Ward, Thanacoupie  and many more?

Songs related to their lives will be a part of the workshop as follows:

Intro song .. Unsung Heroes (Peter Hicks) ... Joice Nankervill-Loch: Most Decorated Australian Woman (Margaret Bradford) ... Eliza Hamilton Dunlop:  Ps  4- 13  Aboriginal Mothers Lament (words E. Dunlop & music m. Bradford) ... Georgianna Molloy: Woman of Botany (Louisa Wise) ... Shirley Smith: Mum  Shirl (Margaret Bradford) ... Jessie Street: A Heroine of Mine (Judy Small) ... Glenys  Ward: Wandering Girl (Margaret Bradford) ... Jane Franklin: Ps. 1-4  Lady Franklin’s Lament ... Janet Oakden( Pip James) ... Beatrice Bush,  White Bay Paper seller (Judy Small) ...Thanacoupie (Margaret Bradford )

WORKSHOP 3:      Songs of Hope and Healing

This workshop is a come-all-ye sing-along with participants joining in and contributing their song on the theme.  Music is healing!

Songs in this workshop include…

Imagine (John Lennon) ... Let It Be (John Lennon) ... It's A Miracle (Peter Krug) ... Happiness Runs (Donovan Leitch) ... Magic Penny (Malvina Reynolds) ... Everything Possible (Fred Small) ... The People Have Song (Miguel Heatwhole) ... This Little Light of Mine (Trad Gospel song) ... Open Up Our Hearts (Penny Lang) ... The Hug (Fred Small) ... Somos el Barco/We Are the Boat (Lorre Wyatt) ... Never Turning Back (Pat Humphries) ... Last night I had the Strangest Dream ... One Man's Hands (Pete Seeger/Alex Comfort) ... If I had a Hammer (Lee Hays & Pete Seeger) ... Until We  Meet Again ... People for Peace (Leigh Newton)

WORKSHOP for KIDS:      Bindi-Eye Bop

Children are encouraged to be a GROOVY, GREEN GRASSHOPPER and join us in a dance. This workshop is delivered with a light-hearted, fun approach, inviting children to be actively involved.  It does have a predominance of songs which raise an awareness in children of their environment in a positive way.

Some song examples are:  

Dig Away (children love to dig!) ... Green Green (Conserving the Trees/Bush)  ... Cars Cars Cars (air pollution) ... Stop the Wrap (tooooo much wrapping on our purchases!)  ... Step Right Out (get out of that car!!) ... Drip Drop (turn that tap off quick - saving water) ... Boop Boop (the seas not a rubbish tip!)

Because I believe all children have a ready love of  and affinity with  their  natural  environment, many of my songs are directed at such themes as recycling, pollution and water conservation in light-hearted/fun mode!!
        
My partner, Allan, has some very novel ideas for making instruments out of recycled materials.

[Alan and Margaret working with children at Kiama Festival ]

WORKSHOP 5:      Malvina Reynolds: Little Boxes and Other Hand-made Songs

In 1977 I sang "What Have They Done to the  Rain", a Malvina Reynolds song, at a peace rally in Sydney. Thirty years later in 1997 I was  driving around San Francisco with friends who told me that the litttle  houses (boxes on the hillside) just outside the city, were the basis for  Malivina Reynolds' song, "Little Boxes".
Malvina Reynolds (1900-1978) is no longerwith us in body but in spirit her songs will live on forever and ever.

The workshop includes such classics as:

Little Boxes ... Turn Around ... Morningtown Ride ... Magic Penny ... Sing Along ... I Wish You Were Here ... If You Love Me ... On the Rim of the World ... What Have They Done to the Rain ... The Moment ... From Way Up Here ... The Moment … Alone ... I Get Butterflies in My Stomach