550 Choirs To Sing 'Solid Rock' For National Reconciliation Week
Watch Goanna's Shane Howard perform 'Solid Rock' with the Sydney Barayagal choir.
Shane Howard performing 'Solid Rock' with the Barayagal Choir (Source: Instagram)
550 choirs across Australia have joined forces ahead of this year’s National Reconciliation Week (27 May - 3 June).
Over the last three years, Reconciliation Australia has run the Voices for Reconciliation choirs project, where each group performs a song related to National Reconciliation Week. This year’s song is Solid Rock, with the theme of Bridging Now to Next.
Promoting the 2025 National Reconciliation Week, Reconciliation Australia has shared a video of Solid Rock performed at the summit of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Shane Howard of Goanna fame, who wrote the iconic song, performed it alongside the Sydney Barayagal choir, and their leader, Gamilaraay songwriter Nardi Simpson.
Reconciliation Australia CEO, Karen Mundine said, “Since the year 2000 there is now far greater awareness amongst Australians of the complexity and magnitude of First Nations’ histories, cultures, and social systems and what we must do to reach a just, equitable and reconciled country.
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“This year is the third year of our NRW Voices for Reconciliation project with nearly 500 Australian choirs coming together to perform Solid Rock across Australia.”
The site of the Sydney Harbour Bridge is particularly poignant, as this year marks the 25th anniversary of 250,000 Australians walking the bridge in support of reconciliation.
Howard, sharing his honour of Solid Rock being chosen for the Voices for Reconciliation project, gave some advice to the choirs singing the song: “Sing it with gusto, sing it like you mean it, sing it like it matters, because it does. Sing it like we are on a journey to somewhere much better because we are.”
He continued, “It's all in the song and we still haven’t faced up as a nation and proclaimed, ‘Let us tell the truth, let us get on with the business of truth-telling, and then let’s get on with the treaty business. Let’s turn our anger into action.’”
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