Songs and Hymns for National Reconciliation Week (May 27 - June 3 2023) or National Day of Mourning (January 25)

You may want to simply sing a familiar song of confession or lament, such as a Kyrie.

• Brunswick Music Project / Online Resource Why do we listen and fail to hear / Lament - for a people with a people with a dulled heart (Shawn Whelan) This lament, and its wailing ooooh would be appropriate for reflecting on why it is still hard for people to say sorry. Good for kids. Sheet music and lyrics. 
• Online Resource If we can now say that we're sorry (Kerry Fletcher) Excellent words and a simple enough song to be sung by a congregation. Lyrics. Youtube. 
• Online Resource We're standing here on holy ground (John Brown) Excellent words set to a simple Maluku tune (which is in Sound the Bamboo 103), or can be sung to ELLACOMBE. Lyrics here. New words to old tunes.
• AoVK-130 Around this land we love so well (Bates) Very specific words; useful if you are talking about Aboriginal Reconciliation. The tune is quite straightforward, but if it is new it would work best sung by a soloist.
• Online ResourceCreator God you made this land (Keith Pearson) Words of reconciliation from the United Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress. "Great Spirit in this ancient land, speak in the stillness deep within. Remove all prejudice and fear, give life to all, new hope begin. Then help us gently walk as friends, while on this land your peace descends". Sung to the familiar hymn tune ST PETERSBURG (TiS375). Lyrics (downloads a pdf). New words to old tunes.
• Recorded Music Took the children away (Archie Roach) This song would be good (with lyrics projected) for a reflection on / repentance of how our churches played a part in taking Aboriginal children from their families. Lyrics & Youtube.
• Online Resource Yil Lull (Joe Geia) This is just a great song, with a verse of praise to God, and the chorus is really easy for the congregation to join in on. Youtube. 
• Recorded Music Special treatment (Paul Kelly) This song could work well during a prayer of confession; I think Archie Roach has recorded it too, and I like his version better. Youtube. Lyrics.
• Online ResourceCreator God you made every race (John Brown) Strongly Trinitarian lyrics asking God to build one community among us all. Sung to LIVING LORD (TiS526 / AHB451)  New words to old tunes. Lyrics.
• ATW 433 At the dawn of the ages / You were in this place (Robin Mann) An Australian song about seeing God in this ancient land and in our indigenous people, and the blindness of the colonisers in seeing that God was here before the white man came. “Do we take after Jacob, blind to what lies at hand, needing dreams to inform us God is here in this land?”. Tune is very smooth and simple. Lyrics.
• Online Resource We long for the days when the cries of distress are stilled / Hear our cry before our call (Neil Quintrell) Excellent words written after the apology to the Stolen Generations praying for healing. Lyrics and sheet music download. 
• Online Resource Follow the songlines (Shirley Murray) Excellent words of God's presence here before colonisation, and our call to follow. Lyrics and sheet music. There is also a version by Douglas Simper in his book available here that I particularly like. 
• StF163 When listening prophets dare to speak (Dan Damon) Great words, especially for a time when the church is grieving past wrongs it has committed and working out how to live meaningfully again.  
• Recorded Music We, gathered at the 2017 National Constitutional Convention / Uluru Statement form the Heart (Midnight Oil with First Nations Collaborators) A great way to listen to the statement from the heart. Video. 

Songs from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities

• TiS 383 Joyful the morning when Jesus Christ is risen (Traditional Torres Strait Islander) It's beautiful and joyful and from the Torres Straits and a good Easter song.
• TiS 253 / AoV2-119 / AoVK-103 / GA419 O Lord Jesus Marrkapmirr (Garrawarra family of Milingimbi) This simple song is easy to sing and talks of the timelessness of God’s love. “O Lord Jesus Marrkapmirr, all the power belongs to you”. Lyrics. Sound sample.
• ATFG574 / NCYC'97 You are our Father you live in heaven / Aboriginal Lord's Prayer (Warmun and Tiwi communities) Aboriginal Australian version of the Lord's Prayer.

I would love to hear your ideas. Please add a comment below if you have some!