Indigenous communities across Australia are currently experiencing a high level of renewed interest in their song traditions as the present generation of songmen and songwomen take on the responsibilities of their ancestors. Recirculating songs gives voice to these contemporary performers, and looks at the issues they face in learning and passing on their ancestral musical practices in the 21st century. This book is the first of its kind to be devoted specifically to the strategies Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are adopting to keep their traditional music alive and strong. At the same time, it introduces the wider public to Australia's rich Indigenous musical heritage, through a series of case studies focused on particular communities or regions. In some parts of the country, where the transmission of musical knowledge from generation to generation has been interrupted, the process of revitalising the song traditions relies, to varying degrees, on historic recordings and documents. So the book also covers the techniques being adopted to access these resources and make them available for contemporary use by Indigenous musicians. In this multi-authored volume, Indigenous and non-Indigenous contributors investigate these issues in locations across Australia, from the south-west tip to the Torres Strait, from the Tiwi Islands to Tasmania. The book takes us on a journey through various song styles and performance practices, from dream songs of the Hunter Valley to Torres Strait Island hymns, from 19th century recordings of Tasmanian singing to classroom musical activities in the Kimberley. Some chapters, such as those focused on communities in the Gulf of Carpentaria and Arnhem Land, also devote specific attention to Aboriginal dance, and to the music that accompanies it. In all of these varied situations, Indigenous Australians are striving to ensure that the store of traditional knowledge contained in the ancestral song repertoires continue to be passed on. Recirculating Songs documents their efforts and also provides audio and video examples via QR codes. The book is rich with new information, insights and inspiration for Indigenous people and communities, researchers and educators, and anyone interested in the music of Indigenous Australia.
Edited by:
Jim Wafer,
Myfany Turpin
Imprint: Hunter Press
Country of Publication: Australia
Dimensions:
Height: 245mm,
Width: 178mm,
Spine: 25mm
Weight: 1.000kg
ISBN: 9780994586315
ISBN 10: 0994586310
Pages: 424
Publication Date: 04 December 2017
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
List of figures iv List of maps iv List of tables v List of musical examples v List of audio examples vi List of video examples vii Acknowledgements viii Notes on contributors ix Abbreviations xiii Introduction: everything got a song * Jim Wafer 1 Maaya waab (play with sound): song language and spoken language in the south-west of Western Australia * Clint Bracknell 43 Thabi returns: the use of digital resources to recirculate and revitalise Thabi songs in the west Pilbara * Sally Treloyn and Andrew Morumburri Dowding 56 Ngadiji: for women and men also. A song and dance continuing to be performed by the Yanyuwa of the Gulf area of the Northern Territory * Margaret Sharpe 68 Finding Arrernte songs * Myfany Turpin 88 Lone Singers: the others have all gone * Luise Hercus and Grace Koch 102 Songs performed by Willie Rookwood at Woorabinda in 1965 * Mary Laughren, Myfany Turpin and Gemma Turner 119 A survey of traditional south-eastern Australian Indigenous music * Barry McDonald 140 Applying multilingual knowledge to decipher an historical song of change * Raymond Kelly and Jean Harkins 172 Ghost-writing for Wulatji: incubation and `re-dreaming' as song revitalisation practices * Jim Wafer 187 Finding laka for burdal: song revitalisation at Mornington Island over the past 40 years * Cassy Nancarrow and Peter Cleary 245 Maintaining song traditions and languages together at Warruwi (western Arnhem Land) * Reuben Brown, David Manmurulu, Jenny Manmurulu, Isabel O'Keeffe and Ruth Singer 257 Songs that keep ancestral languages alive: a Marrku songset from western Arnhem Land * Reuben Brown and Nicholas Evans 275 Singing with the ancestors: musical conversations with archived ethnographic recordings * Genevieve Campbell 289 Children, knowledge, Country: child and youth-based approaches to revitalising musical traditions in the Kimberley * Andrea Emberly, Sally Treloyn and Rona Googninda Charles 305 Revitalising Meriam Mir through sacred song * Helen Fairweather and Philip Matthias with Toby Whaleboat 318 Recovering musical data from colonial era transcriptions of Indigenous songs: some practical considerations * Graeme Skinner 336 A checklist of colonial era musical transcriptions of Australian Indigenous songs * Graeme Skinner and Jim Wafer 360 Index 405
Jim Wafer is a linguist-anthropologist with an honorary appointment in the Discipline of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Newcastle. He is the author or co-author of The taste of blood: spirit possession in Brazilian Candomble, A handbook of Aboriginal languages of NSW and the ACT and a number of Aboriginal land claim reports. Myfany Turpin is a linguist and musicologist at the University of Sydney. She is the author of Kaytetye to English Dictionary, Antarrengeny Awely: Alyawarr women's traditional songs of Antarrengeny country and many articles on Aboriginal song and languages.
