The talented Blaxland High School year 9 songwriting and performance class has won a national Indigenous award for a catchy tune penned in class with a serious message.
Teacher David Leishman had been looking through an encyclopedia of military history when he came across The Black War, a reference to the genocide of the Tasmanian Aborigines at the hands of the British between 1804-1834.
He gave copies of the article to his students, who felt strongly that they should write a song to bring attention to the injustices that occurred, while also promoting a message of reconciliation and hope. The class spent three lessons working as a group to craft the song, The Black Line, combining a serious topic with a catchy tune for maximum impact.
It included a short speech written by student Riley Glen and performed by year 10 student Nicholas Howie. who is of Aboriginal descent, which was filmed for a YouTube clip.
"It was an experiment and it turned into something more serious," said student Phoebe Fliegner.
"We didn't want to sugar coat it and take away the meaning," said Alex Stanley.
The students had nothing but respect for their teacher who was instrumental in helping produce the song, describing him as passionate, motivating and "the glue that binds them together".
The class were surprised to later discover Mr Leishman had entered them in the national Sing Loud! competition for National Reconciliation Week and they had topped 40 entries to be awarded schools' best original song.
Judges included singers the Veronicas and singer/songwriter Shellie Morris and internal judging from organisation Reconciliation Australia.
The prize included $1000, which will be put towards a plaque at Blaxland High commemorating the students' achievements as well as recording a CD of class compositions.