Rona Charles - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Rona Charles

Repatriation has become almost ubiquitous in ethnomusicological research on Australian Indigenous... more Repatriation has become almost ubiquitous in ethnomusicological research on Australian Indigenous song. This article provides insights into processes of a repatriation-centered song revitalization project in the Kimberley, northwest Australia. Authored by an ethnomusicologist and two members of the Ngarinyin cultural heritage community, the article provides firsthand accounts of the early phases of a long-term repatriation-centered project referred to locally as the Junba Project. The authors provide a sample of narratives and dialogues that deliver insight into experiences of the work of identifying recordings “in the archive” and cultural negotiation and use of recordings “on Country.” The entanglement of local epistemological frameworks with past and present collection, archival research, repatriation, and dissemination for intergenerational knowledge transmission between spirits, Country, and the living, is explored, showing how recordings move song knowledge from community to archive to community and from generation to generation, and move people in present-day communities. The chapter considers how these “moving songs” allow an interrogation of the fraught endeavor of intercultural collaboration in the pursuit of revitalizing Indigenous song traditions. It positions repatriation as a method that can support intergenerational knowledge transmission and as a method to consider past and present intercultural relationships within research projects and between cultural heritage communities and collecting institutions.

Preservation, digital technology & culture, Dec 1, 2021

Australian Aboriginal Studies, Sep 22, 2016

Abstract: Repatriation of song recordings from archives and private collections to communities of... more Abstract: Repatriation of song recordings from archives and private collections to communities of origin is both a common research method and the subject of critical discourse. In Australia it is a priority of many individual researchers and collecting institutions to enable families and cultural heritage communities to access recorded collections. Anecdotal and documented accounts describe benefits of this access. However, digital heritage items and the metadata that guide their discovery and use circulate in complex milieus of use and guardianship that evolve over time in relation to social, personal, economic and technological contexts. Ethnomusicologists, digital humanists and anthropologists have asked, what is the potential for digital items, and the content management systems through which they are often disseminated, to complicate the benefits of repatriations' How do the 'returns' from archives address or further complicate colonial assumptions about the value of research? This paper lays the groundwork for consideration of these questions in terms of cultural precedents for repatriation of song records in the Kimberley. Drawing primarily on dialogues between ethnomusicologist Sally Treloyn and senior Ngarinyin and Wunambal elder and singer Matthew Dembal Martin, the interplay of archival discovery, repatriation and dissemination, on the one hand, and song conception, song transmission, and the Law and ethos of Wurnan sharing, on the other, is examined. The paper provides a case for support for repatriation initiatives and for consideration of the critical perspectives of cultural heritage stakeholders on research transactions of the past and in the present. Introduction Repatriation of song recordings from archives and private collections to communities of origin is a common research method and process, and is increasingly the subject of critical discourse in ethnomusicology, particularly in the growing field of research on music endangerment, resilience and sustainability (e.g. Titon 2015). Motivating many researchers to repatriate songs records in the course of their research activities is an ethical concern for cultural equity and for ensuring that cultural stakeholders have access to the results of past and present research (e.g. Barwick and Thieberger 2005; Landau and Topp Fargion 2012; Treloyn and Charles 2015). In the context of music sustainability studies, the repatriation of music and song recordings may be regarded as a departure from a past salvage approach to preservation that was marked by recording, cataloguing and transporting records of song to archives (Treloyn 2016). Repatriation also provides tools with which cultural heritage stakeholders can stimulate intergenerational knowledge transmission around song. In Australia the number of publications that present research on the role that legacy records can play in supporting the revitalisation of song traditions is growing in relation to repatriation initiatives in the Kimberley (see Treloyn et al. 2013; Treloyn and Charles 2015), Pilbara (Treloyn et al. 2015), the Tiwi Islands (see Campbell 2012, 2014) and elsewhere (e.g. Brown 2016; Knopoff 2004; Marett and Barwick 2003; Toner 2003). Increasingly in Australia and elsewhere, processes of repatriation facilitate reflexive examination of colonial and postcolonial assumptions of collection-orientated research (e.g. Turnbull and Pickering 2010). This is expressed eloquently by Sylvia Nannyonga-Tamusuza and Andrew Weintraub (2012:209), speaking of the return of materials recorded by Klaus Waschmann in the 1950s to the Bagisu community of Uganda: '[r] epatriation is a form of cultural critique: a critical and reflexive discourse about the social relations of power in cultural representations, and a model for dissembling and potentially undoing those relations'. In Australia, for some, interwoven with the move towards repatriation of legacy records of song as a research method, is a concern to address the colonialist connotations of collection-orientated research methods. …

Oxford University Press eBooks, Apr 15, 2021

To the extent that intercultural ethnomusicology in the Australian settler state operates on a co... more To the extent that intercultural ethnomusicology in the Australian settler state operates on a colonialist stage, research that perpetuates a procedure of discovery, recording, and offsite archiving, analysis, and interpretation risks repeating a form of musical colonialism with which ethnomusicology worldwide is inextricably tied. While these research methods continue to play an important role in contemporary intercultural ethnomusicological research, ethnomusicologists in Australia in recent years have become increasingly concerned to make their research available to cultural heritage communities. Cultural heritage communities are also leading discovery, identification, recording, and dissemination to support, revive, reinvent, and sustain their practices and knowledges. Repatriation is now almost ubiquitous in ethnomusicological approaches to Aboriginal music in Australia as researchers and collaborating communities seek to harness research to respond to the impact that colonialism has had on social and emotional well-being, education, the environment, and the health of performance traditions. However, the hand-to-hand transaction of research products and represented knowledge from performers to researcher and archive back to performers opens a new field of complexities and ambiguities for both Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants: just like earlier forms of ethnomusicology, the introduction, return, and repatriation of research materials operate in “social spaces where disparate cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in highly asymmetrical relations of domination and subordination” (Pratt 2007 [1992]). In this chapter, we recount the processes and outcomes of “The Junba Project” located in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. Framed by a participatory action research model, the project has emphasized responsiveness, iteration, and collaborative reflection, with an aim to identify strategies to sustain endangered Junba dance-song practices through recording, repatriation, and dissemination. We draw on Pratt’s notion of the “contact zone” as a “discomfort zone” (Somerville & Perkins 2003) and look upon an applied/advocacy ethnomusicological project as an opportunity for difference and dialogue in the repatriation process to support heterogeneous research agendas.

Sydney University Press eBooks, 2015

Unelicited performances are here defined as those in which the selection and order of songs is de... more Unelicited performances are here defined as those in which the selection and order of songs is determined by performers and members of the cultural heritage community, rather than by an outside researcher, as may occur in an elicited song documentation session. These performances are also typically danced.

Increasing interest in the repatriation of song recordings to cultural heritage communities has o... more Increasing interest in the repatriation of song recordings to cultural heritage communities has opened up new possibilities for archives, researchers and local individual, community and organizational stakeholders in recent years. In Australia, repatriation has emerged as a core activity of many, if not all, current ethnomusicological research on Aboriginal song traditions and, as song is a register of language, is an interest of many linguists and community-based language centres. There are numerous published reports that describe the use of repatriated recordings in cultural heritage communities to articulate identity, to demonstrate continuity of tradition, and to recover and revive repertories of song and language. To date, however, there has been very little attention to the precise ways in which this happens, or to the ambiguities that permeate the use of historical recordings to sustain flexible and context-driven musical systems (and the language material that they carry). This paper will examine the repatriation and dissemination of ethnomusicological records (audio, video recordings and associated metadata) in a collaborative song maintenance project based in the Kimberley region of northwest Australia. In doing so, we seek to better understand how repatriation activities can contribute to sustaining endangered practices and knowledges by supporting intergenerational cooperation Résumé L'intérêt croissant pour le rapatriement des enregistrements de chansons vers les communautés culturelles a ouvert récemment de nouvelles possibilités pour les archives, les chercheurs, les individus et autres parties prenantes au niveau local. En Australie, le rapatriement est devenu l'activité principale de presque toute la recherche ethnomusicologique sur les traditions de chansons autochtones et, puisqu'une chanson est un registre de langue, a suscité l'intérêt d'un grand nombre de linguistes et des centres de langues communautaires. Il existe de nombreux rapports publiés qui décrivent l'utilisation d'enregistrements rapatriés dans les communautés de patrimoine culturel pour en articuler l'identité, démontrer la continuité de la tradition, et récupérer et relancer les répertoires de la chanson et de la langue. À ce jour, cependant, on a porté peu d'attention à la manière dont cela se produit, ou aux ambiguïtés qui imprègnent l'utilisation d'historique des enregistrements pour soutenir des systèmes musicaux flexibles dirigés par le contexte (et la matière linguistique qu'ils véhiculent). Cet article examine le rapatriement et la diffusion d'enregistrements ethnomusicologiques (enregistrements audio, vidéo et métadonnées associées) dans un projet collaboratif de maintien des chansons situé dans la région de Kimberley au nord-ouest de l'Australie. Ce faisant, nous cherchons à mieux comprendre comment les activités de rapatriement peuvent contribuer à soutenir, via la coopération intergénérationnelle, des pratiques et des connaissances en voie de disparition.

Junba for Yilala was written by Johnny Nyunjuma Divilli in 2017 and 2018 withcontributions from F... more Junba for Yilala was written by Johnny Nyunjuma Divilli in 2017 and 2018 withcontributions from Francis Nunburrngu Divilli, Rona Goonginda Charles, MatthewDembalali Martin and Sally Treloyn.Each year, young Ngarinyin, Worrorra and Wunambal dancers and singers, supported byelders, teach younger community members Junba choreography and practices. Junba forYilala: An instruction book was written by Johnny Nyunjuma Divilli to provide young boysand young men with a resource to support this teaching and learning.In developing the book, Nyunjuma also drew upon contributions from his brother FrancisNunburrngu Divilli, elder Matthew Dembalali Martin, Rona Goonginda Charles, andethnomusicologist Sally Treloyn.The book includes photos that document the revival of skin-based bodypaint designs andtechniques by Divilli, Martin, and others, in 2016. The book also includes transcriptions ofinterviews with key teachers of Junba in the Ngarinyin community conducted by Divilli in2016 and 2017 that document how they learned Junba as children.

J is for Junba was developed by Rona Goonginda Charles and Sally Treloyn as a resource tosupport ... more J is for Junba was developed by Rona Goonginda Charles and Sally Treloyn as a resource tosupport teaching and learning through Junba in Ngarinyin language speaking communities.Pansy Ngalgarr Nulgit provided Charles and Treloyn with sample sentences in Ngarinyinlanguage for each word in the course of several sessions at Mangkajarda wetlands nearMowanjum. These sample sentences were then transcribed and translated by Pansy NgalgarrNulgit, Rona Goonginda Charles, Thomas Saunders and Sally Treloyn with assistancefrom Matthew Dembalali Martin. Francis Nunburrngu developed illustrations overseveral months.The book follows the format of a typical English-language alphabet book, A – Z, andincludes sounds that are additional to (e.g., rn, rl, rd, ny) and absent from (e.g., c, f, h, k, p, q,s, t, v, x, z) Ngarinyin language and orthography. A guide to reading Ngarinyin language isat the end of the boo

Routledge eBooks, Oct 18, 2022

Children and young people are often positioned as future beneficiaries of efforts to revitalise l... more Children and young people are often positioned as future beneficiaries of efforts to revitalise language, song, and culture. While accounts of dance-song traditions in Australia often include evidence of the participation of children, or are explicitly directed at children, rarely, if ever, has the position and role of children in these initiatives been examined. This paper turns attention to the activities, attitudes and roles of children and young people in the practice and revitalisation of the Junba dance-song tradition in the northern Kimberley.

The Rainbow Serpent and the Young Man Wunggurr nyindi Warrunga jirri was illustrated and told by ... more The Rainbow Serpent and the Young Man Wunggurr nyindi Warrunga jirri was illustrated and told by Eamarlden Rivers in 2016 in Mowanjum, an Aboriginal Community in the Kimberley, Western Australia. In May 2018 Matthew Dembalali Martin and Pansy Ngalgarr Nulgit retold Eamarlden’s story in Ungarinyin with the assistance of Rona Goonginda Charles, at Mangkajarda wetlands near Mowanjum. The retelling of Eamarlden’s story was translated by Matthew Dembalali Martin, Pansy Nalgarr Nulgit, and Thomas Saunders. The translation was edited by Sally Treloyn to fit the format of Eamarlden’s book. This is a new story in English by a young Nyikina and Ngarinyin dancer and storyteller, retold in Ngarinyin language by elders in the Kimberley region of Western Australia. A young man, chased by his brothers, is protected by the Rainbow Serpent until they join together to dance Junba. The Rainbow Serpent and the Young Man, Wunggurr nyindi Warrunga jirri is a cultural story about bullying and the healing power of Country and dancing

Preservation, Digital Technology & Culture

Legacy data pertaining to song and dance has complex and immeasurable value to Indigenous communi... more Legacy data pertaining to song and dance has complex and immeasurable value to Indigenous communities across several domains. Over the past decade, projects of repatriation and return have thus flourished both within Australia and globally, as has scholarship addressing the processes, methods and results of such initiatives (Barwick, L. J. Green, and P. Vaarzon-Morel, eds. 2020. Archival Returns. Sydney and Honolulu: Sydney University Press and University of Hawai’i Press; Gunderson, F., R. C. Lancefield, and B. Woods. 2019. The Oxford Handbook of Musical Repatriation. New York: Oxford University Press). Uses of legacy recordings by Ngarinyin, Worrorra and Wunambal practitioners of the dance-song genre known as Junba from the Kimberley region of north-west Australia for the purposes of revitalising the tradition with repertoire and increasing participation have been previously discussed (e.g., Treloyn, S., M. D. Martin, and R. G. Charles. 2019. “Moving Songs: Repatriating Audiovisua...