This, she explains, is why she wants to learn Dharug, the first Aboriginal language of Sydney.

Her favourite new words are gee wullawaa nullawulla Burramatta, which mean stop and rest a while in Burramatta (the Dharug name for Parramatta).

Shonelle is one of about a dozen children learning to sing in Dharug as part of the Mount Druitt Indigenous Choir.

While Dharug has sometimes been considered a dead or dying language, the choir is one of several revitalisation programs underway.

The performers, who range in age from three to 16 and all live in Mount Druitt, had never spoken or learnt an Aboriginal language before joining the choir.

This week they recorded their first song, Burramatta, which they hope to sell online to raise money for a new choir bus.

The song was commissioned by Parramatta's federal MP Julie Owens, who plans to use it on her website as a form of "living" acknowledgement of country.

The choir's co-ordinator Dave Armstrong said the choir was a stepping stone for the children to learn about their own clans as well as the Aboriginal language.

"We want them to feel the language. Not just hear it and sing it, but to feel it," Mr Armstrong said.

"It gives them identity. It gives them the sense that they have got something special and it links them to their past."

But it is not only the children who have learnt Dharug through the choir. By attending rehearsals and performances, their parents and grandparents have also picked up an Aboriginal language for the first time.

Family members knew all the words of the songs and wiped away tears as they watched the choir's recording session in Parramatta on Tuesday.

"I can't explain how it feels to hear this," grandmother Marcia Dixon said. "It sounds amazing, it's beautiful."

While the choir shows Dharug is not entirely lost, the language faces a challenging future.

Of the estimated 250 original Aboriginal languages, only about 13 survive as a primary language.

Professor Jaky Troy, the director of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Research at Sydney University, said while Dharug was no longer used as a first language there had been a significant effort to revive it over the past 20 years.

She said at least a hundred people still spoke Dharug in the form of occasional words, songs or through deliberate efforts to use it in their everyday lives.

"I would say that the language of the Sydney area to a degree has kept going amongst the community. It has never completely ceased to be spoken," Professor Troy said.

"In revising our language and making them much more languages of everyday use again, we are giving ourselves back our identities... But more than that, it is good for everybody in Australia to have a chance to hear Aboriginal languages."

The choir, which has travelled around Australia performing, hopes to expand its repertoire to other Aboriginal languages in the future.