Australian pop icon Christine Anu gave a special performance for Coonamble’s school students on Monday 17 June.
The planning to bring Ms Anu to town started last October with key organisers Justine Powell (CPS), Kim Wooding (CHS), Gloria Fernando (CPS), the Cultural Teams of CPS and CHS and later Deanna Dixon taking part when she replaced Kim Wooding earlier this year.
Along with her guitarist Raymund Shek, Ms Anu captivated her audience of around 500 students and staff from Coonamble Public School, the Public School’s Preschool, Quambone Public School, Coonamble High School and St Brigids School.
With a basic stage donated by Coonamble Shire Council and sound managed by Terry (Eccles) Lees, the concert was staged outdoors in the playground of the Public School.
Christine was born in Cairns in 1970 and is a proud Indigenous woman whose family come from the Torres Strait.
She is a multi-award winning recording artist and has made widely acclaimed appearances in major films such as Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, The Matrix Reloaded and Dating the Enemy.
Christine has also starred in many stage productions, including Hairspray: The Arena Spectacular, South Pacific, The Saphhires, Little Shop of Horrors, Rent, Rainbow’s End and Parramatta Girls.
She has performed at many momentous events, including the Sydney 2000 Olympics Closing Ceremony and had the honour of flicking the switch to launch National Indigenous Television (NITV) in Australia.
Christine is currently hosting the national Friday and Saturday evening shows on ABC Local Radio.
Despite her busy schedule, Ms Anu regularly visits schools across the country and told the crowd she has now performed for around 10,000 students.
She was welcomed to CPS by Principal Annette Thomson, School Captains Patrick Forbes and David Jones Jnr and with a Gamilaaray acknowledgement of country performed by Kymarni Astill.
The CPS Preschool students then performed the Acknowledgement of Country that they do each morning at school.
Anu’s early training as a dancer was evident in Monday’s performance as she had the audience singing and dancing along to beats provided by a series of traditional instruments she player herself as she coaxed and goaded what could have been a tough audience, with preschoolers through to teenagers.
Late in her almost two hour performance, Ms Anu invited CHS Year 12 student Brian Fernando onto the stage to help with a number that required some dancing moves and air guitar.
She had spotted Brian’s dance potential from the stage and, once alerted to his vocal abilities, Ms Anu insisted that he and his sister Emily join her to sing her most famous hit ‘My Island Home’, much to the delight of the local audience.
“I thought she was amazing,” said Gloria Fernando. “The students from our school (CPS) enjoyed her concert and it was so great to bring something so positive to them.”
“I was also quite surprised by the high school students as they looked to have the time of their life,” she said.
“We were very happy with it all.”
Due to Education Department requirements the concert was limited to students and staff only.
