For when the South Sudanese Women Choir obligingly burst into song for us (The Canberra Times) at the Albert Hall on Thursday this reporter's spine was set a-tingling. There was something vertebrae-janglingly thrilling about their high-pitched singing (somehow shrill, but at the same time trilling). They were trilling an optimistic-sounding ditty, swaying their hips optimistically while they sang.

The seven tall, spectacularly dressed and bejewelled choristers from Sydney were in Canberra to perform during Thursday's events at the Festival for Peace.

After they had sung (and danced) for we impressed newsgatherers we asked their spokeswoman Anna Malual who they are and what they had been singing about.

"We are the South Sudanese Women Choir. Our name is The Choir of Peace and Love and we were singing songs about South Sudan because we went through the referendum [the referendum of 2011] and now we have an independent South Sudan and [after so many years of fighting] there is no more war, no more problems.

"We were singing about peace and singing that we have an independent country and that now that the country is free all the children that will become the future generation will be in a peaceful country. In fact things are not 100 per cent peaceful at the moment. But we are praying for that, and in our songs as well we are asking leaders to work to give us peace."

Every member of the choir is a refugee. Some were widowed by the fighting.

"We were all humanitarian refugees. We all lived in refugee camps in different parts of Africa. And after we came here we have tried to pursue the wider community as well [as the Sudanese] and to ask the Australian government to do what it can to assist our country to be peaceful. So in our concert today we will be singing about peace. We want peace. We don't want guns. We don't want war. We don't want more death. We don't want any more refugees in Africa. We want everyone to have peace and harmony."

And while we are at the Festival For Peace, we remind you that in Wednesday's column we noted that the famous Powerful Owl of Turner (sometimes this column feels like the headquarters of its doting fan club) has inspired photographers, poets and at least one painter. We wondered if it might inspire an opera. Well, while we wait for Canberra's Puccini to attend to that it emerges that this famous fowl has been an inspiration for some part of the oratorio A Passion For Peace especially for the Festival, and its centrepiece.

Composer Glenda Cloughley explains that the opening lines of the Passion are sung by owls (sung by Alan Hicks and Judith Clingan). Then, during part two there cometh the movement In Moonlight.

"This," the composer explains, "follows the travels of a full moon around the Earth as it lights Canberra, then Gallipoli and then Europe on the first night of the International Congress of Women, 28 April 1915."

"In this passage, the three Storytellers all have owl calls in the Canberra section. The Storytellers are Judith Clingan, Maartje Sevenster and me. The owl calls are anthropomorphised though I scored their music with the distinctive falling tone I have heard the Powerful Owl make."

And so Turner's popular, possum-devouring owl glides deeper and deeper into our affections. Trust me (for I am journalist) when I report rumours that the ACT government is actively thinking of making it the next Canberran of the Year. It would become the first non-human recipient of that honour but the government is said to feel that given we are a bush capital it's time a furred or feathered Canberran was acknowledged.

*The Festival for Peace devised by the Chorus of Women continues at the Albert Hall until 2 May. The third and final performance of the owl-rich oratorio A Passion For Peace is this Saturday at 7.30pm. All festival and ticketing details are at chorusofwomen.org.

From a very conspicuous wild critter of Canberra (the famous Powerful Owl is big, hailing from a species that can be 60cm long, weigh 1.45 kg and possess a wingspan of 140cm) to a relatively inconspicuous (but exquisite) one.

Brian Jones, aware of our occasional series of readers' pictures of wild things being shockingly themselves (mating, killing, etc) says "I thought you might be interested in photos of a Golden Orb spider in our Chapman garden. Life and death in the Canberra suburban jungle!

"We have been observing her for several months. Female Golden Orb spiders make a large three-dimensional web of golden thread and wrap up insects and other prey ensnared in the web for storage in their larder. The male is much smaller than the female. In this photo, she has just captured and is about to devour a bee."