On Saturday the 14th of October, as votes for the referendum were counted across the country, beloved Yorta Yorta soprano and composer Deborah Cheetham Fraillon AO and members of the Dhungala Children’s Choir took to the stage of Hamer Hall alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Deborah’s piece Eumeralla, a war requiem for peace, sung entirely in the language of the Gunditjmara people, brings focus to a dark period of Australia’s colonial past that has yet to be fully reconciled.

She joined Richard on SmartArts to talk about the performance.

“It was planned well in advance of the date of the referendum, but I’m glad. For myself, I also sing in the work, it will be an empowering space to be in and I think on Saturday night there’s nowhere else I’d rather be.”