More About Colleen

I always knew there was more, even as a child I would sit high up in a tree and listen to music of nature, feeling the potential of life pulsing everywhere. At the tender age of seven I took myself off to Sunday school, a good hours walk from home. I loved the stories and kindness of the people there. I was however troubled by some of the teachings about Jesus, to me they just didn't add up.

After many years of avoiding Religion and the dogma that surrounds this authoritarian indoctrination process; I was surprised to find myself deeply connecting to the teachings of Jesus or (Jeshua) through the Aramaic language and translation. I found the poetic nature of the language touching and experienced a strong foundation of feminine wisdom. As I continued my study I found that the essence of the teachings for me was based in love, embodied divinity, acceptance and the acknowledgment of feminine receptivity and wisdom.

As I have continued to grow I no longer project my own spiritual awareness, authority and power onto any outside source. This is the true gift that I have received.

My passion is in meeting others that wish to discover this divine human play so we can co-create spiritual experience and explore relational spirituality as peers. This is unfolding to be a most rewarding challenge.

Colleen's curriculum vitae

Colleen has toured in New Zealand, Australia, Israel, America and France as a singer/songwriter and group facilitator. She was the first foreign performer to receive the Blue Messenger Award in France for excellence in music and performance.

As well as her singing career for the past 16 years Colleen has been a group facilitator and personal counselor, supporting people in self-development through radical inquiry, life skills, breath work and emotional intelligence models. Her work is designed to enable groups to co-create a peer environment to encourage relational spirituality.

She has taken her experience in these sessions into her performing, combining music, theatre and visual media to bring forth an enlivened experience.

With a successful career as a singer/songwriter and facilitator, she felt called to explore the rich mysticism of the Aramaic language and sacred chant. In 2005 and 2006 she journeyed to the sacred sites in Israel and found a way to unite her love of music and passion for learning, studying Aramaic as a spiritual practice in the eastern mystical tradition of chanting and translation. Her next pilgrimage took her to the sacred sites in Egypt, Israel, and France. Colleen spent time in Jerusalem studying with an Aramaic-speaking Nun who shared the pronunciation of the Lords Prayer and the Beatitudes as spoken in St Marks Church in Jerusalem and for over 1000 years in Syria.

A passionate soulful voice that reaches into the heart, Colleen's unique gift is her voice. Listen and be uplifted by the haunting, healing, and mystical tones of the Aramaic language.

Aramaeus: who are we?

Colleen and Kamal met while recording her first CD, called Sweet Indulgence. A collection of original songs performed by her band Ionnah, also available on this site. They delight in the natural harmony of sound that opens and enlivens, creating music that embodies vibrant living prayers and finding creative ways to express in music the wondrous life that pulses all around.

Colleen's inspiration came from the love of creating heart-felt music, the melodic rich tonnes of the Aramaic language and the deep meaning of the words. She had found a creative way to express her internal spiritual reality and feeling. Together with Kamal's insight and experience in the world music genre they have created truly beautiful devotional CDs.

Kamal has a recording studio set in the beautiful mountains above Byron Bay in Australia and is an accomplished professional musician. Impressed by his vision and talent Colleen began working with Kamal and a year later they released Aramaeus: The Prayer. This CD is comprised of a version of the Lords Prayer in Aramaic put to music, an extended meditation piece and a guided meditation to support the exploration of the prayer from a feminine perspective. They also released Loves Breath, an inspirational guided breath meditation and chant CD.