Camerata, Lior, and Dr Lou Bennett AM perform Ngapa William Cooper, photographed by Alex Jamieson
Camerata – Queensland’s Chamber Orchestra collaborated with singer-songwriters Lior and Dr Lou Bennett AM on a deeply moving concert, presented for one night only as part of Brisbane Festival. The first half of the concert featured songs by Lior and Bennett, accompanied by Camerata’s musicians. The second half marked the Queensland premiere of a song cycle composed and written by Nigel Westlake, Lior, and Bennett: Ngapa William Cooper, a poetic celebration of the 20th century Aboriginal activist William Cooper, and this work brought goosebumps and tears.
The concert began with Max Richter’s On the Nature of Daylight, which rose and glowed through Camerata’s strings musicians like creeping sunbeams. The piece also tied thematically to the concert, being a part of The Blue Notebooks, Richter’s protest album about the 2003 invasion of Iraq. This was followed by a selection of songs performed by Lior, starting with a new song, If The Wind Will Catch My Name, from his forthcoming album; the oldest song in his catalogue, Daniel, in an arrangement by Michael Patterson; and an arrangement of Nature Boy for strings and piano by cellist Michelle Wood.
Dr Lou Bennett then performed Dirtsong, the title track to a Black Arm Band project, and Resting Among the Treetops, the story of a baby girl discovered buried in the hollow of a tree, held in the collections of the state museum for almost a century, and finally returned to country by Bennett’s family. The first half of the concert concluded with Lior and Bennett performing a heartfelt rendition of Archie Roach’s Mr T, a song about his foster son Terrence.
Dr Lou Bennett AM is a highly accomplished multi-hyphenate, and one of the many hats she wears is as an academic specialising in retrieval and reclamation of Aboriginal languages. Bennett sang many of the songs in Yorta Yorta and was a compelling and vibrant stage presence, full of movement and feeling. The clarity and strength of her voice soared over us, seated in the stalls, and moved something within. Onstage together, Lior and Lou Bennett had an evident connection mutual respect.
Following an interval, Camerata Artistic Director (and principal violin) Brendan Joyce introduced the titular work, Ngapa William Cooper, which made its world premiere with Australian String Quartet as part of Adelaide Festival in March 2023. Cooper was a Yorta Yorta elder and activist, and a founding member and secretary of the Australian Aborigines’ League when they marched through Melbourne in December 1938 and delivered a petition to the German Consulate condemning the persecution of Jews under the Nazi government and calling for it to end. In particular, this protest was in response to the events on Kristallnacht (“night of broken glass”) on 9 November of that year, when civilians and authorities ransacked and destroyed the homes, shops, and synagogues of Jewish people across Germany and Austria, marking the escalation of anti-Jewish violence in Nazi Germany.
Joyce also noted the personal connections of the creators to this work: Lior has a family connection to those impacted by Kristallnacht, and Bennett is a direct descendant of Cooper, who was her grandmother’s brother. Lior and Westlake have previously worked together on the 2014 Compassion song cycle, which Camerata performed with Lior in 2022 (and which is coming back to Brisbane in 2025), and Ngapa William Cooper was envisioned as a companion piece.
The lyrics of the song cycle were performed in Yorta Yorta and English. Written as a cycle of seven songs, Ngapa William Cooper focused on his role in the 1938 protest and petition with the Australian Aborigines’ League, and on his strong sense of justice, community, and the affinity he felt for the Jewish people in their persecution. Ngapa William Cooper began with Exile/Call To Ancestors, a prayer and calling the Ancestors into the space before a gathering or ceremony. Then, The News included the tinkling percussion of shattering glass and the ominous escalation of strings as it imagined Cooper’s reaction to opening the newspaper and reading about the events of Kristallnacht. Lior began The Silence, accompanied only by Brendan Joyce on violin, and the urgency of both the music and the message increased as Cooper was imagined empathising with the struggle and contemplating his complicity in the silence surrounding these events on the other side of the world. Lior left the stage and Bennett sang Yakapna (Family), warmer and slower, swelling in the music and into tears as I listened. In The Meeting, Cooper addressed his peers and proposed the protest, and this piece incorporated a recording of Cooper’s words spoken by one of his nephews, Yorta Yorta elder Dr Wayne Atkinson. The Protest was quick-paced, including percussive flourishes and the tapping of bows against the bodies of instruments, like the marching of feet. The song cycle finished with the uplifting and reflective At The End Of My Days, wherein the narrative voice of Cooper finds pride and peace in the knowledge that he has always stood up and spoken out for what was right.
A special mention to percussionist Nozomi Omote, who seamlessly handled an incredible amount of instruments and percussion mallets throughout Ngapa William Cooper, including less conventional instruments such as eucalyptus branches.
A heartfelt and emotionally impactful concert built on themes of legacy, history, and protest, Camerata, Lou Bennett & Lior: Ngapa William Cooper was equally haunting and galvanising as it ruminated on resistance and solidarity.
Camerata, Lou Bennett & Lior: Ngapa William Cooper was performed in the QPAC Concert Hall, South Bank, on 7 September 2024
For further information, visit the Brisbane Festival website
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