Gillian Howell | University of Melbourne (original) (raw)

Papers by Gillian Howell

Research Studies in Music Education, 2024

This article explores community-based rock music education as a site for strengthening social coh... more This article explores community-based rock music education as a site for strengthening social cohesion in a context of postwar, interethnic divisions. Focusing on small and incremental changes, it examines the practices of Music Connects, a project in the Western Balkans, and its goals of revitalizing rock culture in support of a more inclusive social life and greater freedom of movement in the region. The article explores the ways that an organizational and participant focus on aesthetic practices and artistic goals can still contribute to social goals. It highlights three key tasks connected to rock music education and revitalization, captured in the novel conceptual constructs of rehearsal space, the incubator, and the expansion of normal. Drawing upon qualitative data gathered in 2019 and 2021 from 40 participants, the article tells a story of small social changes through music-making that added up to significant developments in the region, musically and socially.

Postwar Life-Space and Music in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Springer eBooks, Aug 5, 2016

Beyond words: newly-arrived children's perceptions of music learning and music making

© 2009 Gillian HowellThis thesis examines the way refugee and immigrant children, newly-arrived i... more © 2009 Gillian HowellThis thesis examines the way refugee and immigrant children, newly-arrived in Australia, perceive and describe music learning and music making. Sited in a specialist English Language School for primary school-age new arrivals, it explores the meaning that children from diverse cultural backgrounds and prior schooling experiences ascribe to their music classes and experiences, inviting their perceptions of what they are learning, how they learn it, what aspects of the music program most engage and motivate them, and what sense they make of the music program and its existence at this school. The study also focuses on the methodological issues at play in a research context where multiple languages, culture shock, and pre-adolescent children with unknown pre-migration experiences, coincide with a subject matter that does not lend itself easily to spoken descriptions. These include issues of interpretation and assigning meaning, and the way that different cultural values and expectations can influence participants’ responses. The researcher sought to develop research methods and tools that would effectively elicit the children’s responses, supporting them in the unfamiliar research environment, while remaining sensitive to their preferred ways of communicating. This is a qualitative multiple case study that focuses on three individual students from diverse cultural and schooling backgrounds, with the school’s music program being the issue or concern upon which they offer their different perspectives. Both within-case and cross-case analysis was utilised, and a phenomenological approach to the inquiry was embedded within the case-study structure and research design. Data were gathered by means of interviews and participant observation, and were analysed and interpreted for emergent categories and themes, and for the additional meanings hidden between what was not said, or within awkward language, using interpretive poetics methods and direct interpretations of individual instances. Discussion points and conclusions include the significance of the music pedagogy in building shared understanding among culturally-diverse children, the impact of culture shock on children’s perceptions, the importance of social learning contexts for newly-arrived children, and methodological challenges and recommendations for research with a similar cohort of children

2019 Survey of the field of music as social action: Summary report

Becoming Performers

ABSTRACT Offering a brand new approach to teaching music in the primary classroom, "Teac... more ABSTRACT Offering a brand new approach to teaching music in the primary classroom, "Teaching Music Creatively" provides training and qualified teachers with a comprehensive understanding of how to effectively deliver a creative music curriculum. Exploring research-informed teaching ideas, diverse practices and approaches to music teaching, the authors offer well-tested strategies for developing children s musical creativity, knowledge, skills and understanding. With ground-breaking contributions from international experts in the field, this book presents a unique set of perspectives on music teaching. Key topics covered include: Creative teaching, and what it means to teach creatively; Composition, listening and notation; Spontaneous music-making; Group music and performance; The use of multimedia; Integration of music into the wider curriculum; Musical play; Cultural diversity; Assessment and planning. Packed with practical, innovative ideas for teaching music in a lively and creative way, together with the theory and background necessary to develop a comprehensive understanding of creative teaching methods, "Teaching Music Creatively" is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and postgraduate students in initial teacher training, practising teachers, and undergraduate students of music and education.

Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet et al

The Contemporary Pacific, 2021

Peaces of music: understanding the varieties of peace that music-making can foster

Peacebuilding

Mapping community music development in Timor-Leste

University of Hawaii Press eBooks, 2018

How do newly-arrived and refugee children perceive music-learning?: A summary of three children's descriptions

Music is often described as a universal language, and indeed, for young immigrants and refugees o... more Music is often described as a universal language, and indeed, for young immigrants and refugees of primary school age arriving in Australia from around the world, music can be one of their first experiences of success and familiarity in school. There is a growing body of research that demonstrates the potential of music to support development in literacy and other areas of learning; however, students have their own experience of the way music impacts upon them. This paper discusses findings from a 2008 research project in a Melbourne English Language School for new arrivals, in which three students describe their perceptions of a composition-focused music program, and the meanings they ascribe to the activities.

Conflict and Society

This article explores the ways in which arts experiences in conflicted and territorialized settin... more This article explores the ways in which arts experiences in conflicted and territorialized settings may invite a heightened engagement with space, and what this suggests about creative experiences as a vehicle for transforming space and the (re)construction of one’s presence and place in the world. Presenting ethnographic data from two youth music projects established after the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Sri Lanka and argued from the perspective of musician-practitioner-researchers, the authors examine how musical interaction, improvisation, and performance creation enabled processes of exploring, reconfiguring, and expanding the participants’ identities and sense of place in the surrounding world. Using Tia DeNora’s conceptualization of “music asylum,” the article shows how strategies of removal and refurnishing created creative and safe spaces in which alternative lives and more complex identities could be rehearsed and conflict narratives could be revised, fostering a tem...

This article explores being a musician in a foreign community, considering the author’s experienc... more This article explores being a musician in a foreign community, considering the author’s experiences as a visiting artist in East Timor as a manifestation of this. East Timor is one of Asia’s poorest and least-developed countries, a former Portuguese colony that suffered brutal occupation by Indonesia for 24 years and which has only been an independent state since 2002. The author establishes a community musician’s role as an ‘outsider ’ to the communities in which they work, and considers this in terms of her four-month artist residency as an unknown foreigner in a developing rural community, where the traumas of recent conflict and ongoing poverty gave additional layers of complexity to her work. Through narrative inquiry and an autoethnographic lens she describes a community music project that grew organically from very informal and unstructured beginnings, highlighting the importance of trust and mutual exchange. The author’s experiences and interactions ultimately suggested a tr...

Agrigento 2019 Survey of the Field of Music As Social Action Summary Report A report prepared by Commissioned by Agrigento Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation SC048679 Agrigento

Around the world, participatory music making is being used within communities to help ameliorate ... more Around the world, participatory music making is being used within communities to help ameliorate the effects of various forms of social and socio-economic disruption, deprivation or conflict. This field is currently fragmented and under-theorised, hampered by gaps in dialogue and collaboration between practice and research. In 2019, Agrigento engaged Dr Gillian Howell as Research Consultant to lead a survey of 13 practitioners, researchers and practitioner-researchers from Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, Sri Lanka, the UK and USA. Collectively, these individuals had experience of a wide range of music as social action programs and contexts, including community music, El Sistema-inspired programs and projects within schools, post-conflict settings and centres for people experiencing social exclusion. This summary report is based upon the final report prepared by Dr Howell. It provides an overview of knowledge shared by the interlocutors captured under four themes: (1) what do exemplary music as social action programs look like; (2) what appear to be the critical change mechanisms linking music action to social change; (3) what are some of the current gaps in provision and knowledge that we can address, and (4) what are the challenges affecting program implementation and sustainability that we may struggle to change.

Community Music Interventions in Post-Conflict Contexts

<p>This chapter discusses the phenomenon of community-based music interventions in sites af... more <p>This chapter discusses the phenomenon of community-based music interventions in sites affected by violent war and conflict. The author proposes a typology of four broad fields of intention (Music Education, Cultural Regeneration, Social Development, and Healing, Health, and Well-being) that underpin many of the music interventions documented in scholarly literature thus far. This is followed with an application of the typology to an early exemplar of a post-war music intervention, the Pavarotti Music Centre in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. The typology of intentions provides an analytical framework for researchers wishing to examine post-war music interventions systematically, and a tool for organizers and practitioners wishing to position a music intervention (or other arts interventions) within the wider conflict recovery context. The concluding discussion considers the typology's illuminating function within the intercultural, political, social, and economic complexity of post-war environments.</p>

Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 2020

This article presents an analytical framework for systematically studying the relationships portr... more This article presents an analytical framework for systematically studying the relationships portrayed within music-based peacebuilding and their respective representations of peace. Music activities with peacebuilding objectives work predominantly within a relational concept of peace, bringing into existence relationships between sounds, people, and spaces through which behaviours such as non-dominance and cooperation can be enacted. However, each of these relationships can communicate different ideas about peace and its manifestation, communications that may be inconsistent with each other and with the activity’s peaceful intentions. The “harmonious relations” framework that this article introduces is a tool for capturing and analysing these embedded relationships and representations. It uses concepts of harmony as a heuristic for critically appraising music’s potential contributions to peace in development contexts, synthesising ideas about relationships in peace and music from pe...

Development must embrace the dynamic force of culture

Media Asia, 2014

Abstract Cultural and artistic expression is contributing to human development in many Asian sett... more Abstract Cultural and artistic expression is contributing to human development in many Asian settings and needs be part of the post-2015 agenda, argues Gillian Howell.

Postwar Life-Space and Music in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy, 2015

War and violent conflict can alter the physical and social living space available to young people... more War and violent conflict can alter the physical and social living space available to young people in post-conflict societies in multiple ways. Ethnic partition of the geographical space – an increasingly common characteristic of postwar landscapes – further restricts the environment, creating the phenomenon of the divided city and enforcing rigid social and political norms that enshrine ethnicity as the primary form of identity across all spheres of public and private life. This chapter focuses on the divided city of Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and examines the way that one group of young people reclaimed the exploration of identity and the expansion of their constrained physical and social worlds through participation in music-making activities. It examines the self-reports of their experiences through the idea of “life space”, a concept most commonly found in gerontology but expanded in this study to encompass three dimensions – physical, inner, and social life space. The testimonies of former participants in the music activities form the primary data source. Data were gathered during a period of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in October–November 2013 and analyzed inductively and thematically. The relatively long retrospective view yielded findings that include the contributions that provision of diverse music activities made to the broad conflict stabilization and recovery effort, including goals concerned with peacebuilding and youth engagement. The provision of music and arts activities in a nonpolitical space were found to make a contribution to the maintenance of cultural alternatives in the city and the nurturing of a “capacity to aspire” among individuals, findings which have significance for locally driven development and the cultivation of more stable, tolerant societies.

International Journal of Community Music, 2011

This article discusses issues of creative music making and understanding as they arose in the con... more This article discusses issues of creative music making and understanding as they arose in the context of a music programme for newly arrived refugee and immigrant children. How do young people make sense of a music environment when they do not understand the language of the facilitator or other participants? Visual information and imitation offer reliable entry points into participation, but are not always sufficient for more complex creative processes such as group composition and invention. The author draws upon her experiences working in an English Language School for recent immigrants and refugees, and explores some key points of cross-cultural adaptation as they intersect with musical understanding and engagement in a composition process.

International Journal of Community Music, 2013

This article explores being a musician in a foreign community, considering the author's experienc... more This article explores being a musician in a foreign community, considering the author's experiences as a visiting artist in East Timor as a manifestation of this. East Timor is one of Asia's poorest and least-developed countries, a former Portuguese colony that suffered brutal occupation by Indonesia for 24 years and which has only been an independent state since 2002. The author establishes a community musician's role as an 'outsider' to the communities in which they work, and considers this in terms of her four-month artist residency as an unknown foreigner in a developing rural community, where the traumas of recent conflict and ongoing poverty gave additional layers of complexity to her work. Through narrative inquiry and an autoethnographic lens she describes a community music project that grew organically from very informal and unstructured beginnings, highlighting the importance of trust and mutual exchange. The author's experiences and interactions ultimately suggested a transition from outsider to accepted community member, and are discussed as acts of hospitality, gifts, and tests utilising L. Higgins' conceptual framework for community music activity.

“First of all, be friends”: Rock music, social connection, inclusion and mobility in Kosovo and North Macedonia: An evaluation of Music Connects, a project using culture as a driver for social innovation in former Yugoslavia

This thesis examines what happens when the worlds and knowledges of war, international developmen... more This thesis examines what happens when the worlds and knowledges of war, international development, and music education intersect. It investigates the practices and experiences of music interventions, a term used in this thesis to describe structured programs for music learning and participation in places that have been unmade by war, taking shape within the structures and funding arrangements of largescale international aid and assistance. It explores the work of three specific music interventions—the Pavarotti Music Centre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Hadahur Music School in Timor-Leste, and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music in Afghanistan—with the goal of identifying how these kinds of projects are shaped, and their potential for sustainability in a volatile and mutable environment. These case study sites offer interesting contrasts of timeframe (longevity of the music intervention and retrospective distance from the wartime experiences); scale (of ambition, funding, and exte...

Research Studies in Music Education, 2024

Postwar Life-Space and Music in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Springer eBooks, Aug 5, 2016

Beyond words: newly-arrived children's perceptions of music learning and music making

2019 Survey of the field of music as social action: Summary report

Becoming Performers

Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon by Brydie-Leigh Bartleet et al

The Contemporary Pacific, 2021

Peaces of music: understanding the varieties of peace that music-making can foster

Peacebuilding

Mapping community music development in Timor-Leste

University of Hawaii Press eBooks, 2018

How do newly-arrived and refugee children perceive music-learning?: A summary of three children's descriptions

Conflict and Society

Agrigento 2019 Survey of the Field of Music As Social Action Summary Report A report prepared by Commissioned by Agrigento Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation SC048679 Agrigento

Community Music Interventions in Post-Conflict Contexts

Journal of Peacebuilding & Development, 2020

Development must embrace the dynamic force of culture

Media Asia, 2014

Postwar Life-Space and Music in Bosnia-Herzegovina

Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy, 2015

International Journal of Community Music, 2011

International Journal of Community Music, 2013

Kunst og Konflikt [Art and Conflict], 2019

Can music development programs such as large-scale public festivals help to repair the sociocultu... more Can music development programs such as large-scale public festivals help to repair the sociocultural divisions wrought by war and violent conflict? If so, under what facilitating conditions? This chapter engages with these questions, presenting re- search into the Sri Lanka Norway Music Cooperation, a partnership between Sri Lankan development NGO Sevalanka Foundation and Concerts Norway, the Norwegian state concerts agency that was funded by the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2018.

Community Music in Oceania: Many Voices, One Horizon, 2018

It was 5am when the little wooden fishing boat pulled away from the shore and began to cross the ... more It was 5am when the little wooden fishing boat pulled away from the shore and began to cross the straits that separated the island of Atauro from mainland Timor-Leste and the port of Dili. My travel companions were sleeping on the deck in the dawn's damp halflight, but the noise and vibrations of the boat's engine were too vigorous for me, and so I sat up and shakily made my way forward to join the ship's captain at the bow of the boat. He was singing out to sea at the top of his voice. I asked in my halting beginner's Tetun if he would mind if I filmed him. He didn't mind, in fact, he enjoyed the attention.

The Oxford Handbook of Community Music, 2018

In the aftermath of war or violent conflict, a multinational enterprise of government and non-gov... more In the aftermath of war or violent conflict, a multinational enterprise of government and non-government agencies heaves into action, implementing programmes and strategies to address the staggering array of humanitarian, security, and physical needs, and to help rebuild the physical and social environment. While one would expect to see medical and food aid among these structured interventions, the last two decades have also seen ‘cultural aid’ in the form of music and other arts activities included in international responses to post-conflict recovery. This chapter proposes a framework for examining the intended goals that underpin organizers’ decisions to initiate a music project. The chapter outlines a typology of intentions for music interventions, and discusses the characteristics and issues common to many conflict-affected areas to which a music intervention may intend to respond, drawing on the example of the Pavarotti Music Centre, Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education, 2017

It is easy to be dazzled by new technologies and all that they make possible, but, as Joseph Pign... more It is easy to be dazzled by new technologies and all that they make possible, but, as Joseph Pignato reminds us, humans are the ones who are making the music. The illustrations of practice in this section offer vivid examples of this: the authors Pignato, Peppler, and Kigozi describe an array of musical innovation and exploration with and through technology, but also shift our attention away from the technology and onto the individuals and their contexts. As such, the chapters work collectively to foreground three critical factors in the wider discussion of technology in music education: context, informality, and innovation. The context for musical learning determines available technology, and can both afford and constrain. The individuals within their context may create in response to it, in spite of it, or in defiance of its limiting forces. Informality (in the form of unstructured and social learning environments that invite open-ended exploration of materials and ideas) opens up both learning possibilities and highly original outcomes. Interestingly, it may occur despite, rather than because of, the design of the learning program. Both context and informality are then shown to be in constant interplay with innovation, the third factor. Each of these illustrations of practice demonstrate the way that new innovations may be the result of deliberate, problem-solving explorations; they may also emerge as unanticipated outcomes in larger processes. This chapter offers a further perspective on the usefulness of attention to these three elements and attempts to map their interrelated , multidirectional forces.

The Oxford Handbook of Technology and Music Education, 2017

Are there some conditions in which music technology is inappropriate or ineffective? This is the ... more Are there some conditions in which music technology is inappropriate or ineffective? This is the question I address in this chapter, drawing upon my experiences as a community musician who leads groups of people—all ages and abilities, experienced players and first-timers—to create and perform their own music.

A community musician facilitator’s toolkit of skills enables them to engage deeply with musicians... more A community musician facilitator’s toolkit of skills enables them to engage deeply with musicians on both an interpersonal and musical level. This distinctive approach to practice has developed in response to cultural environments in which the ever-increasing commercialization and commodification of music practices has resulted in people’s widespread disengagement from active music making. The purpose of this chapter is to explore community music practice as an “intervention” under the guidance of a music facilitator. Four case studies are used to illustrate
the central notions of this approach. Underpinning these four case studies is also the concept of musical excellence in community music interventions. This notion of excellence refers to the quality of the social experience – the bonds formed, meaning and enjoyment derived, and sense of agency that emerges for individuals and the group – considered alongside the musical outcomes created through the music making experience. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the ways in which community music opens up new pathways for reflecting on, enacting, and
developing approaches to facilitation that respond to a wide range of social, cultural, health, economic, and political contexts.

Risk, Protection, Provision and Policy, Geographies of Children and Young People vol. 12, Dec 23, 2015

The testimonies of former participants in the music activities form the primary data source. Data were gathered during a period of intensive ethnographic fieldwork in October–November 2013 and analyzed inductively and thematically. The relatively long retrospective view yielded findings that include the contributions that provision of diverse music activities made to the broad conflict stabilization and recovery effort, including goals concerned with peacebuilding and youth engagement. The provision of music and arts activities in a nonpolitical space were found to make a contribution to the maintenance of cultural alternatives in the city and the nurturing of a “capacity to aspire” among individuals, findings which have significance for locally driven development and the cultivation of more stable, tolerant societies.

Music interventions: Shaping music participation in the aftermath of conflict

International Yearbook for Research in Arts Education 3/2015 The Wisdom of the Many - Key Issues in Arts Education, May 2015

This chapter opens with two vignettes, illustrating music participation in two countries with rec... more This chapter opens with two vignettes, illustrating music participation in two countries with recent histories of war and violent conflict. They are examples of ‘music interventions’ – structured music programs initiated in response to a perceived need with intentions that go beyond merely furthering music knowledge.
A review of scholarly literature and related extant texts (websites, in-house publications, and media reports) revealed four broad categories of intention behind many music interventions in conflict-affected sits: Music Education, Cultural Regeneration, Social Development, and Healing and Health Promotion. This chapter focuses on those intentions, examining the contexts for each, and using the Pavarotti Music Centre in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music as illustrative examples.

For music educators working in their own cultural environment, the cultural diversity in the clas... more For music educators working in their own cultural environment, the cultural diversity in the classroom that is represented by the cultural mix of students, or in the musical material explored in the classroom can provoke interesting challenges for pedagogy. However, when the practitioner is working in a foreign cultural environment, a very different set of dilemmas and challenges arise, encompassing the country’s multiple layers of culture, politics, history, expectations and understanding, and that demand carefully considered responses to the setting and the people involved.
Musician and educator Gillian Howell spent four months developing participatory music projects in East Timor [Timor-Leste], working from community bases and informal settings. This article describes some of the challenges that the complex cultural environment of Timor-Leste presented. Timor’s contemporary culture bears the legacies of centuries of negligent colonial rule by Portugal, and brutal occupation by Indonesia, and before that Japan. This history is compounded by the East Timorese people’s recent experiences as a newly-independent nation, supported in the rebuilding of their country by an enormous influx of foreign advisors, UN administrators, non- government organisations and church organisations. The influence of so much outside attention, influence, and power by these international actors on East Timorese soil has impacted on every aspect of East Timorese life in multiple ways.
Using narrative inquiry and autoethnographic tools to examine the environment and her experiences as a practitioner within it, the author describes a series of music projects, and the
decisions that needed to be made within these, in the light of cross-cultural challenges and dilemmas that arose. These included questions about musical content, instruments, pedagogical approaches, and interactions with local collaborators. The challenges and their solutions and findings are specific to Timor-Leste, but may be applied more broadly to other post-conflict, post- colonial and developing country settings.

Proceedings of the 30th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Thessaloniki, Greece, Jul 2012

This paper describes a children’s community music project in Timor-Leste (East Timor) that explor... more This paper describes a children’s community music project in Timor-Leste (East Timor) that explored aspects of children’s rights through composition and songwriting. It considers some of the challenges and rewards that can arise in post-colonial, post-conflict, developing countries, and describes the creative processes used to develop the music with the child participants. Written within the autoethnographic domain, the author-practitioner both reports on and interprets the project in its context and considers the potential of cultural projects to encourage new understanding of wider civil and political issues among participants and observers. ‘The Right to Play’ music project took place as part of the author’s 4-month artist residency in Timor-Leste and was part of the town of Baucau’s celebrations to mark International Human Rights Day in December 2010.

Proceedings of the X International Conference on Cultural Diversity in Music Education, Sydney, Australia, Jan 2010

Research with children who are contributing in languages other than English, or in English that i... more Research with children who are contributing in languages other than English, or in English that is still being learned, can raise a number of additional methodological challenges for researchers. This paper highlights potential issues to keep in mind when recruiting the research participants, conducting interviews, eliciting responses, and then interpreting the words that are offered. Specific areas of concern, solutions and insights are discussed.

This paper discusses issues of creative music making and understanding as they arose in the conte... more This paper discusses issues of creative music making and understanding as they arose in the context of a music program for newly-arrived refugee and immigrant children. How do young people make sense of a music environment when they don’t understand the language of the facilitator or other participants? Visual information and imitation offer reliable entry points into participation, but are not always sufficient for more complex creative processes such as group composition and invention. The author draws upon recent experiences working in an English Language School for new arrivals, and explores the key points of resonance and understanding that may take place for participants in a composition process.

Proceedings of the 29th International Society for Music Education World Conference, Beijing, China, Jul 2010

At a Melbourne English Language School, young immigrants and refugees from all over the world com... more At a Melbourne English Language School, young immigrants and refugees from all over the world come together to learn English and prepare for mainstream school. They also take part in a creative music program in which each class composes and performs their own music, in the midst of a huge diversity of backgrounds in music experiences, schooling, and English ability. This paper describes the pedagogical approach developed by the musician resident at the school, and discusses ways of establishing strong musical understanding by non-verbal means.

Transactions of hope at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music

SIMM 2 (Social Impact of Making Music 2), 2017

Hope is a recurring motif at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, a vocational music high... more Hope is a recurring motif at the Afghanistan National Institute of Music, a vocational music high school in Kabul. In an urban context where citizens navigate the combined impacts of war, poverty, aid, random spectacular violence, and aggressive contestation around cultural practices such as music, ANIM's narratives of hope provide meaning for its students, and help them reconcile present-day challenges with future aspirations. However, hope at ANIM is not just for students; it is one of the school's most cited 'deliverables' to its high-powered international community of supporters, including the World Bank and the US State Department. This implicitly connects ANIM's work to the broader political objectives of those players, and renders hope central to the students' and the school's survival. Through mapping transactions of hope, this presentation illuminates the nested quality of the social impacts of music-making in conflicted, aid-dependent contexts. Intercultural interests, political objectives, and donor dependence may draw the espoused set of beneficial impacts into the service of more powerful actors. The research for this presentation draws upon fieldwork interviews with students and staff of ANIM, and media sources about the school and its work. It forms part of PhD research into music schools in conflict-affected countries.

The place for music in post-conflict contexts

In the years following cessation of conflict in a country or region, what happens to the music ac... more In the years following cessation of conflict in a country or region, what happens to the music activities of the community? Many believe music has an important role to play in helping divided communities to heal, rebuild, and find a peaceful co-existence. During periods of post-war reconstruction, music initiatives - formal and informal - often find a place. Most music initiatives start out small and local, but some (e.g. the Pavarotti Music Centre in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and the Afghanistan National Institute of Music) grow to have significant international profiles and financial support. Their aims and intentions are many and varied, offering opportunities for community participation, learning and leadership, solace and healing, play and recreation, regeneration of culture, and conflict transformation. These initiatives support their local community, and also build community through the activities they offer.

In this presentation I shall draw upon my current PhD research and give an overview of participatory music activities in post-conflict settings, considering formal, non-formal or informal modes of interaction, and the pedagogical approaches used. I limit my focus to initiatives in the last 20 years that have developed as a response to war and/or part of reconstruction and rebuilding of community, civil society, and physical resources.

I shall then discuss some of the issues and challenges arising from these initiatives in relation to their community ownership and long-term sustainability, and the implications for local music ecologies that may arise from these programs.

Community music and community music therapy in conflict-affected settings: Rebuilding health, hope and connections

This paper examines music initiatives in post-conflict contexts considering the disciplines of co... more This paper examines music initiatives in post-conflict contexts considering the disciplines of community music and community music therapy. It applies Higgins’ (2012) theoretical framework for community music and Stige & Aarø’s (2012) defining traits of community music therapy practice to identify common ground and points of divergence between the two disciplines.

Writing a song together: Considering group composing in cross-cultural contexts

A community musician spends time with a women’s group in a rural community. A musical exchange is... more A community musician spends time with a women’s group in a rural community. A musical exchange is proposed. They decide to write a song together. The local people put their heads closely together and in a few hours, the song is written. Or is it?

In this paper, I examine composition activities within community musicking in different cultural contexts, and how different understandings of these activities may have implications for practitioners working cross-culturally. In the hierarchical organisation of Western music, the position of the composer – and subsequently, the perceived value of composing and creating one’s own music - is well-established as an elevated and celebrated undertaking. Thus, within music education curriculum and settings, composition has its place. In particular, it is a key tool in the area of community music as an intervention, where a skilled music leader supports groups to collaborate, explore and develop their own musical creations, nurturing through this process a sense of ownership and agency among the participants.

However, my experiences as a community music leader in diverse communities suggests that the idea of creating one’s own music is not universally appealing, and the rationale for wanting to do so can be contestable in different lived experiences or world views. Furthermore, the notion of ‘writing’ music may be understood differently in different contexts, especially in settings where music is something that belongs to communities rather than individuals.

I begin my presentation with the story of a songwriting project that I led in Timor-Leste and some of the questions that arose for me. I then compare this experience to other songwriting and composition projects in Timor-Leste, indigenous Australia, and refugee and immigrant communities in Melbourne, highlighting key points of divergence. These divergences will be of relevance to practitioners working in cross-cultural settings in the Asia-Pacific region.

Commissioned Report, 2021

In mid-2021, Save the Children Middle East and Eastern Europe Regional Office engaged Dr Gillian ... more In mid-2021, Save the Children Middle East and Eastern Europe Regional Office engaged Dr Gillian Howell from the University of Melbourne to conduct arts-based research to explore adolescent experiences of ‘voice’ and collective power in the region. The research goal was to better understand the opportunities for and inhibitors of strong adolescent voices in the region. Data were gathered through twelve participatory songwriting workshops with adolescent girls and boys aged 14 to 19 years of age, all of whom were refugees or impacted by displacement, discrimination, exclusion, and economic disadvantage. In creative workshops devised by the arts-based research team Dr Gillian Howell (The University of Melbourne) and composer and workshop facilitator Mr Ameen Mokdad (Iraq/Turkey), the adolescents explored their experiences of voice and collective power through discussion, metaphor, poetic expression, and songwriting. The study many factors inhibiting adolescent experiences of having a voice and being heard. Three clear messages emerged: "We are silent lions"; "Just listen to us!" and "We only need a little bit of support." The study identified barriers, opportunities for action, and recommendations for productive next steps. The study outcomes have been shared with the participant adolescents through sharing of the songs, an illustrated version of the report in Arabic, and locally-convened meetings by Save the Children Country Offices to decide future actions in light of the project learnings.

Music Connects aims to activate youth (ages 15- 24) through state-of-the-art rock music education... more Music Connects aims to activate youth (ages 15-
24) through state-of-the-art rock music education, production, and promotion programs in Kosovo and North Macedonia. Music Connects features a carefully developed approach that seeks to build sustainable social inclusion and participation opportunities with young musicians leading the way. This evaluation
has examined the social difference that this program makes to participating youth and their communities. This evaluation has investigated the extent to which inclusion and connection among divided youth in Kosovo and North Macedonia have been achieved
in the programs delivered in three rock schools. Specifically, it has considered the outcomes of Music Connects in relation to social connections, inclusion, changing of perspectives and mobility, and the practices, values, and strategies that facilitate these. This report identifies factors that influence the depth of bonds that may be created, and it foregrounds the voices and perspectives of the young musicians involved, who are the frontline beneficiaries of the program.

2019 Survey of the Field of Music As Social Action Summary Report, 2020

Around the world, participatory music making is being used within communities to help ameliorate ... more Around the world, participatory music making is being used within communities to help ameliorate the effects of various forms of social and socio-economic disruption, deprivation or conflict. This field is currently fragmented and under-theorised, hampered by gaps in dialogue and collaboration between practice and research.
In 2019, Agrigento engaged Dr Gillian Howell as Research Consultant to lead a survey of 13 practitioners, researchers and practitioner-researchers from Australia, Canada, Scandinavia, Sri Lanka, the UK and USA. Collectively, these individuals had experience of a wide range of music as social action programs and contexts, including community music, El Sistema-inspired programs and projects within schools, post-conflict settings and centres for people experiencing social exclusion.
This summary report is based upon the final report prepared by Dr Howell. It provides an overview of knowledge shared by the interlocutors captured under four themes: (1) what do exemplary music as social action programs look like; (2) what appear to be the critical change mechanisms linking music action to social change; (3) what are some of the current gaps in provision and knowledge that we can address, and (4) what are the challenges affecting program implementation and sustainability that we may struggle to change.

This research report into Music, Development, and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka offers a detailed e... more This research report into Music, Development, and Reconciliation in Sri Lanka offers a detailed examination of the Sri Lanka Norway Music Cooperation, focusing on the ways in which the activities of the Music Cooperation (festivals, capacity-building, and other music events) are impacting reconciliation between the nation’s people in the post-civil war period. It presents both qualitative and quantitative data gathered during three months of fieldwork in Sri Lanka, and contextualizes this with reference to literature from the fields of peacebuilding and social psychology. Prior to this research, an empirical or theoretically-informed understanding of how (if at all) the music development activities of the Music Cooperation might be supporting reconciliation had not been developed. This research engages with that task and offers some answers, and recommendations for future action.

Media Asia, Dec 2014

Cultural and artistic expression is contributing to human development in many Asian settings and ... more Cultural and artistic expression is contributing to human development in many Asian settings and needs be part of the post-2015 agenda.

The Conversation

At the end of July draft Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were released by the United Nations... more At the end of July draft Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were released by the United Nations-appointed Open Working Group. Those of us hoping to see culture identified as part of those goals were initially disappointed, as not one of them directly references culture.

Music Education UK, Dec 2012

Australian musician, facilitator and educator Gillian Howell gave a presentation on her work with... more Australian musician, facilitator and educator Gillian Howell gave a presentation on her work with rural communities in East Timor at last year's International Society for Music Education (ISME) World Conference. Here, she reports on how a project that started on her veranda grew to include over 500 participants.

Inspiration is often the initial doorway into the making and doing of a creative endeavour – in o... more Inspiration is often the initial doorway into the making and doing of a creative endeavour – in other words, we get started because we are inspired. Inspiration brings with it momentum and directed energy, and without it, any kind of work can feel heavy, formulaic and discouraging. Yet inspiration can
also be elusive, unpredictable and capricious. What are the qualities, layers, contexts and 'ripples' of inspiration for artists co-creating work with children? This essay unpeels the onion skin layers of inspiration.

Festival for Healthy LIving 'Creating for Wellbeing' website, 2009

Gillian Howell, musician and music educator writes about how music “connects us with our healthy ... more Gillian Howell, musician and music educator writes about how music “connects us with our healthy selves.” She makes the links between shared music making, group composition and ensemble, self-esteem and healthy relationships and talks about her work with newly arrived refugee children in Melbourne.

For many people, Venezuela’s ‘El Sistema’ is the most exciting and intriguing development in clas... more For many people, Venezuela’s ‘El Sistema’ is the most exciting and intriguing development in classical music and music education in recent times. Simon Rattle has called it “the future of classical music”. Sistema-inspired programs have been initiated all over the world. This comprehensive program of instrumental learning, youth orchestras, and world-class performance standards is impressive enough, but the fact that it uses music education as a vehicle for social care and transformation, with the express intention of creating alternative life trajectories for Venezuela’s most disadvantaged youths, has made it a particularly compelling phenomenon.

Many researchers, educators, artists, arts advocates and policy makers have travelled to Venezuela in order to understand the secret to El Sistema’s success. However, UK scholar Geoffrey Baker’s research took a slightly different stance, asking, “Is El Sistema successful? At what? And what do Venezuelan musicians think about it?” The result of his lengthy ethnographic inquiry is a book that has strongly divided opinions and caused something of a storm among the global Sistema community.

Some in that community have questioned Baker’s motives, darkly suggesting vendettas and hidden agendas to explain why he found so much to criticise in such a lauded program. In this review, Gillian Howell attempts to steer a steady course through such turbulent waters, teasing out the book’s offerings and provocations for music educators, researchers, and anyone interested in the role that music learning may play in human transformation.