A Shepparton Festival initiative called the Lullaby Project is officially launching at the Shepparton Library on Thursday, March 24.
The project focuses on the beauty and uniqueness of lullabies told through the voices of different cultures.
Featuring 15 lullabies, in a variety of languages, the exhibition has recorded mums, dads, grandparents and kids singing the lullabies.
Artist and co-producer for the exhibition Liz Arcus wanted to design a project that incorporated the languages spoken in Shepparton, making sure the stories of their lullabies didn’t die out.
“It’s about preserving them for the families because languages get lost, lullabies get lost,” Ms Arcus said.
“So, we wanted to do something to preserve those lullabies and family history that goes with those lullabies and each participant gets a recording of that to pass down to their generation.
“It doesn’t matter what language we speak, a lullaby is universal ... Whether we understand the words of that song or not, a lullaby is soothing and relaxing to most people.”
Ms Arcus has co-produced this project with her son Jaiman Forest Long, who is a musician and sound producer.
They worked together to not just capture the lullabies themselves, but the lullabies sung in their natural environment, using everyday people.
“We recorded them in the natural environment where they’re sung, like the home or a place they may stop and soothe their child,” she said.
“It’s like snippets of our cultures are being shared from everyday people and not professional singers. We don’t have to be professional singers to sing a lullaby to our children.”
Accompanying the audio recordings are photographs taken by Ms Arcus of the participants singing the lullaby, to help listeners visualise the lullaby as they listen to it.
The exhibition runs until April 3. People are welcome to bring their own headphones or use the ones provided.
The Lullaby Project will be launched at the library on Thursday, March 24, at 6pm. People can hear from the participants who sing the lullabies and listen to the lullabies being played.