Pingelly Primary School’s choir sung a special rendition of We Are Australian at Waves Rock

Pingelly Primary School’s choir put on a special performance of We are Australian at Wave Rock this month, capturing the hearts of their proud community back home.

The choir was formed about a year ago when Amber Moulton started a new job at Pingelly Primary School and said she wanted to find a way to bring to life the performing arts in the community.

The Pingelly Primary School Choir has now grown to 38 students from across Years 1 to 6, with the added support of local music tutor Leigh Jennings.

On November 5, the choir and teachers embarked on a road trip to Hyden for the Margaret Cotton Performing Arts Festival.

“It was the first time we have go to the Margaret Cotton Performing Arts Festival and it was very well received,” Ms Moulton said.

“Margaret Cotton herself was very impressed with our school and what we had to offer.”

The choir performed their rendition of What About Us by P!nk and joined in with other Wheatbelt schools that attended the festival.

Ms Moulton said when the students finally saw Wave Rock after a long day of stretching their vocal cords they had just enough energy for one last verse of We are Australian.

Wave Rock is also known as Katter Kich to the Ballardong people and is one of several significant Indigenous cultural sites in the area.

“We had just performed the song at the Margaret Cotton Festival as a collective with the other schools, we originally do that verse in Noongar which I wish we had also captured,” she said. “Because they are such a special bunch of kids when I asked them in that moment they still gave me one last verse.”

Ms Moulton said the primary school choir had brought students together who would not usually share the same interests.

“When they are in this room they are all very equal and they all sing with one voice because we are all one voice collectively in the choir,” she said.

“With parents, I’ve had so many messages just thanking for what I’ve given their child because they may not be the sporty child or they may not be getting the best grades but when they come to school, they now get to perform. I’m getting sent videos of these kids singing to friends and families because now they’ve got something that they can give and it’s song.”

Following on from the popularity of the primary school choir, Ms Moulton was asked to form an all-ages community choir, which had its first performance at the Pingelly Community Resource Centre earlier this month.

“People were stopping me in the streets and were asking if we could do something for the older community because they said they were just sitting at home, they love to sing and they would just love to join a group,” Ms Moulton said.

“So we started the community choir and we have about 25 people, our youngest member is four and our oldest is 89 years old.”

Ms Moulton said the community choir was particularly special because it allowed families of multiple generations to sing together.

“When they perform in the community choir there are grandparents, parents and grandchildren all performing together, it’s just magic,” she said.