TAFE choir rocks Reconciliation Week

By Alayna Patterson

National Reconciliation Week 2025 (May 27-June 3) is underway and the TAFE NSW Ultimate Voices Choir is singing it from the rooftops.

This year’s Reconciliation Week celebrates the theme of Bridging Now to Next, signifying the ongoing presence of past, present, and future.

The Voices for Reconciliation choir project was introduced in 2020 to unite Australians in reflecting on that connection and has since received many contributions from schools, workplaces and communities.

Each year, Reconciliation Australia invites all singers and singing groups across the country to come together in song to contribute to National Reconciliation week. This year, the song we are all singing is Solid Rock by Shane Howard

This is the third year running that TAFE NSW has been involved in the Voices for Reconciliation choir project. This year the choir featured students, teachers and staff from TAFE NSW.

“It’s about remembering the past, learning, discovering identity/place of identity and working side by side as a collective of cultures,” Flash Wilson, student and member of the choir, said.

“Though we might be different, we are held in unison as a proud people striving to become better than we were yesterday.”

The song Solid Rock, written by Shane Howard and released by Goanna in 1982, was picked as this year’s song for Voices for Reconciliation.

Solid Rock was a call to action for Australians to understand the impact of Australian history, shining light on Aboriginal dispossession and the significance of land rights.

It’s since become an Australian anthem.

“It makes me both happy and sad that back in the 80s, people were speaking out about the injustices our First Nations people have had to face,” said Daniel Silk, Senior Technical Officer for the Ultimo TAFE Music Department.

“It is the perfect song for the Reconciliation Week choir, the lyrics speak for themselves really.”

Performing and being part of a choir has forged relationships between students and staff, has influenced team-building and increased well-being, and encouraged reflection on what Reconciliation Week’s 2025 theme is all about.

“I found joining the choir brought so much joy and enthusiasm among the people in the choir,” Wilson said.

“I got thinking to myself: if only people from the past who may have carried so much deeply rooted contempt, prejudice and hatred toward the Indigenous people could see what I see what we were creating in our choir – where it doesn’t matter what the colour of an individual’s skin might be, but what counts is the character of that person.”

Listen to TAFE NSW Ultimate Voices choir producer Cat Colman talking about recording Solid Rock on TAFE Radio’s Reconciliation Week show from 10am on Friday, May 30.

Featured image: The Voices for Reconciliation choir project is a key part of Reconciliation Week.