Ntaria Ladies Choir


Ntaria Ladies Choir is a choir of Australian Aboriginal women from Hermannsburg in Central Australia. The members are Arrernte women from the area and they sing a mixture of English and Arrente. The choir has its roots in work done by Lutheran Pastors Kempe and Schwartz in 1887 They created an Arrente language hymn book from which the choir sang in the early years. Other choirmasters have included Pastor Carl Strehlow, Pastor Paul Albrecht and the current choirmaster Pastor David Roenfeldt. Since 1970 it has been a ladies only choir. Albert Namatjira may have sung with the choir in the 1950s.
They were the subject of the documentary Cantata Journey which tells the story of their performance with the Sydney Symphony in May 2003. This performance was recorded on ABC Classics.

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