Art & Music

After sitting through eight one and-a-quarter-hour teaching sessions at a Bush Bible Course, the brain seeks a bit of rest and rejuvenation. However, at the recent Bush Course at M’Bunghara, linguist David ‘Stricko’ Strickland was talking with some Anmatyerr language-speaking young men. They decided to use their spare time to translate the lunchtime hymn, ‘Spread… Read more

The cover of this cherished book is adorned with a design painted by talented local artist Clarabelle Swift in 2016. Her work has truly captured the essence of our church, and we extend our heartfelt thanks to Clarabelle for this beautiful cover. At Bethlehem Lutheran Church in Hermannsburg we take great pride in our ‘visitors’… Read more

Recently we held two ethno-arts workshops, the first in Alice Springs at the Baptist Church and the latter at Ti Tree. These were held at the initiative of my wife Ming Fang, who had done fundraising for this purpose. Her vision was to encourage Indigenous folk to try their hand at painting stories from the… Read more

Just as early German missionaries travelled north from Bethany to Ntaria, so the Ntaria Choir set off, this time, southward-bound to the Barossa Valley to share their gifts of music and language.

With the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) document in hand and copies of the RAP poster, Marilyn Wall returned to Central Australia in October. The purpose of her visit was to discuss how best to share this information with the Aboriginal members in the Lutheran communities.

Art conservator Eric Archer is working on a project to unframe, photograph, document and prepare 18 watercolour paintings for new museum-standard mounts and frames.

Pastor Rodney and I visited for Pepa (devotions) only late yesterday, but the lady asked, ‘Can you come again tomorrow afternoon?’

On 5 April, Pantjiti Unkari McKenzie from Docker River was presented with the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) by the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Her Honour the Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AM.

Every Thursday the Aboriginal ladies from the Alice Springs Lutheran Congregation meet at the church for Bible study and choir practice. They are known as the Mission Block Choir (or Kwatja Etatha).

The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir has received a Special Achievement Award at the recent National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs).