Singers bring a touch of PNG culture to NSW
Caption: Salvos Cultural Arts and Gospel singers showcase their talent at Hurstville Corps. (Photo by Carolyn Hide)
Forty-two members of the Salvos Cultural Arts and Gospel singers from Papua New Guinea moved audiences to tears when they toured NSW in early November.
Sponsored by The Salvation Army's Australia Eastern Territory, the concerts showcased PNG culture with dancing, a timbrel display, and emotive vocals sung mainly in native pidgin.
The group performed five concerts, at Hurstville, Port Macquarie, Eastlakes, Canberra City and Wollongong corps’. They also performed at Macquarie Fields Mission and took part in Sunday meetings at Dulwich Hill, Parramatta and Tuggeranong corps.
Commissioner Jan Condon, Australia Eastern Territorial President of Women’s Ministries, says she was "in heaven" on the Saturday night at Hurstville as the group sang her favourite songs, From the Rising of the Sun and How Great Thou Art, in pidgin.
Commissioner Condon with her husband, Commissioner James Condon, served for three years in PNG.
“Our friends from PNG do not have much as far as materialistic things are concerned but they have God and a deep love for God and a strong faith in God that is evidenced in their heartfelt singing," she says.
“The dancing is kind of an automatic thing. I can’t dance but you just want to move. There is a real rhythm in their songs.”
The group first performed a series of concerts in Queensland a few years ago, and then-PNG Territorial Commander, Commissioner Andrew Kalai, approached The Salvation Army's Australia Eastern Territory about sponsoring a second tour, this time around NSW.
“Because Papua New Guinea is our partner in mission, we were happy to sponsor the singers," says Commissioner Condon.
"It was to give them exposure to The Salvation Army here, and for us it was to expose Salvationists and friends to the PNG culture because the two cultures are extremely different.”
She says many people who attended the concerts found it an emotional experience.
“In one of the songs at Hurstville some of them [the audience] were moved to tears," she says. "The gospel singers were singing about their commitment to God.”
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